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 Federation Championship 2008 - Predictions

 

Please remember: the predicted scores below only indicate a possible outcome based upon individual runner speed ratings ... I used the top seven runners from each team as best as I knew ... one major problem with projections is knowing who will or will not be running on some teams (it can make a big difference) ... Predicted Scores were posted on November 12, 2008 ... Actual scores will be posted side-by-side after the meet  ...

 

[ Girls Prediction ]

 

 BOYS Federation Champ 2008 ...  Shenendehowa a solid favorite
 

                          Predicted                                       Actual
     School                 Score     Sect         School                  Score
     ===================    =====    =======       ==================      =====
 1   Shenendehowa             55     (02-AA)       Shenendehowa               93
 2   Burnt Hills             165     (02-A )       Burnt Hills               151
 3   Honeoye Falls-Lima      185     (05-B )       Shoreham Wading River     157
 4   Shoreham-Wading River   195     (11-B )       Honeoye Falls-Lima        185
 5   Queensbury              225     (02-A )       Queensbury                210
 6   Wantagh                 260     (08-A )       Arlington                 240
 7   North Rockland          270     (01-AA)       North Rockland            255
 8   Arlington               280     (01-AA)       East Aurora               270
 9   Chaminade               290     (CHSAA)       Liverpool                 273
 10  Pittsford Mendon        305     (05-A )       Chaminade                 280
 11  Liverpool               310     (03-AA)       Pittsford Mendon          281
 12  Suffern                 315     (01-AA)       Suffern                   308
 13  St. Anthony's           325     (CHSAA)       Wantagh                   311
 14  Washingtonville         330     (09-AA)       Brockport                 337
 15  McKee/Staten            335     (PSAL )       McKee/Staten              347
 16  East Aurora             345     (06-B )       West Genesee              359
 17  West Genesee            350     (03-AA)       Washingtonville           368
 18  Brockport               380     (05-AA)       Windsor                   397
 19  Windsor                 430     (04-B )       Canisius                  399
 20  Bishop Ford             435     (CHSAA)       Bishop Ford               429
 21  Canisius                435     (CHSAA)       St. Anthony's             454
 22  Holy Trinity            545     (CHSAA)       Curtis                    505
 23  Curtis                  545     (PSAL )       Stuyvesant                592
 24  Regis                   625     (CHSAA)       Holy Trinity              641
 25  Collegiate              650     (AIS  )       Regis                     683
 26  Stuyvesant              660     (PSAL )       Collegiate                691
 27  Brooklyn Tech           670     (PSAL )       Brooklyn Tech             776
		

Post-Race Comments ... Overall, the team predictions were decent (several teams did not have good races, but that's normal at Federations) ... Alex Leuchanka (Shenendehowa) won the individual title in a very competitive race with Max Straneva (Chenango Valley).

Pre-Race Analysis ... NOTE ... Both the Boys & Girls predictions were quick simulations ... Like last year, I decided not to spent much time evaluating this year's Federation races.

Shenendehowa ... Shen appears to be the overwhelming favorite ... Shen ran very well at States on a challenging course (their speed ratings indicate that Shenendehowa is a serious contender to win the National NXN race.

Burnt Hills won the State Class A race handily without their best team performance ... Burnt Hills finished 5th in the team merge, but they are capable of doing better ... With a more consistent team performance, Burnt Hills gets the call to finish second behind Shen; however, an overall performance similar to States will could drop Burnt Hills several spots in the final team scores.

Honeoye Falls-Lima had an exceptional performance at States (Class B) and a repeat could easily place them second to Shen ... Shoreham-Wading River is a very good team ... a top team performance could well result in a 2nd-place finish.

Queensbury did not race at States (Burnt Hills was the Section 2 qualifying team in Class A) ... However, three Queensbury individuals did race at States and ran quite decently (speed ratings of 177, 176 and 173) ... I suspect Queensbury was the first at-large team selected to Feds (from the teams not competing at States).

As the predictions above show, there are a group of teams reasonably close in the projections following Queensbury ... North Rockland and Arlington are very familiar with Bowdoin Park, so I expect them to race well ... Wantagh is very talented ... Chaminade is projected as the top CHSAA team (followed by St. Anthony's).

Individual Race ... Alex Leuchanka (Shenendehowa) had the fastest time at States of all runners competing at Feds (Alex Hatz is not racing), and this makes him a slight favorite in my opinion (since he has been running fast in other meets as well) ... Chris Stogsdill (Marcellus) has had a great season and should be considered a co-favorite (I did not think he was competing at Feds after his exhausting race at Sunken Meadow ... the same "exhaustion" also occurred at the Marathon Invite ... hopefully, these efforts didn't take too much out of him).

Max Straneva (Chenango Valley) won comfortably at States ... It required an all-out effort by Chris Stogsdill to beat Straneva at the Marathon Invite ... Straneva is capable of running in front or following-along - and that makes him very competitive in championship races.

A fair number of other runners are certainly in contention with an exceptional personal performance ... Mike Hickey (Pearl River), John Muller (Arlington), Quinn Raseman (Ward Melville), Bobby Andrews (Shoreham WR), Alex Deir (HFL) and others.

 

 

 GIRLS Federation Champ 2008 ...
 

                          Prediction                                      Actual
     School                 Score     Sect         School                  Score
     ===================    =====    =======       ==================      =====
 1   Saratoga                 65     (02-AA)       Burnt Hills                69 
 2   Burnt Hills              75     (02-A )       Saratoga                   82 
 3   Queensbury              100     (02-A )       Queensbury                 98 
 4   Shenendehowa            110     (02-AA)       Shenendehowa              134 
 5   East Aurora             210     (06-B )       East Aurora               168 
 6   Pearl River             240     (01-B )       North Shore               210 
 7   Cornwall                245     (09-A )       Pearl River               255 
 8   North Shore             295     (08-B )       Arlington                 259 
 9   Canandaigua             295     (05-A )       Greenwich                 272 
 10  Arlington               310     (01-AA)       Canandaigua               274 
 11  Bay Shore               310     (11-AA)       Bay Shore                 285 
 12  Northport               310     (11-AA)       Monroe-Woodbury           318 
 13  Greenwich               320     (02-D )       Guilderland               366 
 14  Guilderland             325     (02-AA)       Northport                 380 
 15  Monroe-Woodbury         330     (09-AA)       Bronxville                388 
 16  Bronxville              365     (01-C )       Cornwall                  393 
 17  St. Anthony's           365     (CHSAA)       St. John The Baptist      399 
 18  St. John the Baptist    370     (CHSAA)       St. Anthony's             457 
 19  St. John Villa          430     (CHSAA)       St. John Villa            472 
 20  Kellenberg              576     (CHSAA)       Kellenberg                605 
 21  Curtis                  620     (PSAL )       Tottenville               615 
 22  Tottenville             635     (PSAL )       HS Health Prof            634 
 23  Poly Prep               680     (AIS  )       Nardin Academy            662 
 24  HS Health Prof          730     (PSAL )       Laguardia                 683 
 25  Laguardia               735     (PSAL )       Curtis                    699 
 26  Notre Dame              745     (CHSAA)       Poly Prep                 722 
 27  Nardin Academy          765     (CHSAA)       Notre Dame Academy        744 

Post-Race Comments ... Overall, the predictions were decent with no real surprises ... Emily Lipari (Roslyn) defended her Federation title as expected with Aisling Cuffe (Cornwall) second and Danielle Winslow (Queensbury) third.

Pre-Race Analysis ... The absence of Fayetteville-Manlius makes this tighter race for the Federation championship ... Saratoga edged Burnt Hills in the State Meet merge (82 to 84) ... At the Section 2 championships, Saratoga and Burnt Hills tied in the merge (54 to 54 with Saratoga having the better 6th-finisher) ... Obviously, these teams are quite evenly matched in terms of team scoring ... The computer simulations have them both winning a significant percentage of  simulated races, so either team could be considered a favorite.

Saratoga appears to have an average 10 point spread over Burnt Hills in this particular race (somehow that surprised me) ... I will not be surprised if Burnt Hills pops a big performance and wins by a respectable margin ... and I will not be surprised if Saratoga wins impressively (they have already exceeded my expectations this season) ... This is a good matchup.

Queensbury and Shenedehowa can not be counted out for the win ... Both have excellent teams and are capable of challenging with exceptional team performances.

There is sizeable scoring gap to East Aurora (behind Shen and the other three Section 2 teams) ... a similar gap occurred in the State Meet merge ... The projections put Pearl River very slightly ahead of Cornwall (although Cornwall finished ahead of Pearl River in the State merge); Pearl River has raced well at Bowdoin Park (and that could be the reason).

The projections (8th-place to 15th-place) are quite close ... most of these teams have shown some variability, so I expect anything might happen there.

Individual Race ... Emily Lipari (Roslyn) is the defending Federation champion and a Footlocker Finalist from 2007 ... Lipari is peaking at the right time of the season (again) and has demonstrated excellent closing speed in both XC and track ... It will be tough to beat Lipari if she runs well.

However, this race features some other exceptional runners capable of winning ... Shelby Greany (Suffern), Aisling Cuffe (Cornwall), Danielle Winslow (Queensbury), Lizzie Predmore (Shenendehowa), Samantha Roecker (Burnt Hills) and others.