Kevin's Boys Picks Paint Branch over Seneca Valley Magruder over Wootton Watkins Mill over Wheaton Sherwood over Springbrook Blair over Rockville Blair over Blake Blake over Rockville Einstein over Kennedy Clarksburg over Northwood WJ over Churchill Whitman over Poolesville Damascus over B-CC Northwest over QO RM over Gaithersburg
Kevin's Girls Picks Paint Branch over Seneca Valley Magruder over Wootton Watkins Mill over Wheaton Sherwood over Springbrook Blair over Rockville Blair over Blake Rockville over Blake Kennedy over Einstein Clarksburg over Northwood Churchill over WJ Whitman over Poolesville Damascus over B-CC Northwest over QO RM over Gaithersburg
Division I
The results from last week's tri meet at Northwest screamed that the Northwest girls were without a doubt ready to take on any challengers. By taking down Richard Montgomery and Poolesville convincingly, they are well on their way to the Division I title. This week, they will take on undefeated Quince Orchard, who should give them a challenge in the distance events, but in the end, the well-rounded Northwest team will give QO their first loss.
Whitman will host Poolesville in its debut. With two losses, the Poolesville girls' hopes of winning the division are all but lost, but they are still a strong, young team. This will be an interesting matchup to see if the Poolesville girls can use their versatility to work their way around Whitman's star athletes.
Both Gaithersburg and Richard Montgomery boys had good warm-up meets last week, but they both know that the real fireworks will be this week when the two face off at Gaithersburg. Gaithersburg recently won the Cougar Relays, but expect RM to stack every event for the victory after improving on their weaker field athletes from last year.
Division II
Expect Damascus to continue to roll in their matchup against B-CC this week. Damascus has some interesting matchups down the road, but this week versus B-CC should be business as usual for both the boys and girls of Damascus.
Both the Watkins Mill boys and girls should experience success over the Wheaton teams in their debut. The WM boys looked especially strong at the Cougar Relays.
WJ versus Churchill is always a fun matchup. Expect Churchill girls to do whatever it takes to win. The boys matchup is a little more unpredictable. If WJ loads up on all of their weapons, the advantage goes to WJ.
Division III
I still don't know who won between Sherwood or Kennedy boys last week, but I must move on. Sherwood against Springbrook is a great matchup, but I believe that Sherwood will have the larger and stronger boys team.
Einstein vs. Kennedy boys and girls is also unpredictable in my mind. Both teams are small and have an equal number of talented athletes. I give the edge to Einstein for the boys because the two teams are evenly matched except for Einstein's strength in the distance events. Kennedy's talented girls should win out over Einstein's.
A talented Magruder team will make its debut against Wootton. The Magruder boys should have no problem picking apart the Wootton boys, but the girls matchup is very interesting. The Patriots have several talented freshmen already contributing to their varsity corps. I give the edge to Magruder mostly based on a hunch.
Division IV
Last week's battle between Paint Branch and Blair boys was even closer than I anticipated. For undefeated Blair, it should be smooth sailing for the rest of the journey. Paint Branch can only hope to win out and hope that Blair falters. Both teams should make it through this week with no additional losses.
On the girls side, Paint Branch took down Blair with their strength in the sprints and field last week. PB should blow by Seneca Valley this week, while Blair will have to put up a fight against Rockville's strong sprint squad. Interestingly, a Blair victory would only be good news for the PB squad who will face Rockville later in the season.
Clarksburg was the surprise team of week 1 when they beat the Blake boys and girls. Clarksburg will try to remain undefeated against Northwood. This is an interesting matchup between two schools with no seniors. I give the edge to the Clarksburg squad because of some of the athletes and coaches that they inherited from other teams this year and a strong showing at the Cougar Relays.
