Division II Class AA
Lead off girls in the D2 Large school division is Hutchison's Meriel Rowland. Meriel set a PR in her first race of the season at the Fast & Furious Cougar XC classic in early September. Since then she's hovered around the 20 mark and broke that again at the MYA HS Championships October 16. That race was a good race for setting fast times on a very competitive course. Cool sunny weather helped Meriel get 19:56 and a third-place spot against a loaded field. And then on Tuesday, she ran a very strong race to set another PR of 19:38.8 in the D2AA Region meet on the MYA championship course.
The only real way to compare cross country runners is when they run on the same course and ideally at the same time, head to head. As I've said in the past, XC times mean very little since courses vary so widely. I'd even throw in how some courses may be flatter and even a touch more manicured than what a good cross-country course should be. The MYA Championships and the Frank Horton are a couple of solid Memphis area races to use as comparisons. Same course, one during the day and one during the night - ideal to use as athlete comparisons.
The top ten girls in this division for the Memphis area include four from Hutchison, two from Briarcrest, two from St. Mary's and two from SBA. Looking even deeper to the next best ten you'll add three for the SBA team, then a big step with five more for St. Mary's, one for Hutchison and St. Agnes getting in the act with their runner as well.
What does that all tell you? The team competition among this Memphis division is extremely tight. If you were counting, St. Mary's has the most coming in the top 20. There's some solid depth there for sure. Hutchison and SBA have five each in the top 20 rankings. Out of these top 20 athletes, 2 of the athletes ran them fastest at different courses. Hutchison's Meriel Rowland ran her 19:42.08 at the Fast & Furious/Cougar XC classic and Briarcrest's Emmye Conway her best at the Jesse Owens Classic. The rest were run on the MYA/Frank Horton course which makes the comparison a little simpler. That might make you wonder if Meriel's time could be a fluke. Don't worry, it's not. She's still gone sub 20 on that course and in head to head on the MYA course, she still leads the way.
The one factor on these numbers is that Hutchison has four in the top ten ranking. Meriel leading the way with her 19:42, Sarah Elizabeth Rowland (20:07), Annabelle Bridgforth (22:04), Sara Byrnes (23:06), Katie Frazer (23:32), Kristin Nunn (24:24) and Sarah Grace Taylor (25:09). The top five are fairly tightly matched and the next couple in good position to push the group even faster. St. Mary's top runner Abby Rothrock (20:53) is a freshman and as you go deeper into this roster there's not a lot of change to that either! A couple of seniors in there but a very young squad indeed!
The St. Mary's group is made up of Abby, Meagan Miller (21:55), Maggie Kustoff (22:46), Hannah Kerlan (23:16), Emma Spillyards (23:23), who by the way has a very fast sister in 7th grade that you'll need to watch for), Kyra Jalenak (23:29), and Eva Pai (23:37). Oh, and Eva also has a younger sister in the 7th grade that has some of that speedy genes in her as well! So, this team is young and talented. Something to think about too, the SMS top runner, Abby, took the lead immediately at the start and held it for quite some time. I do believe this young athlete is hungry to win! There's a great quote by Pre (if you don't know this name, time you did some research), that goes: "To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift." That seems appropriate here.
The Briarcrest girls seemed to have found a formula to gain some ground on Hutchison in the last few weeks. Having bumped up 8th grader Elizabeth Gainer (22:05.3) to balance out their top runners seemed to work at the D2AA region meet as they took 2nd to Hutchison. Their top two runners, Aubrey Park (19:48.6) and Emmye Conway (20:00.8) took the 2nd and 3rd spots at the meet and both set new PR's. That should bode well for these athletes next week at the State meet.
I think Hutchison will go into the State meet with the strongest D2-AA group. Briarcrest's lead runners look like they are on track to run great at the State meet as well. St. Mary's could surprise at State. They have a team that is very closely matched, and that characteristic tends to be a big advantage at the state level with the variety of teams at that meet.
This is cross country - and as we all know, anything can happen. We'll see next week how this plays out for all the Memphis athletes on the Sanders Ferry course.
See you on the track... and the grass!
Coach Ted