Photo by Patty Morgan
A Girls | Vincentian Academy can make moves in the state
D7-A Girls Preseason Team Rankings
Vincentian Academy will look to follow up on its tremendous 2015 with all seven runners from last year's varsity team back. Up front, there's Marianne Abdalah, who will be searching for her fourth straight individual state title. They are guaranteed the low stick there regardless.
After that, Vincentian has a pair of sophomores, who made a big splash as freshman last year. Marissa Canzian and Katherine Fedko will be called on to continue those impressive seasons into this fall. The team was fifth in the state last year, but only 16 points off third. With the team's returners (and Central Cambria moving to AA), the opportunity is there for VA to make a move towards the front. The key is improving those four and five spots.
Laurel was second at districts last year, earning them one of the three state spots. They lost Alison Filer from last year's team (she was seventh at districts), but they return six girls from last year's squad and all are seniors. With that experience, it's going to be tough keeping that squad away from Hershey. They have some good depth and they'll look to challenge Vincentian up front with some good depth.
Neshannock, Northgate and Seton-LaSalle will look to get into the mix for the third team spot. Riverview is the wild card of the bunch. They had some nice young talent last year, but they'll need to find replacements for three graduated seniors to comprise a team that can get into the mix for a Hershey slot.