2018 NY Boys XC Preview: AIS

AIS Preview

New York State XC Season Guide - 2018

Replay

Trinity kept the ball rolling for a second year in a row in the AIS with a relatively young squad that had Geordie Young and Aydin Williams finishing in the top 6 on Marathon Sunday morning in Van Cortlandt Park. The AIS championship had the greatest conference depth at the top in years, as Collegiate, Hackley, and Poly Prep joined Trinity in scoring under 100 points. Riverdale Country Day sophomore Tobias Wolfson placed 1st, with Young in 2nd, Hackley freshman Jonah Gorevic in 3rd, and Poly Prep's Gabriel Cannavo in 4th.

Trinity and the top 3 individuals of the AIS went on to have a very good Federations, as Trinity's 15th place was the best since Collegiate's 12th in 2013 for an AIS team.  Wolfson was the top individual for the AIS at 34th, and Young was close behind in 37th. The AIS gets to send just the one team plus three other runners to Feds.

Teams

Trinity has four of its top 5 back from last year's varsity, and it enters the new season with a speed rating that is a big 8 points better than last year in preseason and 11 points better than any other AIS team. Geordie Young, Aydin Williams, Stephen Andryc, and William Ketter-Sykes all scored top 20 places, and Tigers have experienced depth behind the top guys.

If anyone is likely to challenge a seemingly indomitable Trinity team, it will likely be Collegiate, which has its sights on taking a 20th AIS title in 22 years. Only Clay Hard with his 5th place last year returns as a top 20 finisher for a Dutchmen squad that lost two of its top 3 to graduation. The key for Collegiate though is its depth of young talent, and with a some development the Dutchmen could close the gap on the Tigers.

Individuals

Tobias Wolfson hit the ground running as an AIS newcomer and he kept it going with a win in the Ivy Prep meet, an 8-second victory in the AIS on Marathon Sunday and a high level performance at Federations. 15 of the top 20 finishers in the 2017 AIS championship return for this year, however, and Geordie Young, Jonah Gorevic, Gabriel Cannavo, Clay Hard, and Aydin Willams of last year's top 6 should all be in contention.

As a final note, apologies to the AIS athletes for the poor quality of the visuals from the championship for both the boys and girls previews, as a lot of them are grainy screen captures. When you squeeze the two championship races so closely together, that can happen. Fortunately a few teams ran at the Manhattan Invite.

Screen-cap pic of AIS start on Marathon Sunday.

Screen-cap image of AIS guys heading for cow path at Van Cortlandt Park in 2017.