DESALES INVITATIONAL
October 18, 2014 @ McNeely Lake Park in Louisville, KY
Hosted by DeSales
The DeSales Invitational has been host to many great runners over recent years. In 2012, the Dowdy brothers came to town and posted identical times of 17:22. In 2011, a Sam Meredith led Trinity team showed why they are a perennial powerhouse when they swept the top twelve places in the race. In that same year, Karly Gawarecki stole the show, which for her was just a preview of things to come. All the way back in 2009, University of Kentucky star, Jake Wildenmann ran a blazing 16:24 at this historical meet. This year, the legacy of impressive performances should continue and it will be very exciting to see how it unfolds.
Boys Varsity
Robert Rupp, the #3 runner in Class 3A will not participating this weekend so someone else will have the chance to step up and make a name for themselves. There will be a handful of runners that should be in contention for the win and as if now there is no clear cut favorite. Austin Moran (Butler), Ben Currey (Ballard), Jiovanni Rivera (North Hardin), and Carter Cantwell (North Hardin) all look to take advantage of Rupp’s absence and make a statement at this prestigious event. After finishing fifth earlier in the season at Rumble through the Jungle, Moran has recently been running in the mid-seventeens but this should be a good opportunity for him to bounce back. He will have his hands full with Ben Currey who is one of the top freshmen in the state. Currey beat Moran early in the season at Shelby County but Moran edged Curry out at Rumble through the Jungle so this should be a hotly contested matchup. North Hardin duo Jiovanni Rivera and Carter Cantwell have identical season best times this year and if one of them can identify themselves as North Hardin’s clear number two runner then that will help the Trojan’s when region rolls around. Atherton’s Marcus Grady and North Hardin’s Zach Carr both look to dip down into the sixteens and gain momentum at this very crucial point in the season. Barring any surprises, North Hardin looks to be in control of the team competition with four runners projected to finish in the top eight. Louisville Ballard and Butler will battle it out for second and third, they are pretty equal through their front three so the positioning of their fourth and fifth runners should be the determining factor.
Girls Varsity
Mercy’s Brianna Wolken, who is currently ranked #2 in Class 3A should come away with her fourth win of the season on Saturday. Wolken is only two seconds behind Sacred Heart’s Maggie Allen for the fastest time in Class 3A this year but it will be very challenging to surpass Allen at this particular meet. It doesn’t look like there will be anybody that will come remotely close to pushing Wolken on Saturday so she will most likely be running alone through a majority of the race. Without any close competition it will be extremely hard for Wolken to get to that 18:12 mark but crazier things have happened. Mary Robinson (Mercy), Alex Girten (Owensboro), Rebecca Facktor (Ballard), and Kelsey Phillips (Bullitt Central) will all be in the mix to round out the top five. Robinson has been running her best times of the season lately; she finished second at the Hillbilly Run a few weeks ago and looks to continue her string of recent success. Girten looks to dip down into the nineteen’s for the first time this year which should give her confidence heading into a tough 3A Region 1 matchup in a few weeks. Facktor and Phillips have run very similar times throughout the season and it should come right down to the wire between those two. A few dark horses to keep an eye on are Katie Gilbert (North Hardin) and ninth grader Abby Jaworski (Mercy). Both have shown steady improvement throughout the year and this could be a breakout race for one of them. Mercy, North Hardin, and Owensboro look to be the trio of teams that will fight it out for those top three spots with Mercy having a slight edge over the other two.