11 Questions

Etrain11. 11 questions. Works for me. I figured I'd offer up a few questions I'm eager to get answered in this indoor track season. So here we go.

1. What can we expect from Alex Moran?
The guy was a straight stud last year, didn't perform as high as I thought he might at indoor states but he ran very quick times from cross through to outdoors, and even put a bit of a scare in Ryan Gil at the Baldwin Invite. But Moran took a bit of a step back this XC season. That isn't always negative (see Mike Palmisano), but it isn't always postive (see Vince McNally)

2. How much do Abington and CB West have left after their record setting winter last year?
Abington loses all their big guns, as does CB West with guys like Moran, Manley, Bee, McGarvey, Taylor, Watson and Smith all moving on to the big leagues at college. BUT most top relays end up surprising the next year even when they have nothing left, how about CB South who stayed competitive even after losing every piece of their relay not named Mallon. Abington tends to find new kids to emerge as studs in the 4 and the 8 every year, and I anticipate a similar thing again this season.

3. How do the AA guys factor into indoors?
Most years these schools don't have a big impact. They just don't have big enough programs and budgets to have successful indoor seasons. But this year the AA talent is especially deep, so they could make things interesting if they find their way to Penn State in March.

4. How will Sam Hibbs and Conner Quinn respond to their XC seasons?
One guys stock is way up, the other is way down. Hmmm. Ironically I got their stock flipping back come indoors. Quinn has always been more of a cross guy than track (check last years results for confirmation). Hibbs hasn't had a real indoor season yet in his career, but he's got talent and the end of his XC season certainly didn't show his potential.

5. Will any PA guys make Millrose?
Moran, Willig, Wilson, and of course Magaha are all in the mix to make it to the big dance in New York. It may not be on the cool Madison Square Garden track anymore, but that doesn't mean its not a big deal to make it to this meet. Magaha may get in with an autobid, and Willig definitely has a shot if he goes for it.

6. How fast can Dustin Wilson run without the relays?
Last year he went for the DMR. Nice gesture, but it ended up costing him possibly state gold and definitely state hardware. This year he's not tied down by anything except for his trip to San Diego. He could go for the mile and the 3k which would be interesting, but my bet is he goes for the 3k and hammers out something pretty quick. 5k is his real event so at NBN, that's where stuff will go down.

7. How will the state XC champs do in track?
Yeah I almost started writing this about like 5 other teams before I remember that it was North Penn that was state champs in the fall. I know, we are all still surprised by this, but they are always good at track and they return a lot of pieces from a very solid 4x8 a year ago. Trimble is one of the big picks for a break out track season and look at the history of North Penn 800 runners for proof.

8. Who is Brad Rivera?
I'll tell you who he is, he's a 1:53 800 runner from district's last year. Remember the name.

9. Who will be a big sleeper out West?
How about another Penn Hills 800 runner? They usually do pretty well and Will Baily has been doing pretty well since last spring. He's a very fast 1:53 split kind of guy with big potential to run fast like Rumble and Anderson.

10. How will the PCL fair indoors?
There are always a lot of solid PCL performances indoor, O'Hara is obviously a very good team, but lets face it this question centers around Tom Coyle and LaSalle. Coyle seems to have taken the next step this year as a top runner. He was leading a lot of the states race and is unafraid of the big moment. LaSalle has had their share of big DMR moments in the past as well (see Dan Lowry, current all american) and Andrew Stone is a stud along side Coyle. PCL doesn't play.

11. Megaha?
There have been a lot of knocks on this guy and heck most of the time I've thrown the first stone, but he proved a lot of doubters wrong this past fall with a big XC season. I will be the first one to say I was wrong. Last indoors was kind of a big letdown. He didn't perform the way I thought he would and I was big on his stock. But like XC, I think he will turn things around and prove some doubters wrong. Magaha should in theory run close to the state records in the 800, mile, and maybe even the 3k. It's a matter of what Ned Willig does really. But I heard Ned Willig is going DMR again. So .... will Magaha really run all that fast all by himself out front? Hey I just ask the questions, I don't have the answers ....