Peter Aquilone Memorial Boys Eastern States Championship - 2:15
Overview
The
9th running of the Boys Eastern States race at the Manhattan
Invitational will be whistling down on Van Cortlandt Park this Saturday
and will shooting off shrieking pandemonium in every direction. Teams
are assembling from Florida to Massachusetts, and they are coming hard,
and they are coming fast, and they are coming hungry, and the are coming
nasty. They are all intent on winning an obscenely big trophy that is
so huge that a couple of guys on the winning team will be losing their
seats on the bus and have to walk home. And if you're the Bolles guys
from Florida, that could be a big problem.
2015
NXN finalist and Eastern States champion Downiningtown West is back as one of the
top ranked teams in the nation, and it wants to go for two in a row.
CBA-Lincroft has won half of the 8 Eastern States races, but none of the
last two, and it wants to change that trend. CBA's fellow Jersey guys
Don Bosco want to pick up a second Eastern States title after winning the first
one in 2008, and Princeton has just jumped in as another Jersey giant. Carlisle has two guys with a familiar last name of Affolder
hoping to lead the Thundering Herd to greener pastures. And a group of
NY teams including Saratoga, Fayetteville-Manlius, Xavier, Liverpool,
and Ithaca are all looking to win glory on Empire State home turf.
Everything
will be revealed around 2:27 on Saturday as the boys' action wraps up
with the biggest race of them all. As always, the back hills will be a
beast, and the last 700 meters will take an eon to run.
And as always at VCP, it can't be beat.
The lineup of teams and runners at VCP on Saturday includes this amazing stat line:
♦ 2 US top-25 ranked teams, and four teams from last year's NXN Nationals.
♦4 teams that are top ranked in their state (DE, MD, NJ, PA,), plus 7 more that are ranked in their state's top 3.
♦ 21 runners who have speeded to a score of 175 or higher for their TR speed rating score
♦The #3 rated runner in the country, Carlisle's Noah Affolder.
♦ Three teams that won a Manhattan Letter race last year
The weather could be very rainy, so come prepared for some wet and wild times. Can't be beat.