Flashrock Invitational
By: Stephen Bain
September 16, 2009
Essentially, the Carmel Semi State preview, but with some more power house teams added. Every year fast times are produced here at the Northview course, and nobody should expect anything less.
The interesting thing to this race is that the teams are divided into two “divisions”. The blue and green divisions are suppose to be randomly drawn, although they always come out pretty evenly split when it comes to ranked teams. Every team can run 12 runners as well, scoring the top 7 finishers. That makes for a very crowded race.
GREEN DIVISION
First let’s take a look at the 21 teams in the Green Division race, which will be going off first.
Green Division Teams: Brebeuf, Brownsburg, #22 Cathedral, Danville, Greenwood, #7 Fishers, Frankfort, #9 Franklin Central, Franklin Community, #12 Hamilton Southeastern, #8 Huntington North, Lafayette Jefferson, New Palestine, #5 Noblesville, Perry Meridian, Pike, Scecina, Seymour, Southport, Terre Haute South, #19 Warren Central
Question to be answered in the Green Division:
Are these guys for real? Out from under the radar.
Noblesville ran the Hamilton County meet, where they placed 2nd to the Carmel Greyhounds. Beyond that, they have been running in relatively smaller meets compared to the other teams ranked in the top 5. They don’t get to play with North Central and Columbus North, but they can still send a message to the state this week.
Semi State Fight Preview
This is the same site everybody will come back to, and only 6 spots are up for grabs. Let’s assume that Columbus North, North Central, Carmel and Noblesville have spots locked up (assuming things is never a good idea, but for the sake of interest). Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern, Franklin Central and Warren Central will all be looking to fight for one of those last two spots.
A quick look at the Top Teams in the Green Division:
#5 Noblesville – As previously mentioned, these guys are slightly under the radar for being ranked #5 in a very tight state race. They should be aiming for a state title, and will look to begin that push now.
#7 Fishers – The Tigers don’t run full strength that often, but I think that they will for this race. If they do, you can expect them to make a challenge for winning this race. They always seem to run well when it matters. This doesn’t matter too much, but it’s time for teams to start getting fast if they are going to be there in a month.
#8 Huntington North – Everybody fell out of love with these guys quickly. I would expect these guys to be getting very mentally prepared to make a statement that they are not done yet. They had one off day so far, and beyond that have been pretty good. Hopefully this Saturday they will be more than just ‘pretty good’.
#9 Franklin Central - This team is the same as Fishers when it comes to comments. The story has always been that they are young. They ran great at the preview, but have not been heard of since. Now they have a chance to make some noise again.
#12 Hamilton Southeastern – The Royals look to be in that mix for a trip to Terre Haute. They surprised teams through the first half of the season but will not be shocking anybody this week when they are in the mix up front.
#19 Warren Central – They have a great pack, but where will the pack be in such a stacked race?
#22 Cathedral – No team was hurt more by the ACT last weekend than this guys. However, expect O’Herren and Ricker to get very low points up front, which could make them competitive. As always, where those other guys can get will be the difference.
Race team favorite: Noblesville
Team that may surprise: Fishers
A look at the front of the race:
Jason Hoard (11) – Brebeuf Jesuit [C #8]
Scott Vicenzi (12) – Brownsburg [C #5]
Hale O’Herren (12) – Cathedral [C #2]
J.R. Ricker (12) – Cathedral [C #11]
Josh Millares (11) – Fishers [C #15]
Aaron Pugh (12) - Fishers
Javier Vasquez (12) - Frankfort
Jason Crist (10) – Franklin Central [C #12]
Joe Ebling (12) – Hamilton Southeastern
Josh Graham (12) – Huntington North [NH #5]
Ross Ochs (12) – Huntington North [NH #2]
Noblesville Pack (Ginebaugh, Roudebush, Ferguson, Marowski, Bowers)
Nolan Fife (12) – Seymour [BC #3]
I would expect O’Herren to be out front in this race. However, you have to expect that Crist is going to be getting fast very soon, and that the Huntington North guys will be out to make a statement. Should be a very exciting race.
Now we move onto the Blue Division.
BLUE DIVISION
There are 22 teams in this field. That’s 264 varsity athletes competing on the course.
Avon, #24 Ben Davis, #11 Bloomington South, Cardinal Ritter, Center Grove, Columbus East, #1 Columbus North, Delta, East Central, Greenfield Central, Guerin Catholic, Indian Creek, Lawrence Central, #14 Lawrence North, New Castle, #2 North Central, Plainfield, Roncalli, Tri-West, Vincinnes Rivet, #25 Westfield, #13 Zionsville
Question to be answered in the Blue Division:
Who is #1? Was it a fluke?
Columbus North shocked the state as they took down North Central a couple weeks ago. However, that was with a lot less teams in the mix and it will be interesting to see how the teams battle it out in a field with a few more high quality teams. The results could be different.
The battle for 3rd.
This is pretty simple. The top two teams seem to be way ahead of the rest, and before last weekend Zionsville would have been the heavy favorite for third. However, Lawrence North just beat them. Lawrence North was crushed by many teams at the Harrison Invitational, including Zionsville and Bloomington South. Westfield has ran without some top guys for awhile. A lot of these teams are fighting for semi state spots as well.
A quick look at the Top Teams in the Blue Division:
#1 Columbus North – They have a very fast pack that is made of front runners. These guys will be at the front of the race and just trying to get rid of North Central’s front guys. However, they do race town rival, Columbus East on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see if that comes into play.
#2 North Central – These guys will have had two weeks to think about the loss to Columbus North at Martinsville. Expect them to come out looking to prove that they can beat the Bulldogs.
#11 Bloomington South – These guys have a nice group and will be representing the south in the front of this race against the “big bad Indy” schools.
#13 Zionsville – After losing the winning streak to Lawrence North last week at the Ben Davis Invite, it will be interesting to see if the Eagles can rebound.
#14 Lawrence North – As mentioned, they beat the Eagles in a tie breaker last week and will want to continue on the upswing going into the tournament season.
#24 Ben Davis – This team has some great front runners in their top 3, but lacks a little bit after that. If they can move them up a bit this weekend with a lot of guys to run with, they could become contenders.
#25 Westfield – Most likely much better than their #25 ranking, the Shamrocks have ran without some of their front runners for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully they will be at full power this weekend.
Race team favorite: Columbus North
Team that may surprise: Westfield
A look at the front of the race:
Traishaun Johnson (12) – Ben Davis [C #17]
Justin Chen (grade) – Bloomington South [BC #14]
Tucker Settle (grade) – Columbus East
Gabe Ocasio (11) – Columbus North [C #13]
Andrew Diehn (10) – Columbus North [C #14]
Kent Garrett (10) – Guerin Catholic [C #18]
Zach Grese (12) – Lawrence North [C #19]
Josh Roche (11) – Lawrence North [C #20]
Futsum Zeinasellassie (10) – North Central [C #1]
Filamon Adhanom (11) – North Central [C #16]
Connor Geshay (12) – North Central [C #9]
Connor Martin (11) – Westfield [C #4]
Colby Shiver (12) – Westfield
Futsum should be able to throw down a nice time here with good competition. He is split from some of the other top guys, but I would guess that Connor Martin will not let him get away too easily.
COMBINED RACES
At the end of the day, they combine the results and see who came out on top. This is the best example that courses don’t always produce fast times and why it is so hard to compare times in cross country. A race may go out slow, and stay slow, or go out too fast and people die, or it may be the perfect race with great competition. Either way, it’s nice to look at the class of each field.
Columbus North, North Central, and Noblesville are the top teams entering this, in that order. I would guess that Green division may drag out some faster times due to a lot more guys being around one another and making it more competitive for those middle teams.
Just to look at the score between the teams based on rank (7 ranked teams in each division):
Green – 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, (19), (22) = 41
Blue – 1, 2, 11, 13, 14, (24), (25) = 41
Stronger up front in the blue race, but more depth in the green race.