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Time to look at Rockland…

January

Now it’s time to look over at Rockland and try to guess what’s going to happen over there. Rockland is going to be interesting. There have been two teams that have really been in control of the county for a little while now. The Suffern girls have been on top for a few years now and Ramapo was very impressive last year.

But this season it could be a little different. Both teams aren’t as strong as they were last year. The two teams don’t have as much depth as they did a year ago and the teams’ behind them have gotten better. It should be an interesting day at the armory.

First, before we begin talking about the county meet, I must bring up the scheduling. I was quite perplexed when I saw that the Rockland county meet is scheduled to run at the same time as the Super Bowl. Whether you’re a football fan or not you watch this game. I understand the difficulty in scheduling. There’s only three locations to have a meet and every high school meet is held at one of those three places.

My question would be, why not pick another day to have the meet. Rockland county doesn’t take as long as Westchester. I thought the meet could be at a 4 p.m. maybe on a week day. I know schools don’t like to do that, but this is a rough time to have a meet. Just a few questions about the day and time chosen. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the meet:

Boys

Ramapo has been the best team in Rockland for the past year and a half. But the team lost its league title to Suffern. I don’t know if that means Suffern is better, but it will be close on Sunday. The reason why Ramapo is so tough to beat is because it can rack up points in the sprints. And not only can the team score a lot of points in those events, it can win them. Suffern and North Rockland will be battling in the distance events. Pearl River will come into this meet and do quite well.

The Pirates don’t have the depth as the other three teams, but there is talent across the track and field. Pearl River are going to take points away from Suffern and North Rockland in the distance events. Events that Ramapo doesn’t need to worry about.

North Rockland is also hoping for the reappearance of Nick Hughes, who has been battling injury and illness this winter. I don’t think Suffern can compete in a meet with this many teams. I think it’ll lose too many points in the events, while the impact to Ramapo will be minimal.

But this year it is much more wide open. The Gryphons clearly don’t have the depth they did a year ago. It’ll be a challenge for this team to retain its county title.

Girls

I think it’s impossible to bet against Suffern. This is the most top-heavy team in the county. There are about ssix or seven athletes on this team that can win at least one event – no matter who’s competing. You figure that’s a minimum of 60 points. That’s with those athletes – Kaitlyn Cross, the Claytons, Shelby Greany, Christy Goldmann, Faith Consiglio doing well in just one event.

We all know they weill be doing multiple events and Suffern has other athletes that can score points. Like I said, it will be tough to beat this team.

North Rockland had its chance to beat Suffern at the league meet. It didn’t and now I don’t know how the Red Raiders beat Suffern in the county. North Rockland, like Suffern in the boys, will be hurt by the entry of Pearl River into the county meet. Rockland has a lot of good teams and good athletes that will hurt North Rockland’s chances of winning the county.

Pearl River will do well at the meet, but it’ll be impossible to win. This is the best distance team and while there is a lot of depth on this team, it’s just so tough to win a meet this size when your strength is distance.

Like I said, I think it’s Suffern. I think North Rockland can keep it close, but it won’t be able to win. The team had its chance to make a statement (at leagues) and it didn’t. Suffern made its own.

Okay, thanks for taking a look at all this stuff I wrote. I hope it makes sense. Let me know what you think. If you agree let me know. If you think it’s wrong – also let me know.

I try and stay away from individual stuff at the county level because so many athletes are doubleing and tripleing up it’s tough to figure out who does what. But the Chris Carrington/Mike Hickey question is a good one. Right now Hickey has the fastest time in the section in the mile. But Carrington is right behind, only by a second. Right now Carrington looks stronger, but Hickey has better times. Hopefully they run head-to-head soon. It should be a fun race.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:00 pm by Dan Marra. Print This Post | Email This Post

6 Responses to “Time to look at Rockland…”

fan February 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 am
2:28 1000m for carrington US #3, too bad hickey bailed out of the mile.
baller February 2nd, 2009 at 9:40 pm
hickey pussed out of the mile. he won the 3200 against some nobodys but made excuses when it came to racing some real competition
Tom Doherty February 3rd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Sometimes I am amazed with the garbage that “gutless’ people
post about High School kids on the J-N sites. To say that Mike Hickey “bailed out and pussed out” of the mile is so
disrespectful!! There should be a “New Rule for 2009” if you are going to respond on the blog, YOU MUST USE YOUR NAME!! Mike Hickey will compete next year at Iona College, the NCAA runner-up in Division I Cross Country! Name me one other Section One athlete in any sport who will be competing on a higher level of competion than him??
mike hickey February 3rd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
baller, shut the hell up. i had the flu and barely ran the 2 weeks leading up to the race. If you have any type of issue with me, or the races that i choose to run then perhaps you would like to say that to my face one day at a meet. until that day, you are a coward and i am actually embarrassed that i responded to you.
Dan Marra February 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I don’t have a problem with what you talk about on this blog, but you need to keep it clean.

And just in defense of Mike, he does have the fastest 1,600 time in the section and like Tom said, he will be attending Iona College in the fall so I have a hard time believing he purposely avoided this race. He’s still the best distance runner in the section.
Flanders February 9th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
janelle clayton. however… I agree with Dan and Tom Keep it clean and respectful You can have an opinion but no need to be harsh. And Mike you really dont need to meet this person not really worth your time. Good luck at Iona. Always fun to watch you run and those run after you!!!

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