PREVIEW
Trinity Invitational
Location: Dakota County Fairgrounds, Farmington
Weather: 58, cloudy, chance of rain late
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Saint Paul Central (47), Nova Classical Academy (47), Mounds Park Academy (97)
Top Individuals: Mickies Kiros (Central, 16:09), Eric Howd (Hastings, 16:37), Henry Snider (MPA, 16:50), Dare Akinmusire (Nova, 16:56), Matthew Bourne (MPA, 16:58), Michael Smith (Central, 17:16)
The Skinny: With Farmington holding out their varsity teams to rest after Griak, the batte here withs into a really tight affair with Saint Paul Central and Nova Classical Academy. Nova, of course, broke out and solidified themselves in the Class A poll with a fantastic run at Milaca, and followed that up with a great showing at the Jaguar Challenge, mere points away from being some solid Class AA teams. Well, they'll get another solid Class AA team this week in Central, who are fresh off a 28th-place finish in the Griak Gold race. With the virtual meet being an exact tie, it could come down to the sixth runner in reality too, would would be advantage Central as they have a lot more high-end depth. Central holds the advantage on the individual side too, with Mikies Kiros owning the best season best by nearly 30 seconds, so he will be a strong favorite to pick up his second win this year. Behind Kiros are a few runners with a lot of breakout potential like Hasting's Howd (fresh off his first race under 17 minutes) and IMAC rivals Dare Akinmusire, Henry Snider, and Matthew Bourne.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: South Saint Paul (43), Saint Paul Central (51), Mounds Park Academy (83)
Top Individuals: Linnea Urban (Hastings, 19:41), Margo Nightingale (MPA, 19:58), Katie Dahiya (MPA, 20:25), Nicole Kelly (SSP, 20:26), Tessa Laska (SSP, 20:37)
The Skinny: Again, with no Farmington varsity, we have another tight team battle on the girls side between Saint Paul Central and another school, this time South Saint Paul. However, unlike the boys, St. Paul Central is projected to be on the short end this time as South Saint Paul owns four of the top ten times in the field this year, all of them coming in at 21:09 or better. Central's depth is actually a little bit better, so if one of SSP's runners falters, the race could turn around rather quickly. Both teams also just ran at Griak where Central actually did come out on top, but that was a race in a much larger field where Central's depth was a lot more useful. As for the individual battle, there are two runners to keep an eye out for in Hasting's Urban (who is fresh off her first win and first time under 20 this season) and MPA's 8th grader Margo Nightingale (an individual State qualifying last year who's best time ever came at this race where she was fourth).
(written by Mark Rice)