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.