Gabe Longworth swept the 1A sprints this year and will be looking to repeat the feat in 2014. Photo by Paul Jaeger.
This year's 1A team state champion, Heritage Christian Academy, lost a bundle to graduation. While they may be a very good team again next year, they have a lot of holes from departed seniors to fill. While they're working on that, there will be a lot other teams looking to build a championship program of their own. For the time being, those teams go to the front of the line.
At this point, the four leading team title candidates appear to be North Park, Vail Christian, Elbert, and McClave. Each returns a key figure or two from this year's state team. Each has a few more guys who figure to be able to augment the team score.
North Park will rely heavily on Clay Russell. Russell could score at state from any event from 100 to 800 meters (and probably beyond), plus the long jump. That means Russell has to make some decisions, but these are the kind of pro...