By DP Daigle
Howdy folks, it's your favorite coach on the coast with a preview of the Region 4 District 8 Meet. The terminology has changed causing some confusion, but you can see what region, formerly district or division, each team is in here: http://www.misshsaa.com/2017/02/02/2017-19-cross-country-regions/.
George County is hosting the meet and we are running this a week early due to the ACT taking place on the 28th. Region 4, District 8 consists of 1A, 4A, 5A, and 6A Divisions or Regions, here they are:
1A
4A Region 7
Forrest County AHS, Greene County, Northeast Jones, Poplarville, Purvis
4A Region 8
East Central, Pass Christian, Saint Stanislaus, and Vancleave
5A
Gautier, Long Beach, Pearl River Central, Picayune, and West Harrison
6A
Biloxi, d'Iberville, George County, Gulfport, Hancock, Harrison Central, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, and St. Martin
Coach Pater at George County runs a good meet, and he's gotten another one organized for this Saturday. We combine some classifications and have a total of 4 varsity races as well as a middle school race for boys and girls.
In 1A boys Resurrection hasn't fielded a full team yet this season, so I think Sacred Heart takes it by default. On the girls' side of 1A I see Sacred Heart taking it easily over Resurrection.
Region 7-4A boys - look for Purvis to take the title. The Region 7-4A girls' race is going to be close, but look for Northeast Jones to edge out Poplarville.
In Region 8-4A, East Central and Saint Stanislaus have been close all year, and Pass has made a late push too. I can't predict against my own kids, so I'll say SSC wins this one by a narrow margin over EC. It's going to take 5 or 7 PR's to do it, and that's a tall task. In 4A girls I think Pass Christian is the team to beat, they're just solid 1 through 5. It will be a fun race to watch though to see how fast Lina May from Vancleave can go.
The 5A boys' race is going to be very tight. I see a way for three different schools to win it: Pearl River Central, West Harrison, and Long Beach. I'm sure that will be your podium, but the order is tough to call - I'll go with my gut and give Long Beach the nod in a close one. In the 5A girls race, look for Long Beach to beat PRC, these two teams will be pretty far ahead of the rest of the squads.
In 6A boys
you have Ocean Springs running away with it, literally. Coach Sayers' boys have a chance to pull off
the rare perfect score - finishing 1st through 5th. I see Biloxi as a distant second and
D'Iberville finishing 3rd.
The 6A girls' race will also be dominated by Ocean Springs. Look for
Gulfport and Biloxi to round out the podium.
Good luck to
everyone on your upcoming races and I'll be back to give you the run around on
the state races in a couple of weeks.