3A Men's Preview: Bias?

3A Men’s Preview

3A West @ Jackson Park

When it comes to the west Mooresville will win by a wide margin. It’s really easy they have a great team and have looked strong when we saw them over the summer. NCRunner's is going to replay a tale about how strong their team unity is. At the running camp they went to the top guys decided to enter the talent show. Now I’m going to say what these guys did probably doesn’t constitute as having talent. What they did was probably the most disgusting, most bizarre, most peculiar “talent” I have ever seen. Here’s a brief recap: 5 guys were on stage, each eats Oreos or Cheese Nips. The first guy brushes his teeth and the spits it in an empty Gatorade bottle. Sounds good for the first guy, the second guy rinses his brush in the Gatorade bottle, brushes his teeth, and then spits in the Gatorade bottle, and passes it on. This goes on to the fifth guy, who was Joseph Newman, who followed the routine and then DRANK THE ENTIRE BOTTLE. Yeah that’s right the entire BOTTLE. We have to say that’s a strong team right there, those guys would do anything for each other.

Going forward TC Roberson will squeak one over Asheville. Asheville has the two of the best runners in the state, John Harwell and Isaac Presson. The question for this team is going to step up. It’s possible this team could have a great state meet depending on the other runners. The fourth place team is Northwest Cabarrus, a team that improved a lot in track and will continue to run well in this competitive region. South Rowan and Lake Norman will make things interesting.

3A Midwest @ McAlpine

This looks to be a close region. Did you know if you scored the meet with the top returning runners with their PR’s it would be Reagan 39, Charlotte Catholic 40? Did you know that? That it comes down to the 5^th man on each team to determine who will win? We were somewhat aware of it. So how do we see the region being played out. Reagan in a tight one over Catholic. Reagan’s top runners look to be ahead of Catholic’s top guys, and that’s the edge for them.

Followed by Marvin Ridge, who added David McCuston, the stud 800 runner to their team, and he looks to lead the second year school to their first state meet. (and before we go any further NCRunners is going to have to ask for a moratorium on any Piedmont school being named with Ridge in it. Sorry but there is not a mountain range anywhere close to the Charlotte area. There’s Hickory Ridge, Porter Ridge, and Marvin Ridge. I’m looking at my map and don’t see any elevation changes. I'm fine if a new school being built in the western part of the state puts ridge in it, but not in the Piedmont. I'm glad I have a platform to say this, because this is probably a serious issue within the state). Getting the last spot will be Ragsdale although Sun Valley who looks to be a young team might surprise some people. Also A.L. Brown and Piedmontcould be in the swing of things.

3A Mideast

The fastest runner in the region, Nick Kelly graduated so we're left to say that Williams, who loses a lot, but will get the regional win followed by South Johnston and then…our crystal ball broke. Our magic 8 ball let us down, let’s say Eastern Alamance squeaks in for third and sliding in for fourth let’s say Union Pines.

The region appears to be the weakest out of all of the four, but we have a feeling that when the state meet arrives all the teams that make it will be running well.

3A East

Can you say some competition for Mooresville? The way I spell competition is Nash Central, they return everyone, and they look ready to go. It’s rare to return the entire top 7 from one year to the next. Depending on how their training has been, they might be able to do something that hasn’t happened in a long time (beat Mo-Town). The top guy for Nash Central, Dillion Hawley, ran well at Nike Outdoors, look for him to challenge for a top 5 spot in the state.

Nash Central will win big in the region mark that down. Coming in second is Jacksonville. The third place team . . . NCRunners likes West Carteret and closing out the region: White Oak. D.H. Conley may look to stir things up.