Alexander / Asics Invitational Preview

 The boy's race shapes up to be a good one. It will feature a rematch from last year's race and recently a close finish from Wingfoot between Kyle Harkabus of East Coweta and Nick Nyman of Starrs Mill. Jack Filan, Cambridge, Zach Jaeger, McIntosh, Calan Gizelbach, Forstyh Central, Mark White of Lakeside, Evans, Graham Banks of Athens Academy and Zack Truitt of Landmark all should be pushing the top guys.

 

The team race looks to be a battle between Cambridge 6A, Starrs Mill 5A, Seigel High School from Tennessee. If these teams don't have their best days look for Chattahoochee HS, Alpharetta HS both 6A schools and McIntosh from 5A to be there to seize the opportunity to win the team title. All total there are 13 ranked teams from Georgia in this year's race. 

 The girls race also looks to be a showdown between two of the state's top talents. Naima Turbes from Westminster and Makena Gates from Creekview. These two have both run sub 18 for the 5k and are state champions in either cross country or track. Turbes is coming off one of the best track seasons by any Georgia female runner ever. She ran 2:11 for the 800, 4:50 for the mile and 10:34 for the 3200. Gates was last year's state 6A champion as a freshman. There are several girls with PRs of under 19:00 in the race that have the potential to push Turbes and Gates. Ashley Sechrest of Cambridge, McKenna Croft of Douglas County, Erin Fegans of Landmark, Megan Uszynski of McIntosh all have the credentials to run fast Saturday. 

The team title on the girls side looks to be between two powers, Cambridge 6A and McIntosh 5A. both teams are defending champions from last year and have had strong seasons so far this year. These two schools should be pushed by Creekview 5A, Etowah 7A, Alexander 6A, Irmo High School from South Carolina, Starrs Mill 5A and Archer 7A. Also don't ever count out Westminster 3A. They are coached by the ring collector Amy eubanks and her teams always seem to run well at this meet. 

The Course      Course Map

For years the course at Fox hall has come into question about its accuracy. Despite measuring it many times it still brings up this conversation on the message boards. This year Coach Robinson invited Coach Taylor Ford of East Paulding to measure the course. Coach Ford measured the course twice getting an average of 4950. The coaches at Alexander have also measured the course and got an average of 4954. On Sunday, Coach Robinson made adjustments to the course to get 5000 meters. The course has been measured 5 times in the last week by the standards set by the GATFXCCA. On a side note, Coach Robinson has also used a GPS watch, range finder and even a tape measure over the summer to measure the course.