Who to Watch: Eastern Indoors
As we get closer to this weekend's Eastern Indoors Invite, we need to take a deeper dive into who is making the trip to Louisville.
A lot of exciting athletes will be taking over the Norton Learning Center on Saturday looking to leave a fast time as we begin the slow descent to the Indoor State Championships.
First, let's go over some key performers to watch in the Boy's races. As a former distance athlete myself, I have slight partiality to the excellent field that we will see on Saturday.
In the Mile, we will see 10 athletes with sub 4:15 qualifying marks including the defending 1A and 2A State Champions in Roman Sierpina of Louisville Collegiate and Riku Sugie of Thomas Nelson. Out of staters Jackson Wyatt and Zachary Youngblood are also making the trip up and have sub 4:10 seed times.
Elsewhere in the distance world, we will see Lafayette's Xavier Richardson attack a sub 9 minute attempt. He will be challenged of course by Indiana's Jackson Nolan and Lincoln Herald from Grant County.
We should also get a facility record scare in the 800 as Ryder Ortner and Jackson Wyatt look to break Keagan Smith's 1:53.64 from 2 weeks ago.
In the sprint events, look for Ryan Jones and Will McCauley of Trinity (Louisville) to take center stage as they come in sub 7 in the 60m dash and sub 22 in the 200m dash.
St. Xavier's James Burnett will also be making an appearance as he looks to jumpstart his season.
On the field event side of things, the men's pole vault will sure delight with 16 foot jumper Canon Kinder making his presence felt. Woodford County's Jackson Gray and Kaizen Pole Vault's Drew Masters will also show themselves in the event with PR's above 14' 6" to their names.
The jumping and throwing events are also going to be very exciting with several high class athletes competing.
It should make for an ALLTIME Eastern Indoors Invite.
Stepping it now to the ladies, we will begin with the sprints as Oldham County's Clara Warrick looks to remain perfect. She has been dominant this season, beating every challenger who has attempted to defeat her. She will be tested in both events, however, as Male's Grace Bethel and Skylar Cunningham from ATL Zoom Athletics come in with exceptional seed times.
On the distance side of things, we are in for an absolute treat as 16:19 5ker, Abby Faith Cheeseman comes to town where she will be contesting the Mile against the best Kentucky has to offer. This mile contest will feature Addison Moore from Woodford County as well as several top out of state athletes in Calysta Garmer and Jazzlyn Garmer. Also in the mix will be Carolina Areheart who enters with a 4:48 PR. This should be an unbelievable race.
Elsewhere on the distance side of things is the 800m which will feature 9 sub 2:15 girls. Campbell County's Olivia Holbrook leads the pack where she will be joined by the aforementioned Addison Moore, Assumption's Mabel George, and Collins's Emma Kendall. The race also features several out of state athletes which should make for an exciting day in Louisville.
The 2 mile race features 3 sub 10:40 out of staters in Zahara Bernal, Molly Farrell, and Efa Paschka as well as Thomas Nelson's Baili Hoten. With 10 girls with sub 11 seed times, this race should be fast and fun as we wind down our evening.
On the field event side of things, the women's pole vault will surely delight with 5 girls over the 12 foot mark. The Kentucky athletes who you need to watch out for are Ava Hernandez and Bailey Howard.
The jumping and throwing events will also produce excellent results so watch out for those events.
The event will be streamed live at KYTrackXC.com, so please go over there if you want to catch all the action.