Radnor girls await word on invite to national meet

"Honestly, when I was doing that ranking, I overrated them," Bloom said yesterday. "I was wrong. Radnor is not a top-10 national team, in my opinion."

To read Rick O'Brien's full article: "Radnor girls await word on invite to national meet" in the Thur 11/16 Philadelphia Inquirer, click here.

To see the October 31 Super 25 rankings with Radnor at US#6, click here.

To see the last Friday's NTN Northeast Rankings with Radnor as #3, click here.

The NTN process for ranking and team selection is here.

Have an opinion on the the story and Radnor? Then share your (civil/logical/persuasive) thoughts with the
NTN Rankings Committee, and be sure to copy don@penntrackxc.com.

Below is the information PennTrackXC.com has sent to the NTN Committee. Feel free to use what you want or to create your own case for Radnor.

Hilton's #3 girl ran 1:17 slower at States last Sat than vs. Radnor. Sawyer made the most dramatic improvement, while the others made modest or no gain. Liz Milewski of Radnor made the most improvement on their team, running just over 18 at Lehigh for 2nd in the deep District 1 meet. The freshman who was #1 for them at Warwick Valley is now running #4 behind she and Hannah Granger. June Farley, who was not even on varsity at Warwick Valley, is now #3 and their #4 in NY, Katie Lally, is now #6. They have improved. Head to head against the same Hilton team from September, it is too close to call. If Hilton runs similarly to September last Saturday, they win at NY States.

Marc's instinct on Milewski at the front is correct. However, because of the nature of the course and the low margin for error in Hershey, she and her teammates were told not to be in the front group at a mile. It is similar to VCP in that you can lose the race in the first mile if you go out on the basically downhill too fast. Radnor raced to win the meet, not for individual glory.

You can see by the splits below, Milewski and Granger were in the 2nd pack. In fact, Milewski was behind Granger through two miles. This strategy was taken so that they did not lose one girl over a very tough first two miles. When Milewski descended the last hill at 2.5 miles, she had the green light to go, and moved up to 19th (9 points). Their spread at a mile of 21 seconds also indicates that they were running more as a controlled pack than racing all out.

Below are some of the results referenced above.

WAVE MANIA
WARRICK VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
WARWICK, NY
SITE OF THE 2006 NYSPHSAA XC CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006

GIRLS DIVISION 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. 59 HILTON (18:41.2 93:26.1)
==========================================
1 2 Allison Sawyer 17:55.6
2 4 Caroline Schultz 18:03.1
3 7 Shelby Herman 18:16.9
4 19 Sarah Ritchie 19:27.4
5 27 Lindsay Crocetti 19:43.1
6 ( 32) Ashley Jones 19:47.0

2. 68 RADNOR, PA (18:59.5 94:57.3)
==========================================
1 8 Kelyn Freedman 18:39.5
2 10 Hannah Granger 18:46.7
3 11 Liz Milewski 18:47.3
4 14 Katie Lally 19:05.7
5 25 Shannon Holm 19:38.3
6 ( 52) Annie Dyroff 20:35.6
7 ( 89) Nicole Erkis 22:02.0

NEW YORK STATES, 11/11/06
Warwick Valley HS
1 1 1 529 Allison Sawyer-12 Hilton 17:36.1 152.0 152
2 2 2 250 Hannah Davidson-11 Saratoga Springs 17:41.5 150.2 150
5 4 5 530 Caroline Schultz-12 Hilton 17:57.3 144.9 145
7 6 7 343 MacKenzie Carter-9 Fayetteville-Manlius 18:15.1 139.0 139
8 7 8 344 Kathryn Buchan-10 Fayetteville-Manlius 18:16.7 138.4 138
14 11 14 251 CassieGoutos-9 Saratoga Springs 18:43.3 129.6 130
15 12 15 252 AlyshaMcElroy-12 Saratoga Springs 18:45.8 128.7 129
21 13 21 531 Sarah Ritchie-10 Hilton 18:59.7 124.1 124
22 14 22 346 Jessica Hauser-12 Fayetteville-Manlius 19:00.1 124.0 124
29 17 29 345 Courtney Chapman-8 Fayetteville-Manlius 19:11.7 120.1 120
39 21 39 256 Katelyn Lowe-10 Saratoga Springs 19:24.7 115.8 116
42 23 42 348 Hillary Hooley-12 Fayetteville-Manlius 19:29.9 114.0 114
46 25 46 534 Shelby Herman-11 Hilton 19:33.6 112.8 113
48 27 48 254 Liz Ochse-12 Saratoga Springs 19:37.5 111.5 112
51 28 51 533 Lindsay Crocetti-10 Hilton 19:44.4 109.2 109
53 30 53 253 Brianne Bellon-9 Saratoga Springs 19:45.0 109.0 109
54 31 54 532 Ashley Jones-11 Hilton 19:45.7 108.8 109

PIAA States 11/4/06

One Mile

1 Radnor (1) 87 9 10 17 25 26 37 145 12:04 21
2 Emmaus (11) 102 16 18 19 21 28 42 134 12:09 12
609 1 Lara Crofford, Sr 5:36 11:36 5:48 Big Spring (3)
628 2 Neely Spence, Jr 5:28 11:37 5:48 Shippensburg (3)
547 3 Chanelle Price, Jr 5:28 11:37 5:48 Easton (11)
334 4 1 Allison Sikora, Sr 5:33 11:37 5:48 Council Rock North 1
374 5 Kate Ross, Jr 5:28 11:38 5:49 Central Bucks East 1
452 6 2 Natalie Bower, So 5:29 11:38 5:49 Latrobe (7)
488 7 Anna Yoney, Sr 5:31 11:38 5:49 Norwin (7)
505 8 3 Sarah Lonzi, Jr 5:29 11:39 5:49 Bradford Area (9)
385 9 Kerry Swayne, Sr 5:29 11:40 5:50 Hatboro-Horsham (1)
594 10 4 Rachel Wong, Jr 5:30 11:40 5:50 Northern York (3)
625 11 Jordan Jenkins, So 5:27 11:43 5:51 New Oxford (3)
613 12 Emily Ballantyne, So 5:33 11:44 5:52 Dallastown (3)
577 13 5 Kassie Meholick, Sr 5:29 11:44 5:52 Cedar Cliff (3)
611 14 Marie Lamparter, Sr 5:35 11:46 5:53 Carlisle (3)
342 15 6 Carly Hamond, Jr 5:36 11:47 5:53 Wc Henderson (1)
620 16 Sydney Clark, Jr 5:39 11:48 5:54 Hempfield (3)
632 17 Kristy Ulrich, Jr 5:36 11:49 5:54 Susquenita (3)
601 18 7 Sarah Morrison, Sr 5:37 11:49 5:54 Chambersburg (3)
381 19 Hannah Kligman, Sr 5:41 11:51 5:55 Conestoga (1)
585 20 8 Paige Anderson, Sr 5:32 11:51 5:55 Cumberland Valley (3)
631 21 Jamie McCollum, Sr 5:36 11:52 5:56 Susquenita (3)
327 22 9 Hannah Granger, Sr 5:35 11:53 5:56 Radnor (1)
624 23 Justine Barr, Fr 5:44 11:54 5:57 Lampeter-Strasburg 3
326 24 10 Liz Milewski, Sr 5:35 11:54 5:57 Radnor (1)

Finish
1 Radnor (1) 81 9 12 15 18 27 36 147 19:17 44
2 Emmaus (11) 102 10 16 22 24 30 41 128 19:26 44

PIAA District 1 10/25 @ Lehigh
1 1 Kerry Swayne, Sr* 5:43 18:01 5:48 Hatboro-Horsham
2 2 Liz Milewski, Sr* 5:44 18:06 5:50 Radnor