4A Midwest Boys
Individual Battle
Jack Holbrook (RJ Reynolds) comes in as the top seed for the boys' race, but he'll have to beat Cam Milroy (Page), who finished a spot ahead of him last year at regionals to place third. Holbrook has had a good season with a victory at his conference meet and a runner-up finish at Jungle Run but was just edged out by Will Atkins (West Forsyth) at Wendy's earlier this season.
Andrew Thompson (Pinecrest) actually comes in seeded ahead of Milroy by two seconds in the virtual meet, but since running a 16:14 at Providence Invitational to start the year he hasn't had a chance to show what kind of form he is in. He could be a dark horse to be part of a pack that could challenge the 16-minute mark if the weather holds up this weekend. Ben Seeber (Grimsley), Atkins and John Paynter (RJ Reynolds) are close behind, having all broken 16:30 this season.
This should be a tighter pack up front than years past, with no dominant front-runner. The regional title is up for grabs for whoever shows up in the best form on Saturday.
Team Battle
The team race is a four-team battle, with just eleven points separating the first and fourth seeds in the virtual meet, then a more than 80 point gap back to the fifth team.
Central Piedmont Conference rivals West Forsyth, Reagan and RJ Reynolds all will battle it out again for a trip to the State Meet. At the CPC meet last week, it was Reynolds edging out Reagan followed by West. But the seeding will be flipped at regionals in a bigger field. Despite returning two runners that finished in the top five at last year's regional, and having the overall top-seeded runner again this year, last year's Midwest winner RJR could be on the outside looking in as they come in seeded fourth. Reagan's impressive 29-second 1-5 split could give them the edge if their pack can move ahead of West Forsyth's.
Pinecrest also has three runners in the top-10 and is seeded third, but will need strong performances from their four and five runners to nab one of the top two spots. This race will definitely be as exciting for its team battle as it is for the individual battle, and the podium could be determined by how well the back end of each teams' scoring five does in the pack.
Page, Grimsley, Northwest Guilford and Davie County all are grouped together for the fifth spot. Page and Grimsley have the low stick advantage, with Grimsley having two runners in the top-10, but Northwest Guilford has the second fastest 1-5 split in the region. If their pack moves up, they will shave off points quickly.