Daly Galloway of Gardner South Wilmington will be one of the favorites in the Amboy Invitational
Opening Remarks: The good news for runners weather-wise is that we are looking at some mild climes reaching up to a high of 67 degrees; the bad news is a forecast of a thunderstorm in the middle of the day. Time will tell whether this rain will be a factor… but time will also indicate to us that there is some intense competition on the docket. We have five ranked teams for the girls and ten ranked teams for the boys all going to this race. This race will truly be a sight to see… and a great indicator of which teams look good as we go into the late season.
Girls-
The team race looks to be a battle between the two powerhouse programs: #4 Petersburg (Porta) and #5 Annawan (Wethersfield). Both of these teams are roughly equal in talent, but a different distribution of top five talent.
Annawan thrives in medium size to small meets as their scoring pack is very capable of digging into the top fifteen of such races, as we witnessed with them going a perfect 15 points at the Lincoln Trail Conference last Tuesday.
Porta has exactly the front runner talent with the Brauer twins to prosper in a big 20+ team meet like this one, and a reliable pack of three to work with. While a dual meet between the two would probably result in Annawan winning, it would be wise to say Porta is looking like the favorite here. As for other teams in the hunt, #11 Winnebago and #12 Seneca are dangerous schools putting in solid numbers. #20 Elmwood has been quiet, but it should be noted that there is to show its true potential as we get into Week 8 of the cross country season. Finally, watch out for Illinois Valley Central to find their way back in the rankings, and for Henry-Senachwine to surprise.
Individually, it looks to be a stand-off between Kirstie Ramsey of Annawan Whethersfield, the twins Adrienne Brauer and Maria Brauer of Petersburg Porta as well as Daly Galloway of Gardner-South Wilmington, all of whom finished in the top ten last year at the state meet. All four could conceivably win the race, but if I were to pick the absolute favorite, it would have to be Galloway who finished the best last year in IHSA state and has thus far stayed true to the preseason hype as the First to Finish Invite champion. As for other individual competitors, we are rather loaded to say the least. Individual competitors include (but are not limited to): Maddie Tuitch of Monticello, Demi Johnson and Katherine Schneider of Illinois Valley Central, Megan Grady of Amboy, Ryan Block of Knoxville, and Jillian Monier of Henry-Senachwine.
Boys-
So get this… all of the top four ranked teams are racing this week at this very same meet. Making the most recent noise is #3 Monticello who emerged the Spartan Classic and now the Okaw Valley conference champions unchallenged by even highly reputed central Illinois competition. Now the Sages look to make noise in northern Illinois and bring the pre-state battle over there. First of all, #1 Elmwood who may (or may not) challenge this Monticello crusade. We have the early season dominating force of #2 Rockford Christian, who have been laying low and resting their varsity up as of last week, but we all know these Royal Lions are the team to beat with possibly the most depth we have seen thus far in the season. Let’s not forget that Rockford in the early season had #4 Johnsburg on their heels finishing one point behind them. They will be a major wild card as they opened up the season as a team which thrives off of strong front runners, but now have been tending towards more of a pack team. They also have mainly competed against higher-division teams in slow courses, so we have not seen any update as to what they are capable of in Detweiller times. Now, we shall have a pretty good idea not only as to how Johnsburg stands relative to 1A teams, but other teams as well.
For the individuals, there is just too many potential top ten finishers to choose from. Let’s choose between the (relatively most) likely to win. Nick Monkemeyer would be the favorite, as he is coming into the invitational with the strongest season, which includes a second place finish at First to the Finish Invite. Michael Cook, the number one returner of last year’s race, has been very quiet this cross country season, but if he is out healthy, then he will be a threat too. Perhaps Monkemeyer’s biggest challenger is Matt Norveil of Monticello, the Okaw Valley Conference champion who is also running spectacular to say the least. And now that we are at that late season point, the Elmwood 1-2 punch of Matt Osmulski and Nate Herridge become very relevant in individually contenders. Watch out finally for Levi Schillman of Fieldcrest, Nathan Smith and Nathan Ambrose of Winnebago, Brayden Hemblen and Seth Williams of Rock Falls, Wilson Pfenderer of Tremont, Hunter Cobbley and Andy Layden of El-Paso Gridley, and Matt Stelmasek of Johnsburg.