DoctorBob- DistancePreps.com

1.  As of today, there are only 31 days left until we toe the line at ARP for the 2013 State XC Meet and we are only 10 days away from the end of the regular season.  Wow, it's gone by way too fast.

We may not know what time we're toeing the line for the individual races (although we should by early next week), but one things for sure; based on where we are after this weekend and at this point in the season, 8 highly contested battles will ensue.  Even those individual or team battles we think may be slam dunk's are now looking topsy-turvy.  The main reason - injuries and depth.  You have to show up on race day healthy and ready to rumble.

2.  This past weekend there weren't any highly contested races that produced fast times so the "Cream" remains the same as last week.  What we did see was the reemergence of some runners mid-season that may have an impact before the season is all said and done.  Looking at the top times in the State, it was great to see the likes of Golden Gate senior and last years 2A State XC Champion Alex Pedraza run a solo effort going 15:48 for the win at the SouthWest Florida XC Invitational.  If we think back to last year, Alex seems to come on strong towards the end of the season and this year the ducks seem to be lining up quite nicely.  Maybe a little bit unluckily for Alex, Golden Gate has moved up a classification and is now in the hotly contested, depth-laden 3A. 

Not to be outdone by Alex, Green Wave senior Emily Edwards easily outdistanced her main competition winning the girls race at the SouthWest Florida Invitational posting the State's 4th fastest time so far this year, going 18:12.

Olympia's Emily Headley threw down a fine 18:24 to win the Inaugural Darter Invitational by 2:03 over her team-mate and closest competitor. We also saw Gulf Coast senior Kari Grippo with a solid outing after battling back from injury getting 3rd at the Land O' Lakes Gator Invitational in a season best 19:06.

Speaking of resurgence, Vanguard's Elizabeth Mulford made a strong case for cracking the FACA Coaches poll top 10 as she was previously unranked, but this past weekend going head to head was ahead of 2 in the Top 10 !   The Vanguard duo of Carpenter and Mulford also have the distinction of accomplishing a rare feat nowadays as they both finished in front of fellow 3A Estero's #2 over the weekend.  What would it take for Vanguard to pull the upset at State? Just thinking out loud here, what would it take for the Plant girls to "not" make it to State for the 27th straight time- and Coach Harrison said he was going to have to do some "Coaching" !

3.  It was a pretty good race weekend for some of the best girl freshmen in the State with Fletcher's Kayley Delay going sub 19, clocking 18:59 for 3rd at Bale N' Trail.  Not far behind was a recent "Frosh of the Week" honoree, Bolles Ally Hajda grabbing 6th in 19:14.  The State's fastest freshman girl remains Barron Collier's Devin Molloy.  Devin went 18:32 at flrunners.com a few weeks ago.

It's pretty plain to see that the progression rate for girls is a whole lot different than boys their first year in high school.  Whereas Devin sits in the upper echelon of the State's fastest harriers, Holy Trinity's Trevor Kattenberg is right now outside the top 50 fastest harriers for the guys with his 16:10 PR from the Mountain Dew Invitational. 

All righty, I can hear the pundits snearing in the background.  Well DoctorBob, if Holy Trinity had run flrunners.com, the argument wouldn't hold up.  So be it.

4.  We're big believers in not over racing.  We know, some schools and coaches like to travel and race as a means of building toughness out on the course and if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right ! 

Here's why a slow weekend for key match-ups are a big benefit this upcoming weekend.  Take a gander at what we can look forward to at FSU's Pre-State Invitational.  A rested Sukhi Khosla from Leon will be the pre-race favorite for the boys elite race,  kicking things off at ARP at 0740 with the first of a multitude of races Saturday morning.  The last time we saw Sukhi, he was in a different league over some pretty good guys you might have heard of?   Nicholas Morken and Thomas Howell from Niceville.  They'll be rested along with Tyler Bennett,  Kurt Convey, Nick Diaz, Mac Macoy and Brandon Marquez. I'm sure it also helps that Sukhi won't have to travel as Leon is in Tally and he especially wants to do big things this year.  I think you get the picture.  The Boys elite race will be a must see !

5.  Have you checked out your stats on the site yet?  You see that little search box is pretty darn powerful and way under-utilized.  Most people are amazed at the growing stats database we are able to provide in conjunction with Dyestat TFX and Runnerspace. So check it out.  Oh, and 1 more thing, keep those results flowing - A huge thank-you to all the meet directors who include us on their emails when they send out results. 

I've never been good with numbers so you're if you're keeping tally, there's more than a few things that kept me busy writing this weeks rendition.  Unitl next week.

“The Cream Rises to the Top”

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