The Boys 2000 Cross Country Outlook
All I have to say
is watch out! The York High Boys Cross Country team is going to surprise
some teams. There is has been a lot of
talk about some of the runners actually training in the off-season. Last summer
even the number one runner on the team, Allen Carr, only ran 12 miles a week in
the summer. We are only graduating one runner from our top 10, and we have a
couple new stars coming off of a great track season. I guess the time has come
to start talking about the returnees. First we have Allen Carr, I’ll have to
leave that one alone and skip to our 2nd runner, Trent Williams.
This boy as an 8th grader ran 17:50 w/ no previous running
experience, and last year as a freshman he pounded out a 17:22 at districts.
The week leading up to districts he was forced to sit out b/c of a sore groin,
and still managed to pull of this time. This year in track he started out
strong, running a 4:46 in just his third 1600 ever, but he began to fall apart
in the middle of the season. He ran a
couple high 4:50s, and didn’t get back under 4:50 until districts. But I figure
after some training over the summer, and some extra help during the season from
Mr. Boykin he will be mid 16s all season. Next on the list is Keith “Falcon Rock”
Percic, one of the most insane runners on the team. This junior was running
17:20s as a freshman, and ran a near sub 17 performance at states as a frosh.
Last fall as he was on pace to be running sub 16:50, a terrible thing happened,
the dreaded stress fracture. Then in the winter his stress fracture turned into
a broken leg after…we won’t go into that b/c that is just embarrassing. But
after not being able to run for 3 months, he slowly began to get into shape by
running 2:12s and 5:24s. In the end he hit a 2:04 split at states shocking me
and the rest of the team. I know he will be running hard this summer b/c he and
Trent both live in the same neighborhood. I say Kyle Shook as number 4 in the
fall. He will start out slow b/c of a lack of base and finish strong come
October and November. Last year he ran 18:03 at our first dual meet, but 2
meets later he fell victim to pulled calf muscle. As soon as he recovered from
this, he twisted his ankle…well that is another we won’t get into. Next in the line up is most likely Michael
Machie, he’s gay(jk). He kind of reminds me of me(Allen Carr), w/out running a
day in the summer he managed to run an 18:24 before the end of a season that
was shorter than it should have been. What more can I say about him. He has the
right attitude so far, I love it when people actually train in the off-season.
Next we have another 2:04 runner, he goes by the name Ryan Slominski. He has a
lot of ability, but not until states in track did he show the will. If he gives
as much in XC as he did in track, once again “All I have to say is watch out”.
His PR of 18:47 will easily drop by over a minute if he keeps it up. The 7th
and final varsity spot will be quite a battle between Adam Cheney and Ben
Newman. Adam didn’t run last year, and Ben ran for a short period of time.
These two runners potential were seen directly after track had ended. They went
head to head in an all out 1600 battle to the finish. The pre-race favorite had
to be Adam because he ran the 800-3200 in track while Ben only did the 400/800.
The race started with Ben taking an early lead and opening up the lead to about
5 seconds by the time he hit 1000 meters. After this the signs of Ben being a
sprinter started to show when Adam slowly began to walk him down. 1300 into to the
race Adam finally got him, but Ben held him off on the back-stretch. As the two
hit the final 100 meters Adam put on a devastating kick and took the race with
a time of 5:13, not bad for a time trial. But I am not 100% sure that they will
be the only 2 fighting for the final spot. This year we have Charles “The
Secret Weapon” Vaughn coming back for his senior after skipping his junior to
be a kicker for the football team. All you need to know about Charles is that
he ran 18:20 something in his first year of running as a sophomore and that he
is gunning for little Machie.
Now for the best part of all the time
predictions:
1)Allen Carr- 15:25
2)Trent Williams- 16:31
3)Keith Percic- 16:35
4)Kyle Shook- 17:15
5) Ryan Slominski- 17:25
6) Ben Newman- 17:32
7) Adam Cheney- 17:35
8) Michael Machie- 17:36
9)Charles Vaughn- 17:45
8/25 update
1)Allen Carr(15:15)
2)Trent Williams(16:25)
3)Keith Percic(16:40)
4)Ben Newman(16:55)
5)Kyle Shook(17:10)
6)Adam Cheney(17:20)
7)Ryan Slominski(17:30)
8)Michael Machie(17:35)
9)Charles Vaughn(17:36)
notes: Trent is coming along at a consistent
pace. Ben is beating Keith everyday(or should I say every other day) he comes
to practice. But history tells me that Keith will be 3 by the seasons end. Kyle
has been working hard, with his natural ability he might hold the final scoring
spot. Adam was beating Keith but he recently went out of town for a week so I’ll
have to see when he gets back. Ryan as he himself puts it tends to be on and
off so it’s hard to tell with him. Michael usually slacks and Charles is
struggling with waking up in the morning after his 5 hour football practices.
Not on the list at the moment is freshman Scott Percic who is usually in the
top 7 but lacks racing experience.