It's dual meet season and I will once again be predicting the outcome of every meet this season for your reading enjoyment. Some meets will be discussed in further detail. I try to go to at least one dual meet per week and for those meets that I don't go to, I try to learn about what happened some way or another. These articles tend to be brief, but quite a bit of time and thought actually goes into them. When making predictions, I'm not playing favorites or trying to please anyone. I'm really trying hard to pick all the winners. I take a lot of pride in it, but inevitably I miss a few. Try not to take anything personally.
Coaches, please email results to webmaster@mocorunning.com following your meets. I'll take results in any format that you can put in an email: html files, word files, excel files, etc. Many coaches like to send individual results for every runner which is great, but you could also type up results for just a few runners, like the top ten. At the very least, please send in the final score of every meet so we can keep updated standings on the front page of mocorunning all season.
Girls Standings
Churchill
0-0
Damascus
0-0
Northwest
0-0
Sherwood
0-0
Walt Whitman
0-0
Walter Johnson
0-0
B-CC
0-0
Blair
0-0
Gaithersburg
0-0
Quince Orchard
0-0
R. Montgomery
0-0
Wootton
0-0
Clarksburg
0-0
Einstein
0-0
Magruder
0-0
Poolesville
0-0
Rockville
0-0
Springbrook
0-0
Blake
0-0
Kennedy
0-0
Northwood
0-0
Paint Branch
0-0
Seneca Valley
0-0
Watkins Mill
0-0
Wheaton
0-0
Boys Standings
Churchill
0-0
Damascus
0-0
Northwest
0-0
Sherwood
0-0
Walt Whitman
0-0
Walter Johnson
0-0
B-CC
0-0
Blair
0-0
Gaithersburg
0-0
Quince Orchard
0-0
R. Montgomery
0-0
Wootton
0-0
Clarksburg
0-0
Einstein
0-0
Magruder
0-0
Poolesville
0-0
Rockville
0-0
Springbrook
0-0
Blake
0-0
Kennedy
0-0
Northwood
0-0
Paint Branch
0-0
Seneca Valley
0-0
Watkins Mill
0-0
Wheaton
0-0
Boys Picks:
Gaithersburg over Blair
Northwood over Watkins Mill
Paint Branch over Kennedy
Churchill over Whitman
Quince Orchard over B-CC
Richard Montgomery over Wootton
Einstein over Rockville
Clarksburg over Springbrook
Blake over Wheaton
Walter Johnson over Damascus
Poolesville over Magruder
Northwest over Sherwood
Girls Picks:
Blair over Gaithersburg
Northwood over Watkins Mill
Paint Branch over Kennedy
Whitman over Churchill
B-CC over Quince Orchard
Wootton over Richard Montgomery
Rockville over Einstein
Clarksburg over Springbrook
Blake over Wheaton
Walter Johnson over Damascus
Magruder over Poolesville
Northwest over Sherwood
Division I
The marquee matchup of the week is the Damascus versus Walter Johnson dual meet, but last weekend's Howard County Invitational "spoiled" this dual meet. The WJ boys proved to be far superior to Damascus at this point in the season, putting four in front of Damascus's #2 and five in front of their #3. The girls race was not much closer. Third place Damascus scored over twice as many points as second place Walter Johnson. With home field advantage at Cabin John Park, this is going to be a tough one for Damascus who moved up to Division I this year.
Churchill was the surprise boys team of the Magruder Invitational. Their returning runners improved a great deal over the summer and their three newcomers in the top five give them a powerful squad that should handle the Whitman boys whether Andrew Palmer runs or not (I wouldn't count on him running). The Whitman girls, on the other hand, have a great team that has been practicing for over four weeks with no racing. I can only imagine they are dying to get out there and race.
Sherwood beat out the Northwest boys 182 to 184 at the Magruder Invitational, but in a dual meet, Northwest would have won 28 to 29. Sherwood has a good top three, but not as much depth as Northwest. These are two pretty evenly matched teams. The girls race however is not as evenly matched. The Northwest girls should win convincingly.
Division II
The Wootton boys are better this year, but Richard Montgomery is a tough first opponent to go up against. Wootton is looking kind of like RM last year - maybe a year away from doing some damage. The Wootton girls on the other hand, will be doing the damage against the RM girls.
Division III
There's a lot of buzz around the Poolesville boys this year and I'll admit that I'm buying into the hype. They should have three guys as good as Magruder's Mark Mechak and a few guys backing them up in the 18 minute range. It is questionable whether Nicolas Escobar will run due to an injury, which puts Magruder at a major disadvantage. The Magruder girls have improved a lot this year and shouldn't have trouble beating Poolesville.
Rockville moves up from division IV this year and has a matchup with Einstein. The Einstein boys should be able to handle them, but the Rockville girls showed they have their strongest team in years at the Magruder Invitational and should be able to handle a hobbling Einstein team.
Division IV
It looks like there are a lot of complete teams in division IV this year which is always a good thing, but the Northwood boys and girls appear to be the cream of the crop. With three boys as strong as almost any other team's #1 boy, they should be considered the favorite throughout the season. They have a young inexperienced girls team, but they were deeper last week than any other team in the division. As for their matchup with Watkins Mill last weekend, under a new coach, the Mill placed last in the boys race and did not have a complete girls team at the Magruder Invitational. It's another rebuilding year for the Wolverines, who went to the state meet just two years ago.
Name
Comments
Anonymous
Monday, September 14, 2009 08:56:04 PM
some interesting picks from kp....can whitman really take churchill? I wouldn't count wootton out against rm on the boys side. They should have more hype them poolesvile.
Anonymous
Monday, September 14, 2009 09:52:02 PM
If you take issue with anything in this prediction, i think kp has made it quite clear that he would prefer that you simply complain about it on facebook.
Sbtrack
Monday, September 14, 2009 11:30:06 PM
I agree with every pick lol, thats a first
Anonymous
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 05:58:39 PM
dmass is not running their "a" team tomorrow at wj
Anonymousw
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 09:31:45 PM
rm had a scare from wooton today, but maybe a scare was all they needed
Anonymous
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 09:55:50 AM
Why wouldnt Damascus run their A team against WJ. If you want to be the best, race the best.
