2. Derick Peters, West Central (South Dakota)
Grade: Senior
Breakdown: The best way to describe Peters in relation to his competition in South Dakota is "utterly dominant." In 2016, Peters went undefeated in the regular season -- including dropping a 14:57 at the Lennox Invitational -- and then he proceeded to secure an individual state title by a cool 55 seconds over the runner-up.
But his steam ran out after that, as he finished 31st at the NXN Heartland regional and 32nd at Footlocker Midwest. However, Peters has rebounded very nicely so far 2017, opening his season with three consecutive wins, and entering the Flo50 rankings this week in the No. 25 spot. While his performance against non-Dakota competition was disappointing in 2016, Peters is a year older and more experienced, and competing at Griak is surely going to be a part of his further maturation as this will be his first regular season race with competition of equal ability as himself. It is hard to imagine Peters faltering again.