NCISAA Championships Friday: A Glance at 1A & 2A

2010 will be the first year in some time where the 1A & 2A boys will have separate state championship races. The 1A teams were given their own race since they had enough to fill the quota. There are only 9 schools competing with full teams and 2 will come away with a trophy.

The favorite for 1A boys is most likely Shannon Forest, but it's hard to tell as only a couple of these teams have performances in the NCRunners or SCRunners database. Shannon Forest is led by Garrett Conover who has run 17:56 this year. He may be the top athlete in the 1A competion as well, but it is difficult to tell. I apologize to the following teams for not knowing more.

Burlington Christian Academy
Cape Fear Christian
Cressent Christian
Davidson Day
The Epiphany School
Faith Christian
Flora MacDonald Academy
The Oakwood School
Shannon Forest
Trinity School of Durham & Chapel Hill
Wayne Christian
Wayne Country Day

The 2A boys looks to be a 2 team race for the title. Asheville Christian Academy has the fastest times on paper, but their times come from the very fast United Way course. St. David's School ran their times at two meets held at WakeMed. I think this will be a very close race between these two teams.

The 3rd place spot could be up for grabs as Metrolina Christian, Carolina Day, & possibly South Lake Christian could all be in the mix. Carolina Day is led by a very solid young runner, Trevor Sleight, but will need some help behind him.

Scott Morgan of Calvary Baptist and Bobby Mintz of Cary Christian will go to battle once more for the state title. Scott has had Bobby's number in cross country and took last year's title, so I'm sure Bobby would like to change all of that. Scott boasts a personal best of 15:14 this year while Bobby has run 15:41. While these guys are racing one another, there may be a sneaky Trevor Sleight not far off their heels. Trevor (photo courtesy of the Asheville Citizen Times) has improved a great deal this year and looks to possess the talent to hang in there with these other two studs. Trevor has run 15:49 this season and may just have the confidence to challenge Scott and Bobby.