2002outprevswd1

   The Southwest Regional will be incredibly tough this season. The only tougher one will be the insane Northwest Regional full of Cleveland schools.
    In the 4x800 the top returning school is Turpin. They ran 9:26 last year an finished 5th at state. After there great XC season that culmnated with a dominating state victory, look for a lot of their runners to make their mark on the track this season. The entire 4x800 is back: Heather Clark, Ashley Cruse, Corey Randall and Carolyn Rauen. Jaclyn Louis might take a spot and that would put them close to Beaumont. An interesting not is that if all goes well, the same Turpin and Beaumont teams could meet at State for the next two years as they are both that young. After Turpin, Vandalia Butler has a good shot as they return their whole team of Kelly Siefker, Julie Norckauer, Laura Weber, and Samantha Klopfer that went 9:29 last season. Also look out for Centerville which had a breakthrough XC season and certainly has the numbers to field a good 4x800. Colerain is also tough and Dayton Carroll could put a good 4x800 together as well. As could Beavercreek or Lakota East, it should be fun down south.
    In the 800 Katie Hickey of Lakota East, Natalie Gilbert of Kettering Fairmont, and Shannon Titus of Clayton Northmont are all returning state qualifiers, but none went under 2:21 last year. That leaves the 800 pretty wide open. Any of the anchors from the above teams, such as Rauen or Klopfer or the others could make a strong run in a weak 800 field this year.
    In the 1600 Rauen and Carol Eckery of Beavercreek are returning and should have good seasons with both going 5:09 last year. Centerville Freshman Laura Neufarth and Laura Thornhill could fit in here or in the 3200. It is hard to predict with Freshman how XC success transfers to the track.
    In the 3200 Andrea Maas of Colerain is the only returner. This leaves plenty of room for the likes of Corri Whisner (18:27 XC) of Lakota East, Katie Flaute (18:32) of Dayton Carroll, Jenny Homan (18:34) of Anderson, Jaclyn Louis (18:35) of Turpin, Rauen (18:49), and Eckerly (18:54) could all contend. They are as deep as the Amherst regional and a lot of good runners will likely be left home. I like Flaute, Maas, Louis, and a wildcard to get out.