Well here we are- second week of October and Conference meets are on the horizon.
A) Benet still ain't that good. Somebody earlier in the thread tried to say I was dumb for saying they aren't good, but when did we start calling 14:58/15:28/15:39/15:48/15:58 good? Sure that's not "bad", but that's maaaaaybe a top 10 team if a lot of other teams blow up. Maybe they taper well but I stand by my previous statement, these guys need another year before they're actually good.
You guys know what’s funny? Here, in these preseason rankings, Plainfield south was 30th and in the Instagram comments people who’s teams aren’t ranked are asking how much you have to pay to take the 30th spot. And in the end, 30th place is actually way too low for Plainfield South.
Well here we are- second week of October and Conference meets are on the horizon.
A) Benet still ain't that good. Somebody earlier in the thread tried to say I was dumb for saying they aren't good, but when did we start calling 14:58/15:28/15:39/15:48/15:58 good? Sure that's not "bad", but that's maaaaaybe a top 10 team if a lot of other teams blow up. Maybe they taper well but I stand by my previous statement, these guys need another year before they're actually good.
Benet isn’t making state this year. Period.
Benet only ran so slow over the weekend bc no one else can really touch them in the ESCC. They will definitely be able to perform a lot better at KLM as a team and can definitely eek a state appearance out. In 2023 they have a very good shot of being a trophy team as previously mentioned; they are literally returning their entire top 7
But Benet was beaten fairly substantially by York at the Steelman Invite and York is going to have run very well to make state. It was an early meet but York put 5 runners before Benet's #2 and their 4-5 were 15 and 19 seconds behind York's 5th. And that was without Zangan who was York's #2 in conference.
But Benet was beaten fairly substantially by York at the Steelman Invite and York is going to have run very well to make state. It was an early meet but York put 5 runners before Benet's #2 and their 4-5 were 15 and 19 seconds behind York's 5th. And that was without Zangan who was York's #2 in conference.
I agree that Benet will be really good next year. As of now, I have Barrington winning next year though. They return all of their top 6. Lots of sophs in that group too so they might go to nationals in 2024 and make some noise there.
Hersey could challenge for the win at state next year too. They weren’t far behind Barrington and return everybody.
Hoffman Estates returns 4 of their top 5
New trier brings back a lot of guys too. They seem to always reload.
Plainfield south will need a 4/5 to close the gap on their 3rd to be really good again
It appears that it’s Hinsdale central #5’s first season of Xc after having done track the last couple of years. So we can expect him to continue to make big jumps and try to close the gap on their 4th guy
Seeing a lot of talk about teams returning guys and predictions of state titles and I don't want to be negative but just a cautionary tale. First, a lot of teams mentioned here haven't really had any long term success at state and there is a reason for that in development from year to year. The programs that you see up near the top year after year is because they develop guys constantly and reload in a very short time frame. Many have the advantage of larger rosters as well as good coaches who have more guys to work with.
There is also the irrefutable fact that development isn't linear, some guys will get better but others may not. Because a team is returning a lot doesn't mean they'll be better the next year.
A case is the Niles North team in the early 2000s. They took 13th at state with a frosh, 2 sophs and 4 juniors and the frosh was their top runner and the 2 sophs were scoring runners. The next year they improved slightly to 10th, the year after that not only didn't qualify as a team, they didn't even send an individual to state. And the program has disappeared since.
I hope these teams do have success, it's always great to see the old guard challenged but claiming a state title is a putting the horse well before cart.
I also think he's well off on Neuqua who beat Plainfield North at Griak, along with Nap Cent and Wheat So. If he's got PN at 9 those teams should be right with them. Also I don't think York is better than Sandburg.
Note. Benet not even listed, that's going to frost some buns on here.