Early Bird Endurance

This year there are a limited amount of opportunities for distance runners to target PR style races as compared to year's past. Vol Track Classic is still on hiatus and Eastern Relays now falls within the same timeframe Sub-Sectional Races will occur. The times produced this season from this race may have a longer lasting impact on the distance rankings as a whole because of those factors. Below are the full set of entries for that race as well as some predictions. 

Bella Breaks 5:00

Before Bella Guillamondegui broke down at the State Cross Country Meet in November she was well on her way to claiming her first state title in the classification after a second place finish the year before. She has since bounced back with an impressive 18:34 and 49th place finish at the RunningLane National Championship and a TN High School Indoor State Championship in the Mile posting a 5:04 in the process. I think she stays on the rabbit tonight and pulls through with an impressive sub-5:00 PR. 

Bella Guillamondegui in full control after the first loop at in Hendersonville in November. 

Brodey's Record Gets Broken

The current 1600m record is 4:15.51 and this year's field is full of guys with similar abilities who will be able to push and pace each other on their way to coming close or under that time. Aiden Britt, Miles Ally, Gabe Robinson, and Connor Henson I suspect will sit on the rabbit who is set to pace at 4:10 and we'll see fireworks on the final lap. Even though Robinson has the fastest 800m time on his resume, after seeing the times Ally and Henson posted a couple weeks ago I give them the edge in the final lap in this race based on recency bias. 4:12 and change will not surprise me tonight. 

Spotlight on Siegel

In my post season write up, I awarded Kyra Hayes as my Runner on the Rise. While a lot of East Tennnessee Distance Runners are going to Dash for Doobie Saturday, Hayes will quietly post a TN #3 or better time prior to Doobie being run. It also appears the Siegel Boys will try to flood the rankings as well with Small Division State Champion Will Douglas pulling them along the way. While it wasn't a state championship season for the Stars, they'll still have an impact on who takes the podium come May. 

Siegel Senior Ben Tickle finished first for the Stars leading the team to a 5th place finish in November.