PREVIEW
Eden Valley-Watkins Invite
Location: Kimball Golf Course, Kimball
Weather: High 40's, rain
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Paynesville (48), Sauk Rapids-Rice (51), Holdingford (52)
Top Individuals: Samuel Ringger (SRR, 16:10), Michael Miller (Maple Lake, 16:50), Preston Carlson (Paynesville, 17:14), Jared Bentrud (SRR, 17:25)
The Skinny: Samuel Ringger once again comes into a meet expected to win, and he has become no stranger to winning the past two years, with seven races ending in a W. He's fresh off a season best last week at 16:10, and could break 16 minutes for the first time in his career any race now. As for the team battle, it is anything but a sure thing as the virtual meet pits three teams all within four points of each other. The limited head-to-head action we've seen seems to suggest Holdingford might be the team to beat (they have beaten SRR and Paynesville once each), but in a small meet like this where depth is less important, things could swing the direction of the teams with stronger frontrunners (which happen to be SRR and Paynesville).
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: Maple Lake (30), Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball (40)
Top Individuals: Sophie Pribyl (Maple Lake, 19:33), Augustus Demarais (Maple Lake, 20:10), Libby Yozamp (EVWK, 20:18), Macy Carlson (Paynesville, 20:25)
The Skinny: Maple Lake has held onto a top-ten ranking in class A all season, and just had their best race of the season last week in Litchfield. Sophie Pribyl in particular had a great meet in breaking 20 minutes for the first time in a seaso where she has been a top-8 finisher in every race (except Dassel-Cokato when Maple Lake's varsity ran a pace race), which places her firmly as the meet favorite. The team battle looks well in Maple Lake's favor too, as they and their expected closes challenger Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball have already battled four times this year and Maple Lake has come out on top all four times, mostly comfortably. There's no reason to think they won't do so again today.
SEE ALSO: Benson/KMS Invitational