PREVIEW
Chatfield Invite
Location: Chosen Valley Golf Course
Weather: High 50's cloudy, small chance or rain late
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projections: Stewartville (27), Pine Island (35)
Top Individuals: Tanner Horton (Pine Island, 17:02), Alexander Lawrence (Stewartville, 17:15), Danny Langworthy (Pine Island, 17:26), Jakob Ratelle (Stewartville, 17:31)
The Skinny: The Stewartville and Pine Island boys appear to be locked in a tight battle to win at Chatfield. The last time these two teams raced this season, it was Stewartville who narrowly came out on top by nine points at Pine Island's home meet. Also coming out slightly on top was Stewartville's Lawrence over PI's Horton, although Horton has run the better time in 2018. It's a close enough race that even just a little place-jostling could result in a different outcome, especially as nine of the top ten runners this season come from one of those two schools, essentially making this a battle between those two teams. Horton and Lawrence will be the two runners to watch closest this afternoon, but Danny Langworthy and Jakob Ratelle could beat out either one of their teammates on a given day.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projections: Stewartville (28), Rochester Area Home (49)
Top Individuals: Kailee Malone (Stewartville, 19:04), Kayla Christopherson (Pacelli/Lyle, 19:49), Madeline Perry (RAACHE, 20:05), Laura Pedelty (Stewartville, 20:14)
The Skinny: The fourth-ranked girls from Stewartville were the dominating winners of this meet last year, and it is looking like they will do so again in 2018 with five athletes among the ten fastest in the field this season, each one running 21:44 or better. That said, it will be very interesting to see how the RAACHE Jaguars do too, as they actually have five of the top 15 runners as well, each of whom have gone 22:01 or better. All things considered, they match up fairly well with Stewartville, and while a win is unlikely, a good performance here could possibly earn consideration to be included in future polls. Individually, Kailee Malone has been one of the best runners in Class A so far this fall, and is also the defending Chatfield Invite Champion, so she should be the favorite to out another win. But the field also contains several other excellent runners, most notably Pacelli/Lyle's Kayla Christopherson, the three-time top-ten finisher at the State XC Championships, and RAACHE's Madeline Perry, who was the 32nd-place finisher at State last fall.
(written by Mark Rice)