Here we are in week three of dual meet action with a few teams on the cusp of clinching their divisions. My predictions are sitting pretty at an overall record of 65-8-1 (89%) after going 36-3-1 (92.3%) last week. I won't fail to mention that I correctly predicted all of the boys match ups with the exception of one tie. The girls, however, continue to give me trouble due to Paint Branch, Damascus, and Blair all proving me wrong. No hard feelings.

There will be 34 match ups between 8 meets this week.

Boys Picks Georgetown Prep over B-CC Georgetown Prep over Sherwood Sherwood over B-CC WJ over Churchill WJ over Wheaton Churchill over Wheaton Springbrook over R. Montgomery Springbrook over Rockville R. Montgomery over Rockville Watkins Mill over Blake Paint Branch over Seneca Valley Quince Orchard over Damascus Quince Orchard over Poolesville Damascus over Poolesville Clarksburg over Northwood Blair over Northwest Blair over Wootton Northwest over Wootton

Girls Picks B-CC over Sherwood Churchill over WJ WJ over Wheaton Churchill over Wheaton R. Montgomery over Springbrook Springbrook over Rockville R. Montgomery over Rockville Blake over Watkins Mill Paint Branch over Seneca Valley Damascus over Quince Orchard Poolesville over Quince Orchard Damascus over Poolesville Clarksburg over Northwood Northwest over Blair Wootton over Blair Wootton over Northwest

Girls Standings
Churchill 3-0 Walter Johnson 1-0 Sherwood 1-1 B-CC 1-2 Kennedy 1-2 Wheaton 0-2		Northwest 3-0 Wootton 1-0 Whitman 2-1 Blair 1-1 Blake 0-2 Watkins Mill 0-3		Clarksburg 4-0 Springbrook 2-1 R. Montgomery 2-1 Magruder 2-2 Northwood 1-2 Einstein 1-3 Rockville 0-3		Damascus 3-0 Quince Orchard 1-0 Gaithersburg 1-1 Paint Branch 1-1 Poolesville 0-1 Seneca Valley 0-3
Boys Standings
Sherwood 2-0 Walter Johnson 1-0 B-CC 2-1 Wheaton 1-1 Churchill 1-2 Kennedy 0-3		Northwest 3-0 Blair 2-0 Wootton 1-0 Whitman 1-2 Blake 0-2 Watkins Mill 0-3		Clarksburg 4-0 Northwood 3-0 Magruder 3-1 Springbrook 1-2 R. Montgomery 1-2 Rockville 0-3 Einstein 0-4		Gaithersburg 2-0 Quince Orchard 1-0 Damascus 2-1 Paint Branch 1-1 Poolesville 0-1 Seneca Valley 0-3

Division I

Who is this private school team causing all this trouble tieing Clarksburg last week? Georgetown Prep showed last week that they are among the top teams in the county. This week, fans are in for a treat when Ramsey Chapin goes up against the powerful distance squads from B-CC and Sherwood. With a win, B-CC could also stay in the hunt for the division crown, but Sherwood has the stronger sprinter between the two teams. Kyle Hopkins will be tested by IAC sprint champion Brandon Tisdale. Sherwood will try to stay undefeated.

The Churchill girls will be looking to clinch this division against WJ and Wheaton.

Division II

Wootton will host Northwest and Blair in what will probably determine the division winners on both the boys' and girls' side. There probably won't be much contention on the boys' side. The Blair boys are sprinting out of their minds right now and won't have much competition from either Wootton or Northwest. Chris Onuigbo poses the biggest threat to prevent a sprinting sweep. The open 400 and 800 should be exciting after his performance at the Northern Virginia Invitational last week.

Similarly, the Wootton girls are going to sprint all over Northwest and Blair. This will likely give them two more wins and only one team to beat down the road. If the sprints are not enough to match Northwest and Blair's points in the distance events, they should also have the advantage in the field events. The excitement in this meet will come from Northwest's big three, Aherne, Stinner, and Eckerstrom, Blair's Gretschel, and Wootton's Salcido and Rubin. That could make for one stacked 800-meter run! But the advantage in any distance race has to go to Britt Eckerstrom.

Division III

The Division III crowns have boiled down to Northwood vs. Clarksburg, the two youngest schools in the county. There will be some serious speed between these two teams, especially with Derrick Powell, Avery Graham, and Mark Small running as fast they are. With more depth and the ability to stretch into the distance races and field events, advantage goes to both the Clarksburg boys and girls on their way to winning this division. In just their second year of existence, Clarksburg was the only team to win both a boys' and girls' division crown last cross country season and they have a chance to claim that honor again this spring.

Those who were surprised to see me pick Clarksburg boys over RM earlier in the season will also be surprised to see me pick Springbrook over RM this week. I can't say for sure who will win, but I can tell you Springbrook wants it more. RM has not looked like the same team so far this year, especially with Brendan Etzel sightings being so rare. Springbrook has more than enough to win this one from the sprints right up to the distance and in the field.

Division IV

The Damascus girls moved past a big hurdle by beating Gaithersburg last week. They will complete all of their dual meets this week and could be the first team to claim a division crown outright if they make it through undefeated. They will have to go through Poolesville and Quince Orchard first. Poolesville and QO will both only be competing in their second dual meet, and neither should be counting themselves out. While Damascus looks strong, if QO and/or Poolesville can deliver them a loss, it will open up pandora's box for the division IV girls' teams. If Poolesville does beat Damascus, and both beat QO, then Poolesville, Damascus, Paint Branch, and Gaithersburg will all be sitting with one loss and nobody will go undefeated.

Poolesville vs. Damascus should be one of the closer girls' match ups of the season. Both have a strong hurdler (rematch anyone?) and good distance runners. Where Damascus might have an edge in jumps, Poolesville should make up the difference in throwing events. Poolesville may have an edge in the sprints, but not by much. Quince Orchard will have the strongest distance runners, and a triple jumper, but won't be able to keep up with the other two teams in the remaining events. This one looks so close that I don't even want to pick it, but I'll predict Damascus to close the deal and win the division.