Regional 7 - Marion
Boys
Teams: Bellmont, Heritage, New Haven, FW Southside, South Adams, Wabash, Oak Hill, Huntington North, Eastbrook, Mississinewa
Brennan Butche has been on fire this year, and we shouldn't expect much different from him this weekend. This looks to be yet another weekend of mostly solo racing on an extremely fast IWU course for the senior. We could have a very nice battle for 2nd place between Brock Spahr, Ben Neideck and Dereck Vogel as well.
Even without any heavy favorite state contending teams in this regional, we'll still have some very good team races go down. Scores won't be as close but nearly every top 5 team will have all of their scorers in, in under a minute of each other. Wabash looks like the guys to beat this weekend, with a stellar 28 second 1-5 spread which will prove lethal to their competitors. Huntington North, Bellmont, Oak Hill, and New Haven look like the other four teams that will get to move on to next week's semi-state.
Girls
Teams: Norwell, FW Luers, South Adams, FW South Side, Heritage, Oak Hill, Huntington North, Northfield, Mississinewa, Southern Wells
Last week's individual champs will look to be neck and neck with each other. Mollie Gamble looks slightly stronger than Sydney Lambert on paper and on the course recently. I think she'll be able to pull off the win with this being her 4th race at the IWU course this year too.
Just like in the boys race, the team race won't be one that is super close in scores, but scores can easily be shaken up if even one runner on a team has an off day. Norwell, with the strong frontrunner in Lambert look to be the team to grab the win this weekend. But Oak Hill may have something to say about that and want that regional plaque a little more, as they look to be about 10pts behind Norwell. FW Luers looks to be in a solid position to take 3rd or 4th, with Huntington North and South Adams right nearby them.
Regional 8 - Delta
Boys
Teams: Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern, Pendleton Heights, Lapel, Frankton, Yorktown, Delta, Muncie Central, Monroe Central, Winchester Community
The only athlete to attempt to run with Cole Hocker for an extended period this season, Luke Combs looks like he'll add on to his list of wins this year with the regional. He could experience one challenger out of Ethan Meyer, who may be wanting revenge after last weekend's loss.
Fishers is shaping up to be a team that could take home the state title here in a couple weeks and this weekend, they'll look to show off how good they are again, by potentially placing their top 5 in the top 8 spots of the race. They don't just have a strong frontrunner, they have strong front pack. Hamilton Southeastern is in the same boat, having a strong front pack more than a frontrunner this year. Pendleton Heights, has two good frontrunners out of Luke Upton and Milan Jones who will be keys to their top 3 finish as a team. The final two spots could come down to three teams, Frankton, Lapel, and Yorktown.
Girls
Teams: Delta, Yorktown, Wapahani, Jay County, Randolph Southern, Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers, Pendleton Heights, Lapel, Shenandoah
The move into a new tournament path is proving to make things a lot easier for those schools from Fishers, IN. Lulu Black is the major favorite here to add a regional title to her sectional title that she got last week. Fishers and HSE could very well decide to rest a couple girls if they wanted as well, and still be okay when it comes to advancing to the semi-state round. These two teams could easily both place all 14 runners in the top 15 if they run their top squads this weekend. After them, Pendleton Heights looks to be in good shape to move on with a 23 second 1-5 spread holding them down. Delta, Lapel and Yorktown will look to duke it out for the remaining spots.