PSAL Preview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 Season Overview for the PSAL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Replay Midwood
entered the 2017 season with the best ratings of a group of five teams
at the top of the PSAL, but in the end it all came down to a head-to-head battle between Staten Island champ Susan
Wagner and Brooklyn Tech. The Falcons had four guys in the top 12 with
Sean Acosta, William Cuthbertson, Mahmoud Abdalla, and Christophe
Hernandez, and that was enough to score a 58-68 win over the Engineers,
who were led by PSAL champ Evan Sherman and 4th place finisher Robert
Straight. Brooklyn Technical did get it all together for Feds though, as its
17th place finish was the first time since 2011 that a PSAL team did
better than 22nd. In 2011, Konrad Surkont in 6th place led Stuyvesant
to an amazing 11th place. Sherman finished two seconds ahead
of Midwood's Ermiyas Harper, and Riverdale-Kingsbridge's Jacob Ireland
was about another seven seconds back in 3rd. The PSAL field was one of
the deepest in many years as 32 guys broke 18:00 and 22 had speed
ratings over 150 TR. Harper went on to a 17th place in Federations, one
place better than McKee Tech's Mohamed Aziz got back in 2013 and the
best place by a PSAL runner since Stuyvesant's Jack Stevenson took 11th
in 2011. Teams The
top six guys from the 2017 PSAL team championship race plus the winner
of the PSAL Individual championship race are returning this year, so the
conference will have a lot of talent at the top. The issue for reigning
champ Susan Wagner is that only junior Sean Acosta returns from the
Falcon's strong top quartet from last year. With a lot of rebuilding to
do, Wagner starts the year rated 4th among the PSAL teams. Brooklyn
Tech has its top 5 back after its 2nd place finish in the PSAL in 2017,
and that makes the Engineers a decided favorite entering the season.
Evan Sherman and Robert Straight lead BTech's strong and deep team,
which will be looking for its first championship since 2014. Two
other teams that could challenge this year with maybe an infusion of
new guys are Midwood and Bronx Science. The Hornets ran second to
Brooklyn Tech in the PSAL boro championship in 2017, but it has the
conference's top rated returning runner with Ermiyas Harper, and he has
fellow senior Demian Lofnes Scott to build a great top 2 for Midwood.
Bronx Science was boro champ last year and will be depending on the
development of last year's nearly intact young team to carry the
Wolverines to the top. Individuals Evan
Sherman was the PSAL champ last year, and Ermiyas Harper finished as
the top rated runner off of his great performance at Feds. But also in
the hunt are the rest of the guys from the 2017 PSAL top 6 -- Jacob
Ireland, Robert Straight, Demian Lofnes Scott, and Sean Acosta. Although
he ran in the separate PSAL Individual championship last year, Beacon
School's Jack Craven also has to be counted among the PSAL's top guys. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brooklyn Tech's Evan Sherman was the top runner in the 2017 PSAL championship. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top 5 Teams at 2017 PSAL Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Projected Top 7 Teams for 2018 from Returners' 2017 TR Ratings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ermiyas Harper of Midwood at far right had Brooklyn Tech's Evan Sherman one step behind him going up the hill in the Federation meet, and Harper charged home for a 15th place finish. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top 2018 Returning Runners by Last Year's TR Rating | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jack Craven of the Beacon School was the champion of the PSAL Individual race. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||