Frances Patrick vs Abby Weitenbeck -- match up of the day?
Queue Music..... Sing along -- "It's the Final Countdown....bada bum bum....bada bum bum bum....." This is the race I have been wanting to see ...the girl's 7a championship. Since the 3200m at state last year, I have been waiting to watch Mountain Brook's Frances Patrick and Huntsville's Abby Weitenbeck go head to head again. They traded licks during the season with Patrick taking Chickasaw while Weitenbeck go the nod at Dew It on the Trails. My thoughts? I think Patrick gets it done this weekend with Weitenbeck only a second or two behind her.
You can see their head to head comparison here!
Much like my thoughts for the individuals, the team scores are going to come down to a Huntsville team that has had steady growth and improvement over the last few years and the dynasty that Mountain Brook has become. Scoring will be close since but I think Mountain Brook has a few tricks up their sleeves -- we really havent seen much from Lily Hulsey (19:07 last year at state) this year. She is only an 8th grader....keep an eye out for her.
BOYS
Cole Stidfole wins at the Chickasaw Trails Invitational
Cole Stidfole returns his junior year attempting beat last year's defending champion Auburn senior Paul Barlow. A 15:20 at Jesse Owens means Stidfole is definitely amongst the most capable runner among the 7A boys. Paul Barlow is banged up a bit after sectionals where he ran in the 16:30s - like his last 3 races. Don't count him out though. Barlow's teammate Nate Pudner and Hoover's Tommy McDonough are also likely candidates.
http://al.milesplit.com/athletes/compare/3619399+2475999
Defending 7a champions Auburn High School is trying to do it again. Unfortunately they are a bit injury plagued heading in to Saturday. If they were running healthy I wouldn't have a problem saying they were guaranteed a win. Unfortunately they aren't....and as a result I think Mountain Brook might be the team to beat. The Spartan boys are looking good going in to the state meet and have a team average of 16:12. Auburn's team average of 16:04 is better but they will lack the help of Hewitt Trussville's front runners (they failed to qualify) to separate the pack in displacers.....in this case a faster average doesn't really help. What is going to help Mountain Brook is a lethal 47 second split from their first to fifth runner.