Coen, Thompson Look to Start Off Season Strong at Gilbert
Milesplit Iowa will be covering our first meet of the season (and maybe ever), the Gilbert Invitational at the beautiful Iowa State Cross Country Course. The Gilbert Invite marks the first meet of the season for many teams giving athletes the chance to display all the work they have put in over the summer months.
Girls Preview
Grace Coen is the name to watch for here. The junior has had a strong first two seasons at Newton including an 8th place finish in the 1500m this past spring at the 4A State Meet. She was second in the Class A Girls race at the Gilbert Invite last year, finishing six seconds behind Grace Gibbons who has since graduated. While she is no longer on the team, Gilbert will look to dominate the team race just as it did in 2014. The Tigers put up 19 points in that race, and while that number might not be matched this season, expect to see Gilbert take home the team title at their home meet.
Boys Preview
With it being an early season meet, it's hard to know what to expect. A perfect example is Thomas Pollard at this meet last year. While he was the top distance runner in the state last year, he ran with his teammate and finished second at his home meet. One guy to watch for not only this meet, but for the entire season is DCG's Alex Thompson. Entering his sophomore year, Thompson placed 22nd in 3A as a freshman running under 17:00. Thompson leads a very solid pack of DCG runners that return their top six runners within a minute of each other in terms of their PRs.
Virtual Meets Based off of Last Year's Time
Boys Virtual Meet | Girls Virtual Meet
What's a virtual meet?
A virtual meet uses our database of times to scout out the competition. It uses either the season best or season average to compile a list of competitors and scores the meet. This way you can preview both the individual and team races. It doesn't stop there, we created flexibility. Lets say you know someone isn't going to run at the meet - you can remove them from the virtual meet. Lets say you know you are ready for a big PR - adjust your time and it will rescore the meet instantly. You can play with the numbers to see what it will take to get your team on top.
***Check back after the meet to find race videos!