Girls Meet of Champions Preview

It’s Meet of Champions time.  10:00 AM Saturday February 26.  The Superbowl and World Series all rolled into one.  Okay, the food at the bubble is not as good as it would be for a Superbowl party and Danser hasn’t bought ME a bagel or coffee yet, but there’s still time for him to redeem himself.  Yeah, we’re going to missing some athletes but the competition will still be great and there are a number of intriguing events.  I want to see Megan Venables do that again.  If you were there last week for the group 3 meet you know what I mean.  Just a flat out tour de force.  Can Ste’yce McNeil of Winslow win the 55H and the 400?  Will she attempt the 55 dash too?  I want to see Olivia Baker roar down that backstretch again the way she did in the 400 (2 times no less!) last week.  Can Baker (and maybe Veidis) make a run at the gold from the second or third fastest section of the 800?  And can the kids from Bergen County, Picciallo and Hampton push each other over 47 feet? 

Paramus Catholic's Myasia Jacobs would seem to be the unstoppable force in this event.  She ran a blindingly fast 6.85 at the Hispanic Games and a 7.41 in the 60 in Japan after travelling half way around the world, something she surely isn't used to.  Farquaharson and Mackey seem to be peaking at the right time.  It seems doubtful that McNeil would attempt a 55/55H/400 triple (and run the relay).  She is the least experienced at this distance with only  four 55s (2 trials and 2 finals in the sectionals and groups) on her resume and seems to be getting it rather quickly.  However, she is the top seed in the 55H and running in the flat 55 would seem to be out of the question. 

This one is very interesting with Neptune's Wilson opting for the meet in Seattle.  The spread in seed times between the next 8 is less than a second and a half.  McNeil attempting that double gets this one out of the way right off the bat.  Freshman Olivia Baker, who will run the 400/800 double was explosive down the backstrectch both times around at the group meet and looked to have more to give.  Veidis has a 55.11 oudoor PR but her seed time is the fastest she has run this year and she is still in the process of deciding whether she will run the 400 or 800 with the relay a definite.   Likewise Englese, Johnson and Roper all ran season bests last week and Tiernan and Duffey were near theirs.  If Duffey and/or Veidis opt for the 800 where Duffey is the top seed with Wilson and Joelle Amaral competing on the west coast, Red Bank Catholic junior Lindsey Bellaran would move into the fastest section.  She also ran a season best at the group meet and has an outdoor PR of 56.66. 

This race promises to start the girls' meet off with a bang as there is no clear-cut favorite.  Neither McNeil nor Baker will be shy about going after it early.  Veidis' training this year has focused on strength and able to move late.  The same can be said of Tiernan who was 4th in the group 4 800 race and Bellaran with her 2:13.07 800 PR.  Should be fun - don't get there late!

Others:

The race of "what ifs".  Amaral and Wilson are out; no ifs about that.  What if Duffey decides to run the 400 - will she be able to come back that quickly?  (800 is the 5th event, 400 is 1st).  What about Nicole Tiernan?  400/800 double or only one?  Then there is the curious case of Baker and Veidis.  Baker will definitely run both, Veidis is still trying to decide which way to go.  What if  they both run and as close as their seed times are, they end of up in the same section?  Could they make the race from there and run so fast against each other that one of them wins the race?  Baker simply did not run well in the 800 last week, something that hasn't happened much in her young career.  How will running the 400 first impact her?  What if Veidis goes only 400; can Baker run fast enough from the 1st or 2nd heat to win?  Veidis was relegated to the slowest section in the group 3 race due to a sign-in error and went out too hard trying to get a fast enough time to make MOC.  What about Megan Tiernan?  Last year she went 2:11.53 for the win.  Is she ready to drop another big one? 

Again, scratch Joelle Amaral and Ajee Wilson.  Molly Mac is certainly the class of the field in terms of PRs - she ran 4:51.13 at the outdoor MOC in 2010 and has a 4:54.79 full mile (about 4:53.2 for 1600 meters) this winter.  However, races aren't won on PRs and both Summit's Katie Watson and Randolph's Sam Jones have improved steadily this year.  Actually, Katie's improvement hasn't been steady - it's been dramatic.  On December 31 she ran 5:19.65 at the Passarelli Invitational which was her indoor PR.  She had an outdoor PR of 5:13.80 from 2010.  Then at the sectionals on 2/13 she produced a 5:02.1, a huge improvement.  Last week she was very impressive as she chased Ajee Wilson the entire race for her seed time, another PR.  An extremely gutsy performance.   Jones too has made impressive headway since the beginning of January when she ran 5:12.57.  The question on Jones is whether she runs this event or the 3200 where she is the 10th seed but seems to be more comfortable.  Marissa Ruskan, Mary Migton and Cayla Del Piano have real shots to go sub-5:00 if the pace is fast.  However, McNamara has to be very hungry for that elusive MOC title and it would be in her best interests to keep the pace moderate as she probably has the best closing speed in the field. 

I'm not sure what senior Megan Venables can do for an encore after her extremely impressive performance in the group 3 meet that was reiminiscent of her XC races last fall.   There are 8 runners with seed times faster than 11:10 but they will be hard pressed to stay with Venables if she performs the way she did last week.  Jones and Giordano have run 11:02.0 and 11:00.96 respectively this season and can push Kellner.  Right behind are Ciccitta, Iacone, Bischof, Corbosiero and Miller.

Richards will be on the west coast so junior Ste'yce McNeil would seem to be the clear favorite.  However, soph Iana Amersterdam's times have been dropping steadily each week and she has to be considered a real threat.  Dashana Ransome's performances have a similar weekly trend and this one would seem to be anything but a sure thing.  In such a short meet the 400 could have an impact on this race. 

Washington Township is the only team in the race with a time under 4:00 all season.  The Tiernan twins, key members of that relay will probably have run only one event before the relay keeping them fresh for this one.  Many of the teams behind them ran their season bests last week and  might be hard pressed to improve especially if they have team members who are doubling or tripling.   Still, it's a relay and getting the stick around the track isn't always that simple especially with a lot of teams of about the same ability. 

Since the beginning of January, Dayton's Alexa Williams has cleared at least 5-06 in every competition, hitting 5-08 in 4 of those 6 meets.  Paladino has failed to clear 5-06 only once in that time (5-04 in early January) with four 5-06s and one 5-08 clearance.   Aside from Williams and Paladino only Noel Jancewicz, Kelsey Evancho and Elly Wardle have gone 5-05 or higher this season (once each at 5-07, 5-06 and 5-05 respectively).

Theresa Picciallo (US #6) has almost 2 feet on the the second thrower, Bergen County rival Apresha Hampton (#11 US) but it is only a few weeks since she got to that level so it Hampton could make that jump too.  West Orange's Nia Barnes has improved virtually every week since the middle of December and Janice Rose of Delsea is already a 43-foot thrower.  Mariane Fadiga (West Windsor Plainsboro North) and Carrie Wasdyke (Jefferson) are both 40-foot t hrowers.   The shot will be held in the bubble as it alway is for the Meet of Champions.  Whether as the result of a better throwing surface, more juice from the crowd or both, the throws seem to get longer there.

This should be fun to watch.  Schweiger and Shih are within 3 inches of each other for the season and Muhaw, Sujansky and Skove are not far behind.  This one could turn out to be a real competition and the top seeds are not a lock.