Even's Insight

Let us take a look SMAA Preview Week 4

"Even's Insight" is our latest feature at MaineTrackXC. Each week Westbrook girls coach Tim Even will preview each meet in the SMAA, be sure to check it out. 

Bonny Eagle, Marshwood, Westbrook @Portland

The Westbrook Blue Blazes had a great weekend last week at the FOC meet up in Belfast. Senior Saad Zackaria posted a top 30 finish with a personal best 16:46 which helped lead his team to a 15th place overall finish. Josh Lombardo and James Phelps also ran to sub 18:00 performances with 4 other boys entering the 18:00 realm for the first time. With Zackaria leading the way, the Blazes will look to improve off of the FOC meet and run to a top finish at Deering Oaks on Friday. Marshwood will challenge Westbrook after they had a PR party of their own on Saturday. 10 of their 17 listed boys ran season or personal best up in Belfast with Matt Pritchett, Brody Bate, and Biruk Moore leading the way with sub 18:00 performances. This should be a fun team battle to watch with the Blue Blazes holding the edge due to team depth.


Marshwood busted into the rankings this week at #11 after an excellent performance up at Belfast last weekend. Marshwood's senior heavy team went 14 for 14 with season bests on Saturday proving that the Hawks have arrived and are ready to compete for a top spot at Regionals and States. Maddy Doyle was outstanding and led the team, finishing 3rd overall and was the #2 Mainer to cross the finish line. After running 19:04, Maddy is one of the favorites to win the Class A title in a few weeks, and will get a challenge from the Westbrook duo of Halee Phelps and Gabbi Pabst. Phelps and Pabst continued their stellar 2014 with sub 20:00 performances at the Festival of Champions. They led the young Blazes squad to a 13th place finish, finishing a few points behind the surging Hawks of Marshwood. This should be a good team battle to watch. Also, Marston of Bonny Eagle dropped out at the Festival of Champions because of a bad ankle. If she is healthy to race this week, the defending state champion will certainly enter the conversation for the individual win.

 

Noble, Scarborough, South Portland @ McAuley

The Red Storm of Scarborough came away at the top Maine team last week, edging Falmouth by a close margin (1 point in the Maine team scoring). They have been the best boys program in Maine so far this fall and will look to keep the train rolling on Friday. Jacob Terry and Co., have made light work of most of the teams they have faced thus far. With their top end talent, they have a chance to perfect score the three-team field after putting their top 6 in the top 50 among Class A schools last week.



The Scarborough girls had a big performance on Saturday placing as the 3rd led by the efforts of Bethany Sholl who finished 33rd overall and 5th in the freshman race. This young squad just keeps getting better and should have a big second half if they keep running the way they did last week. South Portland is coming together nicely as well, and have a legitimate state title contender in Casey Loring. Look for these two teams to have a competitive meet over at McAuley on Friday with Loring, Volan, and Sholl battling it out for the win.

Gorham, Massabesic, TA @Cheverus

One of the more competitive team matchups on the boys will be on the campus of Cheverus High School Friday. Massabesic has started hot and just gotten hotter as the season has gone on. Michael Aboud has been a force and ran a big PR of 16:24 last week up at the Festival of Champions. Look for him to go for the individual win. Jesse Southard and Ben Foster of Gorham hope to challenge Aboud and help their strong team close the gap on the tough Mustangs of Massabesic. Not to be left out are the Cheverus Stags who have also been very solid all year and will be a part of the team battle lead by Parker Montano. All three teams figure to be in the mix for a chance to return to Belfast on November 1st, and with the season winding down, every performance is crucial for athlete’s confidence. This will be the boys matchup to watch in the SMAA this week. Watch out for Cam Mondor of TA who has run well this year and figures to be a qualifier for the State Meet.


The Massabesic girls were the top Class A school at the Festival of Champions this week, narrowly beating out both Falmouth and Scarborough. While they were missing their #5 runner last weekend, senior Maquila Dimastrantonio chalks up their success so far to an “interchangeable top 5”. Their top 5 combination has not been in the same order so far this year, and they run as a tight pack which is hard for any team to contend with in quad meets like these. They will try to continue that trend on their road to what could possibly be a State Championship year. Cheverus has been strong so far this year, and is getting great 1-2 running from Dostie and Caso, and their 3-4-5 combo has moved up well all year long. Look for them to be competitive. An individual to watch is Anna Slager of Gorham who has been on fire since her loss to Maddy Doyle 2 weeks back. She has run 19:31 and 19:15 in back to back weeks, and is the easy favorite to win outright this weekend. Also watch for Leblanc and Runnells of TA.

Biddeford, Sanford, Windham @Deering

Windham has been impressive all year and had a good weekend up at the Festival of Champions on Saturday finishing 7th. Ben Breton finished 23rd to lead the way with a 16:44. This top end Class A team will get a push from a rising Deering team that should compete well with the title contending talent of Yayhe Hussein. If Deering’s pack and #5 can move up, they will push Windham on Friday for the win. Watch for Hussein and Breton to battle with Iid Sheikh-Yusef of Deering right their as well.


The Windham girls had a solid day up in Belfast and will look to go for their 2nd win of the season on the streets of Portland. Julia Rand has led the way and has put together a fine senior season for herself, and will challenge Lucy Tumavicus of Deering for the individual win. Tumavicus has been tough as a freshman, and is leading this rising young team at Deering High School. Beware of the Rams in the years to come..tough team in the making.