Pacific high school cross-country midseason report
Published: September 27, 2010
Bruce Carrick, a former Christian Academy Japan cross-country parent, a longtime Pacific high school cross-country observer and gatekeeper of information on the sport at www.athletic.net, offers his views on who the big names are midway through the 2010 campaign:
My observations on the season: a four-way race for the men's individual title: Michael Gaitan (George Washington), Jacob Bishop (Kadena), Trevor Maggart (American School In Japan) and Jared Johnson (Christian Academy Japan). Some 20 seconds back would be Kelly Langley (St . Mary’s International) trying to get back into the thick of it; and then another 30 seconds back to a knot of second tier runners from all theatres.
On the girls side, Naomi Blaz (GW) is out front, followed closely by Seisen International's Fumi Kurihara (who has nearly a minute lead on the Kanto girls) and Kadena's India Adams. The second tier pack seems about a minute back, led by Amanda Henderson and Siarra Ingram of Seoul American. Of course, those two will likely close up the gap leaving the rest behind, resulting in a likely five-way race for Pacific supremacy.
Team-wise, I see a very tight race between Kadena boys and, CAJ, ASIJ & St. Mary's, with GW some distance back. Kadena has a strong front two, but their 3rd, 4th and 5th will be swept by the three Kanto schools.
Kadena girls are in a footrace with GW, Seisen and ASIJ hoping to challenge. (This year's Seisen and ASIJ girls teams are not nearly as tough as the ASIJ/CAJ girls teams of 2007 and 2008).
Since Korean schools don't list their results on athletic.net, I have no feel for their team depth in either gender.
Sadly, we will not see an ultimate show-down this season, since Kadena/Seoul American won't go to Asia Pacific in Guam, and ASIJ is not planning to be available even if invited to be among the 4 outsiders at Far East. Remains to be seen if GW will come if invited to Kanto Far East (I am expecting them to come).
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