The boys Jungle Run field is full of runners primed for a breakout, but up front John Malach (Broughton) stands out ahead of his competition. Malach took 6th place at the Providence Invitational and was in contention for the win until the final 800m. Malach holds a PR of 15:37 and debuted in 16:03 last weekend.
Malach had his breakthrough race here his sophomore year where he broke 16 minutes for the first time. He'll look to now win a prestigious Jungle Run title. Broughton does not have Malach's teammate Jack Rooney entered in the field.
Sophomore's Jedaiah Ruhl (Cary Home Educators) and Elliott Kleckner (Croatan) will be his top competition up front. Kleckner set a PR last weekend at the Providence Invitational clocking 16:06. Ruhl ran 16:03 at the Jungle Run last year for a 4th place finish. Both are coming off strong freshman years and look to prove their ready to make the jump to the top of the state as sophomores.
James Blizzard will lead a strong group of athletes from Leesville Road. They have their top 5 ranked in the top 13 coming in and it could be better as most of them are making their season debut. Blizzard and Andrew Macemore ran 16:17 and 16:29 respectively last weekend at McAlpine.
There are plenty of athletes in the field we could see emerge tonight including Josh Navarro and William Mitchell (Millbrook), Kenny Eheman (Cary Academy), Colten Rodriguez (Croatan), Luke Scacheri (Ashley) and Giovanni Rincon (Union Pines).
Leesville Road boys should be the class of the field team wise with a 16:26 team average and a 22 second 1-5 gap. The Pride will debut their full top 5 for the first time this season and will look to prove they are ready to take a shot at the 4A team title. They have 4 seniors in their top 5 that have been a staple of their program for the last four years.
Broughton will be slightly shorthanded, but should be Leesville's biggest competition tonight. The Capitals had a 16:36 average last weekend at McAlpine where they took 4th overall. Millbrook, Hoggard and Croatan will be the other teams to watch tonight. Millbrook lost top guy Nick Scudder to graduation, but should continue to reload with a strong squad.
Croatan has a very good 1-2-3 in the Kleckner's and Colten Rodriguez who are all sophomores. If they can put together a 4-5 they're going to be a program to watch in 2A over the next three years.