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What will Saturday be like? First of all, it's about the weather and who can handle it. Not that it will be bad Saturday morning. After potential flurries on Friday afternoon there will be a cold mindset Saturday morning. Doesn't have to be! At some point its going to hit 50 degrees although probably not by the DII races at 9:30 and 10:00. But the sun should be out and that makes a whole world of difference.

Of more concern are the course conditions. Plan on mud, water and more of both. I've been getting reports that the footing is sloppy. It will be important to plan ahead. Anyone who ran last year will remember how slippery the footing was if they weren't prepared. Well, think of mud as brown snow. You just won't be able to make a mudman after your race.

So now that I've said it, forget it. It will be the same for everyone - only be a problem if you make it one. This isn't ballet! (before I go any further, Please no hate mail from the dance crowd). It is still a big meet and if you're mentally ready the conditions are irrelevant.

Don't forget that after 8 high school races mess up the course the colleges come in for their DI national qualifier. If they can do it, so can we.

Division II

Franklin, King Philip, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Sharon, Stoughton

In '04 Franklin put it all together at just the right time and made it to the state finals. But when you check the shoes of the top 5 you'll find four of them empty. That was a team top-heavy with seniors. Only Matt Gannon is back from the scorers.   Point-wise, how low can he go? Tough to tell. He ran a super race at the Hock Invitational. He's a runner with passion and he'll be looking for one more chance to bask in the sun. Frank Day, Matt McKenzie, John Dacey,   Brian Sawyer and Steve Holt would need to find serious improvement to make some team noise, but they'll be trying to keep Gannon in their sights for as long as possible.

King Philip - 26th in DIII last year, it would be asking a lot to think they would be able to make a dent in the team standings of DII, even though they only had one senior in that crew. The most excitement will come from Paul Matz. He was an All-Hock pick (6th) and was 8th at the Hock Invitational. When he placed 15th at SCI he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's for real. If someone from the group of Austin Ashworth, Eric Whitehouse and Tyler Hoth can uptempo, it will pull that close-knit pack - results - better team score.

Mansfield - Well now. I keep talking about how teams moving from DIII to DII will have a rude awakening. In this case, reverse the roles. DII is going to be mighty upset that they have to contend with this group. Mansfield boys are going to do serious damage.

Not coaching boys, I'm not spending my precious few free-time minutes pouring over obscure results. I don't know who their biggest competition is. Then again, my wife is visiting Emily in Boston tonight so if I get really bored I might know by the end of the night. I'd love to use the tag-line - "Details at 11." But I don't want to make promises I can't keep.

It was impressive when they went 1-4 at the Hocks. They also went 1,3,4,8 at SCI plus a 7th in the frosh race by Kevin Meagher. I'd say that they are missing two of their top 5 from last year's Class III Championship - but they aren't. They reloaded with John Lutkevich joining the trio of Ryan Collins (Hock and SCI Champ), Dan Cequeira and Jason O'Connell. The only question is how short the wait will be for #5. If Meagher, Brendan Barca or Mike Bolea can draft off the top 4, well look out DII, there's a new gang in town.

North Attleboro - This is a greatly improved team from '04. They have a solid pack up front that includes Alex Aliberti (Hock 8th), Greg Paine and Derek Sweitzer. Aliberti is feeling better after some quad issues, and the other two are poised to explode at any minute. I just hope Sweitzer's untimely frisbee to the face injury today in pre-practice doesn't hold him back (just joking Derek). If Sean Maloney is recovered from some hip problems and Justin O'Donnell can build onto his recent improvements, they will surprise in the team score. Capt. Sean Coughlin is still nursing a knee injury suffered in a tri-meet and his status is uncertain. Does it sound like they are hurt? Yes! But it may be the last meet of the season so they're fired up.

Sharon - Speaking of hurt. I feel for Dan Darcy. Here is a runner that was 10th in the class meet last year and started the year on fire. He was injured at the Bay State Invitational and hasn't been the same since. I don't think there is a runner in the Hock that wouldn't want to see him at full healthy Saturday. Dan is just that likable, and he deserves to run at full strength. Entering the season things were very promising. Sharon was returning the top 4 athletes from last year's 7th place finish. Will Collins, Itai Stein and Ben Mattocks have continued to improve. Casey Howards (7th on team last year) recently ran 14th at SCI. So the pieces are there. They were third in SCI without Dan. If they are running on all cylinders Saturday it would signal a tremendous come-back from adversity.

Stoughton is rebuilding and it will take awhile. They are "looking for a few good men" to add to a nucleus of dedicated runners. The top three on Saturday should be Scott Blumenthal (21st in Hocks), Joe Freedman and Seck Moussa. P.S. Good effort by Jason Cormier in the SCI soph race. He might just be ready to challenge for top runner.

Class III

Canton - 11th in Class IV last year, Canton has moved up a division. It will be a tough switch. Three of their top 5 graduated. Tom Boudreau is their top returner after placing 85th last year (33rd in Hock '04) . Josh Cohen and Eric Woods will also be aiming to improve on last year's finish. Lucas Hamory had a decent finish at SCI. The youth movement includes soph Andrew Ha (GR10-50-SCI) and frosh Mike Mitcherony (SCI-GR09-53).

Foxboro - The bad news is that they placed 25th last year and the team was made of mostly seniors. The good news is that Derek Ricci stepped into a phone booth and found a superman costume. He was 189th in the class meet last year. This year he was All-Hock placing 7th and repeated the placement at the Hock Invite. His 19th place at State Coaches was an omen that he is ready to inflict some serious Foxboro beating in the Class Meet. Shawn Geary and Pat Martin will have to hang onto Derek's shorts to stay close, but they should place 2-3 for the team.

Oliver Ames - They were 4th last year in DII. How will that translate into DIII? Pretty good I'd say considering that there were no seniors in last year's crew. They were third in the Hock because they don't have a howitzer (a.k.a. big gun). What they do have is a team. They placed 11,14, 15, 17, 18 at Hocks with a spread of 24 seconds with #6 just 2 more seconds back. Junior Austin Strange (11th Hocks, 25th SCI) and Dave Binney (14th Hocks), are the leaders. But there are a lot of moving parts in this machine. Kyle Mowatt has plenty of power and frosh Mike Moverman (another good XC name - 2nd DII SCI frosh race) has been getting better by the meet. Ben Faust rounds out the top 5 but this is a deep group and anyone of the other two could step up and give them the bump needed to make it another week.