Nike Cross Nationals - NY Qualifier Meet Predictions

NE Regional Preview can be found here.

All Speed Ratings are courtesy of Bill Meylan from Tully Runners located at TullyRunners.com

Stats compiled by Kyle Brazeil of MileSplit NY

The push for Nike Cross Nationals concludes in the Northeast this Saturday, as both NXN-NY and NXN-NE will be held at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls NY.  Teams will be looking to finish in the top 2 in the Championship race to gain an automatic bid to Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon the following weekend.  In addition, the top 5 individuals not on one of those qualifying teams will also be able to compete at NXN.  Fear not if your favorite team does not finish in the top 2, as Nike chooses 4 At-Large teams from all regional qualifiers to compete, and the depth of talent in New York has traditionally seen at least one of those bids every year going all the way back to 2006.  Listed below are our predictions for who will qualify and how.

Boys

Top 25 Individuals

Top 5 Teams

Breakdown:

With FM a very good chance for taking the overall title, the 2nd spot is not guaranteed to anyone.  Early predictions show Shaker grabbing the second auto-qualifier, but a bad race for one athlete can skew these results in any direction.  Notable absentee is last week's Bowdoin winner, Brendan Smith.  He told MileSplit he intended to run NXN this week, but he is currently listed on the Foot Locker start list.  In his absence, it looks to be a replay of Feds as Thomas Awad and Dan Galford battle for that first individual slot.

Girls

Top 15 (without US #1, #2, #3)

Top 5 Teams

Breakdown:

With an At-Large qualification almost guaranteed to at least the 3rd place in the Girls' race, I decided to do their ratings separately.  In their wake, we find Bronxville's Mary Cain looking to improve her already impressive 17:40 from last week.  This week, Cain will have FM's Jillian Fanning to run with, so a quick pace is expected.  Behind Cain, we find Kelsey Margey and Rachel Paul battling for the second individual bid, as well as for rights to being named" Long Island's Fastest."  On the teams side, an impressive North Shore is looking well to topple a strong Saratoga Springs.  Saratoga had a slower race at States, but ran well at Bowdoin last week, so it is anybody's race.  US #1 Fayetteville-Manlius looks impressive as ever, despite losing two of their top girls to injury.

Fayetteville-Manlius Top 5

North Shore Top 5

Saratoga Springs Top 5