Who is Hot Heading Into the Last 3 Weeks of the Regular Season?

Ding, ding, ding, ding, OK let's play "Who is Hot Lately" heading into the last 3 weeks of the season.  Let's all keep in mind 5A and 4A are not my specialty.

AAAAA HOT

Girls- Collins Hill may not have raced this past weekend but they do have a date at Great American this coming Saturday and those Lady Eagles have been sizzling all season and were a 4 Alarm fire at the Mill Run. With a good outing in Hoover they may well be on their way to NTN Nationals and untouchable at State. Coach Hudson has done his usual outstanding job of coaching after losing Drouin and Guglielmo to graduation and in my observation are better than 06'. Parkview and North Gwinnett are getting better and too close to call. Parkview has ran the slower courses lateley (Hot at Asics) and UGA and North G has been on the fast tracks including River Green and Westover. Etowah is having a stellar regular season and with a hot finish could push Parkview and North G to the brink. Centennial has to be considered hot after all the meets they have won this season. Walton won Cobb without Leila Norman and Kennesaw Mtn. was :13 behind. Both of these Cobb teams are HOT.(Thanks Eddie Murray)

Boys- Walton is definitely hot. Great performance at a new venue winning the Cobb Meet in 16:41. Lassiter is definitely right there and Zach Flickinger at this time may be the best individual male in the state with his covincing :30 win (15:46) at Cobb, not to mention his victory at the Bulldog Stampede. Parkview will test the tough Hoover course this weekend against regionally ranked teams and although ranked #1 All-Classes and not to hash on old issues, losing Marcelis Lynch to football did set them back a teensy bit. Collins Hill's boys have been hot all year and are a dangerous team still. Etowah had a fast run at Asics in 16:39 although they are not quite as hot as their girls squad. Peachtree Ridge had a swooft race down in Albany-16:19- and may just be discovering that they can really be good. Also Obiandu Igwe of Marietta has been outstanding lately 

                        AAAA HOT

Girls- Lakeview Ft. Oglethorpe was a pre-season #1 but after a slow start dropped back to #9, but is red hot now putting it in another gear to get back to #4. They easily won Ridge Ferry and Stephanie Shipley also turned in a 19:54 winning the individual title. Also, they placed 3rd at a Chattanooga Area League meet on 10/4 behind Baylor(Tenn) and GPS(Tenn). There really have been no other significant changes in the girls standings. Chapel Hill has maintained their top ranking with a fast race at Mill Run(19:36) and a 3rd place place team finish also behind Kennesaw Mtn at UGA. Marist will test their squad at Great American after winning the am race at Asics in 20:52. Individually, Abbie Robinson and Ashley Stovall of Chapel Hill had blazing runs at Clinton Farms a week ago as well as Jackie Sample of Starrs Mill.

Boys- Wow. pretty much the exact same scenario as the girls, meaning not much movement. It appears Alexander and Chapel Hill have effectively managed to schedule themselves not to go "head to head" until Great American. Was this intentional? Will they both run everybody? Keep in mind I am only looking at the past 3 weeks of competition. Alexander smoked everyone in the afternoon race in the heat which had to slow times somewhat(17:04). They continue to thrive off the 3-headed monster of Matt Clay, Ryan Schmidt and Josh Hulsey. The Panthers of Chapel Hill just east down I-20, last ran at the greasy fast Mill Run (16:17) and Taylor Lord was flat out smoking in 15:25. Not to misuse the word, but County will be a battle, perhaps the 6th man will make the difference? Dacula and Marist had to go to a 6th man tiebreaker at Asics with Coach Christie's squad taking the nod. Team times were separated by .19 of 1 second. How is that for being eveny matched on the same course head to head. Yowza!! Raymond Walston showed individually he is a top individual winning the afternoon race in 16:12 defeating Clay of Alexander by :18 !

Boys- Aside from the top 3 teams, this classification has been like a yoyo. Westminster, Blessed Trinity and Eagles Landing all got their shots running on fast tracks the past 2 weekends and they all pretty much held serve. If I had to call 1 of these teams really hot, it would fall to Claude Spinks' Eagles Landing squad. Eagles placed 4th behind 5A Grayson at Westover and won the Mercer meet in 17:36. If not mistaken, 2 of their top 5 are frosh? They have closed the gap some on powerful BT. Westminster has ran better at McAlpine before(though it was a little warm). West Hall and Flowery Branch were separated by 1 point at Mountain with both at full strength. Then, 3 days later the Falcons came back strong at Asics smoking HOT, defeating Oconee County by 24 points. Benedictine definitely has been HOT having 2 fine efforts and was the next 3A team behind Eagles Landing at Mercer in 18:13 with a very tight pack of runners. Coach Owen's Spalding County squad won the Jaguar Invite without the services of Will Ficklen in 18:18. That was their best team effort of the season, without their #1 runner competing. That's HOT! Individually Charlie Sparks ran away from the field at Westover in 15:24. That's correct, 15:24 and he is a sophomore. Did that rhyme? Tucker Hartley of Westminster at McAlpine burned up the Foot Locker South course in 16:03. Jarryd Wallace of Oconee displayed the "black socks" kick at Asics with a pr of 16:01. Joe Cromer of Eagles Landing decided not to chase Sparks, but pr'd at Westover in 16:12 and Brandon Griffin of.....Apalachee made his first appearance of the season winning the Mtn Invite in 16:39 just holding off a hard charging Nick Long of North Hall. Stephen Waynick of Shaw also kicked some butt at Westover with a pr of 15:57! I have not done research on this but these are some great times for 3A boys.

Girls- Sometimes you can see a volcano just smoldering and wondering when it is going to erupt. Dormant volcanoes can often show signs of life after decades of inactivity, then just blow the top off a mountain like at St. Helens over 26 years ago. Although it has been 2 seasons, Westminster may be getting ready to erupt. They are very young, deep and well coached. At Asics they had a breakout performance(20:43) in the heat of the afternoon race and with all the depth, who knows if that will even be the top 5 running at State? Coach Tillery has done an outstanding job coaching a first year school at West Forsyth. 22:03 is an impressive pr at Wendys for a 1st year AAA Georgia school. Have I told you he can run like a deer also? Coach Sorrell's Flowery Branch girls had a very HOT week finishing 2nd at Mountain(22:39) and then heading to Asics and turning in a 22:00 to move up 5 spaces! in the Rankings. Westover..where have you ladies been hiding all season long? A true breakout performance with a fairly tight pack on their home course(21:29) defeating Columbus, White County and an ailing Eagles Landing squad. White County has also had their 2 best meets of the season back to back at Mtn. and Westover. Emily Reese of Chamblee will be competing at Great American this weekend and is simply the best female in Georgia. Anne Centner of Oconee County may have set an all-time school pr at Asics in 19:01 moving out of the long shadow set by stalwart Mackenzie Howe(Kennesaw State). Brett McDaniel of Riverwood may have had a step on Centner at UGA, however McDaniel ran in the pm race at Asics recording a 19:48...Parker Rhodes of Westminster had a great race at Asics clocking a 20:08. And..veteran harrier, Senior Sara Walcott of White County, set a well deserved pr at Westover in 19:32.