Stars Out To Shine On Today's Big Day Of Racing

Fridley Peach Run

(All Races Two Miles)

Location: Commons Park, Fridley

Weather: 70s, mostly sunny, calm

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection: Saint Anthony Village (60), Holy Family Catholic (60.5), Saint Paul Washington Technology (89)

Top Individuals: Suleyman Jafer (Saint Paul Washington Tech, 16:50), Joe Lynch (Saint Anthony Village, 17:37), Jack Fink (Holy Family Catholic, 17:58), Tait Nelson (Saint Anthony Village, 18:02), Patrick Ricke (Holy Family Catholic, 18:03)

The Skinny: Saint Paul Washington Tech's Suleyman Jafer will be the runner to watch in the boys race, as he returns the fastest time by nearly a minute over Saint Anthony Village's Joe Lynch. While Jafer is comfortably favored at this point, the battle to round out the top five will be fierce as behind Lynch, three runners come in with personal bests within five seconds of each other. Saint Anthony Village and Holy Family Catholic earn nearly identical scores in the virtual meet, so the competition between them for the victory could also be blazing. Saint Anthony Village has the edge by half a point, thanks to their fourth and fifth runners, but even then, Holy Family Catholic is right on their heels. Where Holy Family could pick up some points is by packing up some guys behind their third runner Tyler Franck (18:15) who holds a 39 second edge over Saint Anthony's third runner.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: Saint Anthony Village (32), Spring Lake Park (38), Holy Family Catholic (77)

Top Individuals: Jenna Terrio (Spring Lake Park, 20:13), Elizabeth Marschall (Holy Family Catholic, 20:46), Natalie Zielsdorf (Saint Anthony Village, 21:15), Claire Vandentop (Spring Lake Park, 21:18), Anna Manson (Spring Lake Park, 21:24)

The Skinny: Saint Anthony Village is also projected to take the lead on the girls side, but by only six points ahead of, and thus within reach of, Spring Lake Park. The Spring Lake Park girls also have the advantage of having had a race already this season, whereas this will be the first 5K of the season for the Saint Anthony Village girls. Still,  Saint Anthony's incredible depth will make them hard to beat. In the 1:30 gap between Spring Lake's third (Autumn Vandertop) and fourth runners lie the 2017 best times of 10 of Saint Anthony's runners, giving them a huge crop of potential scorers. Individually, Jenna Terrio of Spring Lake is positioned solidly ahead of the field, followed by Saint Anthony frontrunner Natalie Zielsdorf. While only those two girls have broken 21 minutes, several girls who have run around 21:20 will make it a race for the third place spot.