Jesse Owens Preview

We are midway in to Cross Country season here in Alabama and that means teams from around the south will be heading to Moulton, Alabama with hopes of taking home a 1^st place trophy in the prestigious Jesse Owens Invitational.  Nearly 5000 athletes and 338 teams will participate across six divisions on Saturday in the 2010 running of this meet; an inredible 2000 more than just 3 years ago.

The top runners in Alabama will be attempting to keep their AL #1 position this weekend and will be up against some of the south’s best competitors.  For females, Carmen Carlos (18:42, McGill-Toolen HS, Mobile, AL) will face tough competition from TN #5 Adrian Etheridge and TN#8 Mariah Zawisza, both of Oak Ridge HS, TN.  In the male division, Blaise Binns (15:36, Grissom HS, Huntsville, AL) will be up against a multitude of strong runners from Alabama as well as Tennessee and Mississippi. 

Perennial Alabama powerhouse Mountain Brook looks to improve its boy’s team from a 2^nd place finish in the Gold Division and defend a first place finish last year for the girls.  They face tough competition this year across all fronts.  In the Boy’s Gold division, Scottsboro HS and Huntsville HS will be attempting to come out on top while defending Boy’s Gold Champion Morristown-West, TN, are making the trip once again this year.  For the girls, AL #1 Scottsboro HS is looking very good this year with only 76 seconds separating their 1^st and 5^th runner.   Both Mountain Brook and Scottsboro will face extremely tough competition from TN #1 Oak Ridge HS with an average time 30 seconds faster than Scottsboro according to the MileSplit database.

This week has brought cooler temperatures to much of the state, ending a period of heat that teams have been training during summer and fall.  With temperatures expected to be between 75 and 80 degrees by race time, the weather seems to be cooperating with Race Director Stan Johnson. 

Entry Numbers Across Divisions:
Event                Number of Entries                               Number of Schools
Gold Boys                524                                                    37
Gold Girls                 427                                                    36
Silver Boys               350                                                    53
Silver Girls                276                                                    46
Bronze Boys             690                                                    68
Bronze Girls              492                                                    63
Red Boys                 398                                                     38
Red Girls                  228                                                     31
JH Large Sch Boys    539                                                    35
JH Large Sch Girls     516                                                    28
JH Small Sch Boys    297                                                    29
JH Small Sch Girls     159                                                    25

Overall Entries:
2006- 2882
2007- 2878
2008- 3304
2009- 4288
2010- 4882