'GHSA Boys 1A Private Preview'
Team Race
Three teams from Region 5-A duked it out at Mercy's course as Landmark Christian had their best outing this season taking the team win over higher ranked Pace, and Holy Innocents, propelling them to a #1 pre-state ranking. Athens Christian and Lakeview Academy came down to a 6th runner tiebreak for the 8-A title. Darlington cruised to the 6-A team championship.
Landmark has a solid 1-3 up front led by Spencer Geerlings, and their fortunes may depend heavily on how their 4.5 run. In a race with 2x the runners compared to region, ACS should have an advantage over Lakeview Academy whose 4,5 will need to pick it up. ACS has been inconsistent at State in tha past few years, but seemed to tempo Last Chance 2 weeks back. Pace has been ranked 2nd all of October and been very steady. Darlington always seems to peak at State whether it's Track or XC and is a definite title contender. Athens Academy has ran well at State and trains on their tough Spartan course. Holy Innocents is a wild card.
Individual Race
Reilly Friedman of Galloway will be looking to defend his crown in the individual race and is the prohibitive favorite to repeat. Friedman tuned up with a 15:57 at 5-A besting one of his closest competitors in Pace's Joshua Rogers who clocked a 16:39. Many of the contenders come out of 6-A including Shane Sullivan of Mount Pisgah won the overall title clocking a 16:32 with Robby Keough of Whitefield Academy placing 2nd in 16:46. Keough was within :20 of Friedman at Asics Alexander 4 weeks ago. Joey Carr of Mount Paran and Spencer Fields of Darlington also will try to stay in contact with the leaders. Geerlings of Landmark Christian has came on strong in October. The top runners out of 8-A will be in the mix including Lakeview's twins Dalton and Dustin Snyder, Will Martin of FPD is the top harrier out of Area 1.