Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational

There is a great lineup of races set for State College this weekend at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational . Penn State will look to build upon their early success this season as they square off against a solid field that includes Columbia who is ranked #4 in the Northeast for both women and men.

In the HS division, State College will do battle with a host of teams from PA, NY, and WV. The HS girls race will be very intriguing as Central Cambria and Lewisburg have a rematch.

In the Club division, Rick Koubek, Matt Kisenwether, Matt Lanagan, and Greg Lackey will go after the team title.

PennTrackXC.com Top 10-Week 4

There has been some shakeup in the top 5 of the PennTrackXC.com Top 10 weekly rankings. After Pre-States, the small schools made everyone take notice. On the girls side, Central Cambria moved up 5 spots to number 3 and Lewisburg entered the poll at number 5, after being unranked all season. For the boys, Holy Ghost Prep moved up 4 spots to number 4 after their impressive run in Hershey.

Big Meets in the Mid-Atlantic

Several important meets in the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend. The most critical ones in PA are Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State, Carlisle Invitational hosted by Carlisle High School, and Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh.

The Spiked Shoe Invitational features Central Cambria vs. Lewisburg, Round 2.

AA makes a strong statement at Pre-States

Wow! What a meet in Hershey! The meet was split in two divisions, Gold (large schools) and Blue (small schools).

In the Girls Blue Division, Central Cambria and Lewisburg ran away from everyone. Central Cambria scored a narrow victory 69-82 over Lewisburg. Carly Seymour (Central Cambria) delivered her one point with the fastest time of the day, 18:17, but Lewisburg put 3 girls in the top ten to make it a close team finish. Even more impressive, had this race been combined, Central Cambria and Lewisburg would have finished first and second, respectively, as well, and Lewisburg still would have put 3 girls in the top ten.

Current PennTrackXC.com #1, Emmaus, was in New York for the Bowdoin Park XC Classic, site of the NTN regional. They finished fourth behind Voorhees (NJ), Greenwich (NY), and Shenendehowa (NY).

In the Girls Gold Division, North Allegheny (101) would set up the table for a possible sweep of Boys and Girls Gold titles, by holding off Cardinal O'Hara (103) by two points and Greater Latrobe (110) by nine. Jess Cygan (19:17) from Liberty was the individual champion. State College finished in tenth place, led by Tirzah Stashko's 23rd-place finish.

In Boys Blue Division, Holy Ghost Prep used strong front running (3 in the top ten) to beat North East, 55-76. Robert Micikas (16:44) of Crestwood used the last mile to pull away from Eric Arnold of Holy Ghost Prep for the individual victory.

North Allegheny lived up to its #2 PennTrackXC.com ranking and won convincingly over the field scoring 85 points, in the Boys Gold Division. Hatboro-Horsham finished in second with 130. Mark Denin of Boyertown lead the whole race and recorded the fastest time of the day with a 16:05. State College finished in 15th place, led by Kyle Ragan in 48th.

In the combined race though, it gets a little interesting. North Allegheny would have beat Holy Ghost Prep by one point 137-138, with North East finishing in third with 188.

PennTrackXC.com's Full meet coverage