Girls XC - New Poster

Hi all,

We welcome a new analysis from someone who'd like to be known as "The Coach." Again, this is not me!

-----------------------

Rankings are tough given the course differences and having meets on outer islands. I.E. this past week many of the top teams and runners were at either the Iolani or HPA meets which had vastly different course conditions. With that said I can't argue with these rankings, but I do think the HPA course will make handicapping the State meet extremely difficult. I also believe that the teams that ran on the HPA course will have an advantage.

I think the team title will be exciting and is up for grabs. As always, but even more so this year given the course difficulty at HPA, it will come down to which team can get its runners to run as "normal" as possible. In other words, teams with runners that have "off" days are going to suffer and that could happen easily at HPA.

Kamehameha (Oahu) certainly looks impressive after the last two weeks. And they are doing it with four new runners in their top six! A gap time of just 1:22 at the HPA Invitational is quite impressive. Seabury Hall had a gap time of 2:09 while Mililani had a gap time of 1:56 at the Iolani Invitational. If either of those teams can close their gaps they will makes it closer with Kamehameha.

Punahou lost some key runners to graduation last year, but always seem to re-load. Their JV squad looked impressive at the Iolani meet and could provide even greater depth by the end of the season.

One key area to look for is missing runners. Were all of the teams running at full strength this past weekend? I heard Iolani has the injury bug right now, and if they recover in time, then they will be in the mix especially given they have a frontrunner (Wong), and, supposedly, a mainland transfer who is faster than their frontrunner.

And don't forget Seabury Hall's Tracy-Vinsintainer who finished just 6th on the team this last week but was 16th at the State meet last year. If she returns to form they may be the favorite going in.

In all, there appears to be no clear cut favorite and it should be an exciting team battle.

Individually, Clapp had a big race at the Iolani meet, but don't forget that that course was flat. As a relative newcomer to the running scene does she have enough experience for the grueling HPA course? I'll be watching her closely at her own Kaiser Invitational this week to see how she handles the hills, although the course is still not nearly as tough as HPA. It's tough to compare her run to Massenburg's at HPA. I don't think we will get to see the Oahu girls race the outer island girls until States unless they come over for the Kaiser meet. The individual battle looks to be a heated one as well.