Class AA Scouting Report
AA Boys
Westminster will be seeking to add another AA 1st place cup to their huge trophy case and it will take some incredible improvement for any school other than Wesleyan to seriously challenge them. Wesleyan did their level best in 2012 falling only 8 points short. Bleckley County had a huge breakthrough placing 3rd becoming the 5th Public school team to breakup the AA 'Private School Only' Podium Party along w/ North Oconee, Cross Keys, East Jackson and Benedictine (since Westminster dropped down to AA in 2008)
Jordan Flowers is a good bet to take the individual title as 5 of the top 6 Boys in AA (any many of the top 30 at State graduated in 2013) After Jordan, it could be an ocean of green and white uniforms crossing the finish line. Grant Hoffman of Riverside Military may have the chops to break up that line dance and make the All-State squad. Sam Geha of Benedictine has some fast 5K times from 2012 and GAC's Miller Kettle could be in that lead pack. Junior Eddie Stafford of Spencer (Columbus) had a strong Track season with (2) 4th place medals at the GA Olympics and has the talent to be up there in the lead.
Westminster
Flowers returns to lead another deep squad after having a successful Club Track season, and it remains to see if racing so much this Summer will effect him. The Cats look to be in great shape returning their entire top 7 from State including Jack Bondurant, Graham Huff, Harry O'Connor and Austin Dhillon. All of whom have prs of sub 17:18 Good luck to all the AA Boys teams with designs of dethroning them.
Wesleyan came as close as they could in 2012 and do return 4 of their top 7. Like their rival back off Paces Ferry, they race several times on their own tough home course, but didn't compete at any of the 'fast' venues (like Westminster did at Wendys- McAlpine Park, home of Foot Locker South) so their runners stats don't look as great. But it paid off at Carrollton nicely...The trio of Matt Moratti, Benji Johnson and Henry Collins had a very tight pack at State with a Split of 1.98 seconds
Lovett has been consistently a top 3 finisher and state and some considered them in a re-building year in 2012 as they fell back to 4th on the Podium. And they seem to be returning 5 of their top 7 from State. The Lions top runners coming into this Fall will be Mac Major, Reed Dobbs and Charles Powers and how much they can improve depends on their 4-7 runners.
Bleckley County looks to have another successful season and returns at least 6 of their top 7 runners from State. The Royals really ran well late in the season for a magical 3rd place team finish. Its a team without a star runner perse, but also like Wesleyan, competed on no 'patsy courses' If you've ever walked their home course (home of the MS State Meet) its an interesting layout with vitually no flat stretches. Top returners are senior Bryson Hollomon, Logan Bridges, Austin Cook and Taylor Harrell (all sophomores)
Oglethorpe County would like to improve on 2012's 11th place finish at State and possibly are returning 7 of their top 8 runners including sophomore Sid Wightman who placed 24th at Carrollton. I'm aware the Patriots don't have much of an XC budget to travel to the 'Lightning Fast' venues, so again their stats are misleading with perhaps their home course being the fastest they run on. Also 5 runners are just sophomores...
Jefferson could be another school to make a run at a Podium spot this Fall. They have a nice MS feeder program that travels to some big meets and the Dragons may get a nice boost from incoming frosh Max Higgins who had a 4:57 1600 during Track season and Patrick Myers. Top returners are Cain Lorenzo and Josh Reid.
Other schools with an opportunity to crack the top 5 could be Benedictine out of Savannah who sport 3 returners with sub 18 prs including Sam Geha who has the 2nd fastest time of any returners (may have gotten injured last October) and placed 5th in the 1600 at GA Olympics. Riverside Military is an improving program and junior Grant Hoffman placed 14th at State in 2012 w/ a pr of 16:49. Greater ATL Christian could be in the mix (virtually assured of getting out of Region 6) and their top returner is Miller Kettle who had a strong Spring Track season.
AA Girls
It could be another incredible race at State in AA Girls...Wesleyan peaked at State in 2012 and avenged a region loss a week earlier to Westminster winning State by 10 points over the Lady Cats. The challenge is, can Wesleyan repeat making it 2 consecutive seasons for Westminster not to claim a title? Lovett placed 3rd in 2012 and has a long climb to climb a step higher...Bleckley placed 4th for their best Girls AA finish since 2006. Jefferson will look to improve this year and get a top 4 team spot. The race for the top AA Individual will be dominated by returners including State Champ Emma Garrison of Union County, Charlotte Folinus of Westminster, Caroline Reed of Wesleyan and Ellen Powell from Bleckley County. The bigger question is how many all-staters will come from WW?
Wesleyan has a great opportunity to repeat as AA Champs and return their top runner Caroline Reed who scored 3 Silver medals during the 2012-13 school year including the 1600, 3200 and XC State Championship and may be ready to add a Gold to her collection this Fall. It certainly helps as well that the Wolves return their entire top 7 from the state title team including Taylor Panther, Ellie Bradach, Jordan Zimmerman, Abi Irwin and Kylie Reed. (only Caroline Reed and Irwin are seniors)
One shouldn't feel badly for Westminster with Sahara Fletcher off to Buckeye land (Ohio State), and graduating a few seniors as they will surely reload with veteran Coach Amy Eubanks at the helm again. The Lady Cats perennially get to racing at Carrollton Orthopedic and host alot of home meets that do not submit results. Sophomore Charlotte Folinus is their top runner and should challenge for a XC State title. Folinus held off Reed of Wesleyan to win the AA Girls 3200 Meter title in Albany. Kay Crawford and Lexy Rouse return giving them a strong top 3. Abby Seitz ran well last season in MS and could help.
Lovett has placed 3rd since 2010 and unless they get some new talent may be fighting to retain that spot. The Lions do return at least 5? of their top 7 from State, but WW are just on another level. They will have the benefit of their core top 3 back including Hailey Branch, Charlotte Lee and Tessa Allen.
Bleckley County ran extremely well at State and almost overtook Lovett..Their large,successful MS program is finally beginning to pay dividends when in recent seasons I oten wondered why they didn't do better on the HS level, but its tough to keep some kids interested in the Sport once they get in HS in a small town. The Royals do return 5 of their top 7 including sophomore Ellen Powell who placed 5th in 2012 and won a Silver in the 800m and Bronze in the 1600 at the GHSA State Track meet.
Jefferson has the talent to make a run at a top 4 team finish after placing a distant 5th behind Bleckley in 2012. They also return everyone including top runner, senior Reese Bowles who placed 16th at State, Olivia Yates and Morgan Mitchell. Also, there are only 2 seniors in the top 7 returners. And don't be surprised if a couple of freshman make an impact for the Dragons later in the season.
Union County is the only other school with a real shot at making the Podium after a great 7th place finish in 2012. Only a few years ago there was NO xc program at this school back when Chris Jones won 2 straight AA Boys Individual titles in 2007/08 Sophomore Emma Garrison blazed to the Individual title for UC winning in the only sub 20 time for AA. She also had a nice 18:35 at Foot Locker South. Also, at least 5 of the top 6 from 2012 look to return.
A few schools contending for top 10 in the Rankings and State should be Bremen, Model, Thomasville (who did their best in school history last Fall), GAC, Rabun County and St.Vincent's of Savannah.