Briarwood Invitational - Boys' Meet Preview
CHALLENGE RACE
PA and New Jersey will clash in the Challenge Race at Briarwood. Hadddonfield's Derek Gess, who won the "Varsity B" race last season. Gess clocked a 4:20 in the 1600 meters this past track season and looks to be the one to beat on Saturday.
Malvern Prep's Peter Borger was a narrow second to Gess in that race last season. The pair will meet again on Saturday and Borger will hope to reverse that result. But also watch for Episcopal's Elias Lindgren. He's coming off a good spring and should factor in to this race.
Msgr. Bonner & Abp. Prendie's Anthony Harper, who open his season with a win at Upper Darby will go for another victory on Saturday. He's on the "bubble" of the top 25 state rankings and a good performance good very well bump him up. William Tennent's Sean Rahill is a strong runner in the field. Rahill was 20th in the Championship race last season and will look to move up in the field in the Challenge Race this season.
Other NJ boys to watch for in this field include Peddie School's Akshay Mody and Highland Regional's Ben Woodward.
The team race here is wide open, so it will interesting to see who emerges come Saturday.
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
The boys' Championship Race will be an interesting one as some of PA's top teams and NJ's top team will do battle.
But first, the individual race. This will be the first meeting between league/district rivals Rusty Kujdych of Neshaminy and Ryan Campbell of Council Rock North. Kujdych (PA#1) was third in a very close race here last season, but he's the top returner this weekend. After a strong race at PTXC9, he'll be looking for a win this week. This is Campbell's (PA#3) first invite of the season. He was seventh at Briarwood last year. This will be a matchup to watch for.
From New Jersey, the Indian Hills duo of Chris Leymeister and Steven Fiumefreddo and the Delsea Regional duo of George Tenenberg and Colin Kane will come across state lines and look to get in on the race up front.
Council Rock North, the top-ranked PA team heading into the weekend, also has strong runners in Kevin Ehrgott, Sam Earley, and Ethan Koza set to toe the line this weekend. LaSalle is led by Evan Addison (PA#16) up front, who should contend for a place inside the top five.
Now that team race. As we said, this will be our first look at a full CR North squad. Campbell and Koza didn't race with the team at Mill Street last week. North is the defending AAA state champs. They lost some pieces to last year's team, but return some talent, so it will be interesting to see where they stand in early September.
PA#5 LaSalle will debut its full squad for the first time in a invite setting. They should compete for the win. Delsea Regional enters at NJ#4. After missing MOCs last season, this should be a motivated group. Indian Valley (NJ) was second in the Championship Race last year, just behind Cardinal O'Hara and should be strong again this year. Twin Valley will be a team to watch as well. TV should be a threat in District 3 this season and they were third at DeSales last weekend.