Yep, appleshake is correct, so Haverford and Strath Haven are out.
While I'm at it, here are my predictions for B Division! SEPA went okay, with some good picks (thanks, Garnet Valley B and North Penn!
) and some misses (thanks, CB South
). Let's see how well I do with the rest of the regions. I'm doing C Division in a future post, coming out Sunday or Monday, so that anyone who wants to tear these apart can do so freely.
Northwest: 1. Laurel, 2. Wattsburg, 3. North East, 4. Wilmington, 5. Clarion Area
I always have trouble predicting this region, mainly because none of the teams attend invitationals (that I know of), so I have no idea how each team is doing. Thus, I can only go by historical trends. So, in first I’m going with
Laurel. They placed the highest of any NW team at states last year, and tend to have better years in odd years than even years. It’s been a long time since they’ve won, if they ever have. Next, I’m picking
Wattsburg, who kind of came out of nowhere last year to win. Because of how out of the blue it was, I’m not convinced a repeat is in the cards, but it’s perfectly reasonable if they work for it. Then two of the more consistent mainstays in the region,
North East and
Wilmington. North East was close to first last year, but I have a hunch that was more of a peak than a stepping stone. On the other side, Wilmington really fell off last year, but I feel like they can recover somewhat. And lastly, for fifth I’m picking another team that regularly places top 5, that slipped a bit last year, in
Clarion Area. I wouldn’t be surprised to see
North Clarion in the mix again either, but it’s very difficult to predict until the scores actually come out.
Southwest: 1. Shady Side, 2. Franklin Regional, 3. Winchester Thurston, 4. Quaker Valley, 5. Bedford
This is actually tougher than most years.
Shady Side hasn’t seemed to recover its full dominance, and
Franklin Regional’s recent rise makes this a tougher call. However, I still think that Shady Side has the overall experience and upside to pull off a victory over tougher competition. Past that, it’s pretty wide open. I’ve gone with
Winchester Thurston for 3rd; they’ve emerged fairly recently, and based on their website, they have made a Science Olympiad class and everything, so they might be taking this fairly seriously. Past there are some more familiar faces;
Quaker Valley had a bit of a down year last year, but I feel that their history is enough to prevent them from falling out completely.
Bedford is an interesting name, because they rose in the region very quickly, and then failed to qualify for states last year. I’m not sure if the Bedford that went to Little Tiger and Rustin is them or the Connecticut version, but they could rise pretty far, depending on how they recover from last year. If they don’t,
Charles Huston, another consistent fringe team, could take their place as the fifth of 5 teams to qualify for states.
Central: 1. Eagle View, 2. Hershey, 3. Park Forest, 4. Good Hope, 5. Spring Grove
With the State College middle schools joining the high school in the Central region, this is all of a sudden a really tough region.
Eagle View looks very strong, with an 8th place finish at Rustin, tied with reigning Maryland champion North Bethesda, and an even more impressive 4th at Little Tiger, where they defeated both Strath Haven and HB DuPont. They could be a dark horse for 2nd in the state in a year where that place is wide open.
Hershey looks to be clearly behind them, but their invitational experience and history in the region should prevent them from falling too far. Then there’s
Park Forest, looking to keep The S7reak™ alive for another year in a new region. Historically they tend not to do as well at regionals than at states, but they should still be able to finish third. A top 3 finish, by the way, would give them top 3 finishes in 4 different regions in 7 years. They just need to compete in Southwest and Southeast to complete the PA Road to Glory. After that it gets tougher. There are teams like
Good Hope and
Conestoga Valley, which have emerged recently, and then
Spring Grove and
Middletown, which have been around for a while. For this, I’ve picked Good Hope, who have some invitational experience and more high placings recently, and Spring Grove, who recovered from a 2015 states miss to place 3rd in 2016. Conestoga Valley is actually not listed on the registration list, so they could be a late registration; if they don’t attend, 7th place, which might qualify for states, is wide open to teams like
Warwick and
Eastern York. One thing to point out is that
Allen likely no longer has a competing team, meaning their brief reign has fully given way to Eagle View’s.
Central East: 1. Springhouse, 2. Whitehall-Coplay, 3. Orefield, 4. Kutztown, 5. Fleetwood
Yeah, so
Springhouse is winning this. The main question is if they can break the 40-point mark. That’s not to say
Whitehall-Coplay is a bad team; they are very solid, placing 8th at Little Tiger. However, they’re just not on Springhouse’s level; no team on Pennsylvania is. I debated 3rd through 5th pretty extensively, mainly because it’s tough to tell where
Fleetwood will go. I’m thinking they’re just not quite at their top 15 level again, leaving
Orefield, which has been consistently decent throughout invitationals season, placing above teams like Wyoming Area and Devon Prep, at 3rd, and
Kutztown, which has also attended several invitationals but has consistently been behind Orefield, at 4th. This region only gets 4 states spots again, meaning the competition is tight; they will be facing off against each other and other consistent teams like
Exeter Township to get those final spots.
Northeast: 1. Abington Heights, 2. Wyoming Area, 3. Wilkes-Barre Academy, 4. Wayne Highlands, 5. Wyoming Seminary
The Northeast region has been a tough one for some time, but the departure of the State College schools is definitely a blow.
Abington Heights and
Wyoming Area seem to be the favorites in the region right now, as they have the most invitational experience of any teams in the region. Then we have
Wilkes-Barre Academy, who grabbed first last year, and while that accomplishment is significant, they ended up placing 4th out of the teams in the region at states, suggesting that a repeat may not be in the cards against the more experienced opposition. They’ll still be good though, and are likely to qualify for states, meaning they could still defeat
Wayne Highlands, another team that hovers around the middle of the states qualifying spots. They’ve never reached the 2nd place peak they set in 2012, but they’ll still be in the mix. Then we have another rising team in
Wyoming Seminary. They had been bouncing around other regionals, but finally settled in and made states for the first time last year, and placed decently. Now, they have decent results at Rustin and Little Tiger, and could be a surprise this year, jumping over teams like
Wallenpaupack and
Jersey Shore.
Harlan Rowe is an intriguing team, though, who has a solid result at Cornell to their name, and
J.T. Lambert had a history of solid performances before last year’s misstep. If Harlan Rowe makes a triumphant return, or JTL makes a recovery, they could be in play for the 6th and 7th states qualification spots.