Altoona Mt. Lion Invitational - Meet Preview
Saturday will mark the invite season debut of Lauren Shaffer. Last year, as a Portage Area freshman, she ran to second place at the state meet. She'll aim to open up with a win at Altoona to start off her sophomore season. Shaffer will face a tough field, though, that includes Saint Marys Area's Samantha Hayes and the Westmont Hilltop duo of Bridget Barbato and Ellie Dorian. It should be a close race up front.
The team will be interesting. Saint Marys Area will be a squad to keep an eye on in this race, led by Hayes. But Westmont Hilltop has been on the rise this season and sit at PA-1A No. 3 entering the weekend. Forest Hills is another talented AA team in the field. So this will be a very good team battle between these squads -- all looking to make a statement on Saturday.
In the boys' race, Westmont Hilltop's Nick Fetzer aims to keep his season rolling. He ran a PR of 15:49 at Penn State last week for fourth and won at SFU a week before that. He should receive a nice challenge from Northern Bedford's Ian Zimmerman and Ian Sherlock, who both opened up strong at Lock Haven back in Week 1. Bedford's Van May and Hollidaysburg's Ben Love should also be in the mix near the front.
Altoona Area looks to be the team to beat. The hosts had a gap of 34 second at Big Valley and then just 19 seconds at PTXC 11, so look for these boys to work together on their home course. Northern Bedford will look to challenge Altoona along with Hollidaysburg Area.