Eric Ponder of Tuscola will seek another victory on Saturday
Opening remarks: As some would say, the season doesn’t really begin until the season starts to end. With three weeks to go until state this is when teams start to fine tune themselves for their ultimate goals. Races like this one are important for teams to become accustomed to the kind of all-out racing that will be done on November 8 at Detweiller Park.
The Patriot Invite will feature six ranked 1A girls and boys teams. The weather conditions should be ideal for running with a high of 56 degrees, cloudy, and a light breeze.
Girls-
The team favorite stands out quite well with #1 St. Joseph-Ogden leading the charge. Contesting the Spartans will be the Flying Geese of #5 Kewanee (Wethersfield). While they have had a bit of a history with getting beat by other 1A teams, it would be a mistake to count them out as this team really made a name for itself last year by peaking at the right time. One should see even more Maroon than usual this year because #10 Tolono (Unity) is coming to Detweiller this weekend. The Rockets have been running into some gap troubles that stopped them from really scoring low despite their front running dominance. They have an opportunity to fix this deficit on Saturday.
#12 Monticello has really been fixing their earlier season gap troubles as their Amboy Invite showing verified. Other teams to watch for include #14 Elmwood-Brimfield, #15 Macomb, and #16 Henry-Senachwine- these squads all have similar talent levels and could really surprise many in this race.
Daly Galloway of Gardner South Wilmington is looking for her second consecutive individual title after winning the recent Amboy Invite crown. Her chief challengers include Kirstie Ramsey (Kewanee Wethersfield) who finished second in last year’s race, Ericka Hibser (Lewistown) who finished third place in this race last year, the Okaw Valley conference top two of Nicole Blagwell and Taylor Renfroe (Unity), Maddie Tuitch (Monticello), Faith Houston and Abby Fisher of St. Joseph-Ogden, Megan Grady (Amboy), Jillian Monier (Henry-Senachwine), and Corrie Reiley (Prophestown HS),
Boys-
Everyone’s been thinking and muttering it: Monticello vs. Elmwood. Coach Remmert of #1 Monticello made a really interesting decision by planning the team’s races such that they’d have a couple against the highly anticipated pre-season favorite (and in many minds, the present and future season favorite going into state), #2 Elmwood-Brimfield. Both teams are all-around strong, containing a 1-5 pack that goes in the finish line before most teams even get their third man.
Elmwood hasn’t quite shown this on paper yet, but at Amboy we got the picture with their top four all within 14 seconds of each other. The mystery becomes what their top five can do, as they have been running their younger guys in the fresh/soph race…and not at the full potential that we’ve seen at state. Elmwood’s status as the defending state champions will be revealed (at least somewhat). Let’s not make this out to be a two-team battle; as good as Monticello and Elmwood are, it would be a mistake to call these teams “locks”.
#5 Sterling Newman-Central Catholic has made that statement loud and clear with their surprise second place finish at Amboy. And #4 Unity is still very relevant in this discussion with all their runners healthy and ready to go, as we saw at both the Okaw-Valley Conference and Cumberland Invite races.
#6 Shelbyville will be present, although after also racing their conference meet this past Thursday, the Rams may possibly tempo this one. Otherwise, they will be in the mix, as will #9 St. Joseph-Ogden- a top ten ranked team in their own right. Watch also for #12 Pleasant Plains, #17 El-Paso Gridely, and #20 Beecher to be among the top ten teams to finish this race, and additionally Macomb who ran a nice race at Runnin’ Red last weekend and could definitely bust into the rankings next week.
The individual race could be any man’s race as no one stands out over the rest. The defending individual champion is Michael Cook (Annawan), who seems to be laying low due to health issues, but will be looking to defend his title if he races. Al Baldanando has been looking really tough after his second place finishing kick at Amboy and will be a major contender in this race. The Okaw Valley Conference champion Matt Norvell (Monticello), will also be among many in the lead pack. And while we’re on the subject of Okaw Valley conference runners, Brennan Guido (St. Joe Ogden) and Andrew Warnes of Unity will also be in the hunt. The Elmwood duo of Matt Omulski and Nathan Herridge ran great times last year and there’s no reason they shouldn’t do so again. Bryeson Reyes of Newman Central Catholic looked strong at the Amboy Invite and should be around to contend again. Let’s not forget Tyler Johnson (Pleasant Plans) who has been putting in amazing numbers, most recently holding his own against Marcus Skinner of (Shelbyville). Skinner will also be there, but may not contend as the Rams typically run this race at tempo pace. Watch out finally for Hunter Cobbley (El-Paso Gridley) and Wilson Pflederer (Tremont).