PREVIEW
Dover-Eyota Invite
Location: Dover-Eyota High School, Eyota
Weather: High 70s, sunny, windy
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Plainview-Elgin-Millville (36), Lake City (52), Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson (80), Rochester Area Home (96)
Top Individuals: Axel Daood (Saint Charles, 17:07), Samson Hagen (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 17:10), Hunter Grimm (Lake City, 17:14), Griffin Doughty (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 17:22), Austin Dawley (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 17:26)
The Skinny: Last year's top two finishers, Josiah Eide and Caleb Jones of Rochester Area Home, have graduated, leaving a plethora of new, potential champions. Leading the individual projections is Axel Daood, a senior from Saint Charles who placed 4th at this invite last fall. Right on his heels are Samson Hagen and Hunter Grimm, last year's 5th and 3rd place finishers, respectively. A tight lead pack should include these runners as well as the senior duo of Griffin Doughty and Austin Dawley from Plainview-Elgin-Millville. As a result of projecting 4 in the top 10, Plainview-Elgin-Millville should take the team victory pretty easily, assuming freshman 5th runner Baylor Hagen can stay close behind. Lake City High School, which graduated elite talent Carl Kozlowski in 2017, should finish in a solid second place finish.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: Lake City (37), Dover-Eyota (51), Rochester Area Home (84), Plainview-Elgin-Millville (89)
Top Individuals: Madeline Perry (Rochester Area Home, 19:13), Jacey Majerus (Lake City, 19:51), Madilyn Simon (20:00), Kaylee Arndt (Lanesboro/Fillmore Central, 20:03), Johannah Clementson (Lake City, 20:12)
The Skinny: Madeline Perry will look to defend her title from 2017, and should be able to do so, entering the race with a PR nearly 40 seconds faster than anyone else. She won last year's race by a staggering 1:12, so she's no stranger to taking charge of this course. 8th-grader Jacey Majerus has the second fastest time in the field, yet she's never ran the Varsity 5k at this meet. Last year she ran and won the middle school 2500m in a time of 10:13. Expect Madilyn Simon, Kaylee Arndt, and Johannah Clementson to be up with, or closely behind the youngster, forming a tight chase pack towards Madeline Perry. On the team side, Lake City is projected to put all 5 scorers in the top 15 finishers, which would usually be very tough for any other team in the field to compete with, except the host team Dover-Eyota is projected to do the same. What accounts for the difference in team scores is that Lake City is projected to put their 1, 2, and 3 runners ahead of Nelson Malia, Dover-Eyota's freshman front-runner. However, Dover-Eyota has a 1-5 split of just 37 seconds, which could allow them to run well together and close the door quickly on Lake City.
(written by Adam Wilkinson)
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