Monroe County Girls XC - Preseason Team View

TullyRunners just posted their preseason look at the XC teams around New York State, and since our XC camp started this week, it seemed like a good time to take a look ahead at the Monroe County 2013 XC season.  Today we will be looking at the girls, from a team perspective.

Canandaigua certainly suffered the greatest loss to graduation, losing 3 girls ranked in the top 31 in Monroe County last year, and they did not have as much depth as some of the other teams.  Thomas lost 3 of the top 57, including Eileen, but they had a number of girls not far behind.  Mendon lost 3 of the top 63, but not only did they have decent depth, they also had an off-season transfer: Mary Barger, one of the top F-M runners from last year has moved to their part of the Pittsford school district.  Irondequoit loses their 1-2 punch that made them competitive in many meets last year.  R-H also loses two top runners, and we lost Val and Katie from the top of the Varsity ranks.

Ignoring the shuffling that happened during track season, here is what the returning team scores look like at this time:

1	Penfield	70
2	Rush Henrietta	79
3	Mendon	106
4	Honeoye Falls Lima	128
5	Fairport	154
6	Hilton	163
7	Thomas	199
8	Schroeder	221
9	Canandaigua	245
10	Victor	271
11	Sutherland	280
12	Brighton	307
13	Batavia	344
14	Irondequoit	406
15	East Irondequoit	431
16	Brockport	485
17	Gates Chili	498
18	Spencerport	539
19	Odyssey	560
20	Athena	563
21	Churchville Chili	580
22	Arcadia	623
23	East Rochester	inc
24	Olympia	inc

So, we start out in the 8th spot, with quality teams just behind us (Canandaigua, Victor and Sutherland), and many of our usual nemesis just ahead of us (Thomas, Hilton and Fairport).

TullyRunners sees things a fair amount differently, for the state-wide rankings they have:

7. Penfield 400

17. Mendon 495

22t. Rush-Henrietta 550

22t. Honeoye Falls-Lima 550

27. Hilton 560

Among Class A, they have Hilton 11th and Fairport 23rd.  I think that is more of a tip of the hat to Hilton's past performance than a reflection of where the two teams stand based on last year's results.  And at the top, I expect a very tight battle (again) between Penfield (5th on Tully) and R-H (9th).

In Class B, I expect HF-L (13th on Tully) to provide a strong challenge to Mendon (9th).

All the Cool Kids Were There

The Webster Distance Runners camp opened with a very nice turnout yesterday.  If you were not able to attend, new campers are still welcome for the remaining sessions.

The heat threatened to postpone opening day - as of 4:05pm, the "Real Feel" temperature was still 100 degrees, but it dropped to 94 by 5:10pm and we were good to go, although with scaled-back intensity.

Yesterday's clinic covered safety, so this included timely information on some signs of heat illness, in addition to the good practices usually discussed, such as running facing traffic, ideally on roads with wider shoulders and lower speed limits, and making sure that someone knows your planned route, especially if you are running alone.

Camp Starts Today!

So, the off-season has now ended for me.  While most of the team has been faithfully attending Captains' practices, I have been limited to parenting duties, but today I return to coaching.

Today is especially exciting as camp opens under a new umbrella: Webster Distance Runners is now an official USATF running club and will be the group that administers and conducts the summer running camp.  Coach Brust and I will run the camp in much the same fashion as in past years.  Val has volunteered to be an assistant coach for the camp, and we quite excited by this addition (I am still searching for additional volunteers, if any readers are interested).  I also expect to have at least one guest coach make an appearance to provide a different perspective on the sport.

I'm looking forward to seeing the 2013 XC team at Webster Park by 5:30 this afternoon!