NCISAA 3A Boys
The individual battle was intense last year, and the same story of the "big 3" in Coleman Mitchell (Cary Academy), Ben Mitchell (FCDS) and Noah Dolhare (Providence Day) are back to battle once again. Though this year It's turned into a 5 man battle up front adding Chase Coley (Cary Academy) and Andrew Hammel (Christ School) into the mix. The top five are all seniors other than Hammel who is a sophomore and looks to be the future of the NCISAA 3A on the boys side.
Coleman Mitchell won as a sophomore, and repeated as a junior. In his senior year the state meet has moved to his home course of WakeMed where he has run 15:19 on the course already this year. I expected Mitchell to challenge sub 15 earlier this season, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him do so tomorrow. Ben Mitchell has not been far off Coleman holding a PR of 15:33, also from WakeMed at Great American. Ben was only three seconds off Coleman last year running 15:38. Dolhare has won state titles on the track over Ben and Coleman Mitchell over the last two years, but is yet to beat claim an individual XC title. He was third the last two years at the NCISAA State XC Meet and holds a seasons best of 15:36 where he beat Ben Mitchell at Hare & Hounds.
Coley will be the wildcard who has been a monster this season running 15:40 winning the Greensboro Invitational. Coley hasn't beaten his teammate Mitchell this year, but the post the potential to bring a 1-2 finish home to Cary Academy. Hammel has run 15:51 this year, and I think he'll hang with the top 4 guys and can potentially beat them. He's just a sophomore in his first year at Christ School, and seems to not have and fear despite being young.
Coming into the year we knew the team battle was going to be a tight three man race between 2-Time Defending Champions Cary Academy, Providence Day and Durham Academy. Providence Day has a very young team. Dolhare is the only senior in their top 7 that holds no juniors. Cary Academy has a mix of juniors and seniors while Durham Academy is a mix of every grade. At this point in the season Providence Day are the favorites. Jason Krell, Adam Habas and Christian Landis have run 16:22, 16:24 and 16:25 this season and PD's 2-3-4. Colter Nichols and Andrew Riolo will battle to be their 5th man.
Durham Academy edges Cary Academy at the TISAC Championships with a 10 second 1-5 spread taking 3rd through 7th overall. They have the advantage of running this WakeMed course recently, but if they want to take down Providence Day that pack is going to need to be up with PD's 2-3-4. Cary Academy lost at TISAC last year to DA, but bounced back to win the state championship. Their 1-2 couldn't be better in Mitchell and Coley. If they're going to make it three straight senior Dylan Lamphier is going to have to step up and lead their 3-4-5 to big days. Though Providence Day are a 27 point favorite in our virtual meet, that means nothing if they don't have the trophy on the bus after the meet. It's anyone's race and anything can happen tomorrow.