NXN 2023 Way too early preview: Dawn of a new Era

disagree you guys are too focused on the utah teams on here. Niwot will most likely be 3rd, if either herriman or american fork have a bad day they will be second

What about Valor Christian?
Last year they beat Niwot every time except NXR where they had an off day.
Niwot lost 4 seniors whereas Valor lost only 1.
Niwot will have no seniors on varsity , and Valor will have 1. Dane Eike. He ran a sub-9 in the 3200. He could break out as a star

Valor has

12th 8:50

11th 9:20

three kids from 9:45-9:55 (two jrs and a soph)

and then probably 4 juniors and one senior that are in 10:00-10:30 shape

they dont have enough kids in the 9:00-9:30 range to qualify for NXR automatically, but there is a world where they get the 3rd-4th spot.

niwot basically has the same problem except they are just a tad bit slower as a whole

Valor Christian should be up there too. I would say 4th place (2nd NxN bid) is close between Valor Christian and Riverton (has a very strong 5 runners this year). top 5 this year are very strong in this region. I highly recommend (Niwot, Valor Christian, and Riverton) to go out to meets in Washington and California early season to beat auto-qualifiers from other regions. At-large bids are chosen based on who beats an auto-qualifer.

1) you have to consider altitude, 2) you have to consider that Colorado is a state that does better in their XC season than track season. Niwot is a very dangeous team next year because they have huge talent potential. They have really fast freshman and sophomores. Freshman and Sophmores tend to be ready to make the jump their Sophmore / Junior years.

I should also note that auto qualifers from West Region are always hard to beat.

Can’t forget about Lone Peak. Last year they reloaded well after losing 5 seniors, and next year they return 9:19, 9:29, 9:32, 9:45, and 9:51.
They return their 2-4 from the state meet, and the 9:19 guy was not in their top 7 last year and he could be a good replacement for Hartshorn. The 9:51 guy was not in their top 7 either. So they got a really good top 5 ready to go for next year.

Also Orem got 2nd at the 5A Utah state meet and they return 4 varsity guys + a 10:21 / 4:47. All 5 will be seniors

And they also return another senior who ran a 16:36 5k and a 15:19 and scored at Woodbridge, but didn’t have a great track season

Orem got 7th in the Sweepstakes race at Woodbridge, but didn’t have their best race at NXR

Valor Christian returners
Eike - 12 - 8:52
Dendorfer - 11 - 9:16
Crooks - 11 - 9:46
Mazeski - 10 - 9:53
Warren - 11 - 9:55
Gilbert - 11 - 10:12
Swan - 11 - 4:38 / 16:03 5k

Niwot returners:
Culpepper - 10 - 4:16 / 15:18
Keeton - 10 - 9:35 / 4:32
Engtrakul - 11 - 9:41 / 4:25
Toothaker - 11 - 4:27 / 10:19
Geldean - 11 - 9:50
Jackman - 11 - 9:57
Lennert - 11 - 9:59
Kear - 11 - 9:59
Anthony - 11 - 16:40 5k
Wood - 11 - 16:05. No track results

JSerra returns all of their 1-5 from NXN and adds 2 or 3 valued transfers (one of them being the top returner for Cathedral Catholic), so this team is now getting deeper too. They may be in the conversation of teams to win NXN this year, or at least make the podium.

I just feel like everyone is getting more motivated to represent their state and do good at NXN. I feel like it is harder to podium or win nxn now than it was 5-10 years ago. Some of the teams next season are stacked.

Yeah this year it’s a lot less clear on which team will win NXN than it was the last 3 years.
The last 3 years it was only 1 team that could - Newbury Park.
It’s a lot more wide open this year

Not understanding this

Wait for it…

Dana Hills boys team got an at-large in 2019, without beating any auto qualifiers.
They were chosen because the top 2 teams in the country were California teams
And at nxn they got 8th and this justified the at-large pick

Orem UT returning 5k times
15:15
15:48
16:12
16:48
16:43 (at NXR 2021) / 10:16 3200
All will be seniors

Jesuit LA’s #1 guy. Jack Desroches, dropped out of the race at RunningLane. He graduated though

Based the Illinois thread, the out-of-state transfer is Juliet Frum. 4:50 1600, 10:52 3200, 17:23 5k. 6th at NXR Midwest. Incoming junior. Even after losing a few seniors, Mountain Vista is going to be LOADED for the next couple of years.

So Mountain Vista has:
Frum - 17:23 5k / 6th at NXR NW - 11 - transfer
Edwards - 10:36 2-mile / 17:36 5k / 8th at NXR SW - 11 - transfer
P Adams - 18:11 5k / 10:39 3200 / 22nd at NXR SW - 11
Brandt - 11:02 3200 (state qual) / 19:07 5k - 11
Derikson - 5:07 1600 / 11:12 3200 / 19:17 5k - 12
Smith - 18:54 at liberty bell - 12
Christians - 19:17 5k - 10
Twete - 19:18 5k at NXR - 10

Looks like a young team too. Solid potential for 2024

With Niwot, Lone Peak, Air Academy, American Fork, and Mountain Vista, the Southwest region is about to be STACKED!!!

What I’m saying is that there will be at least 4 teams better than the Newbury Park boys team this year. And a region can only send a maximum of 4 teams to nxn

No offense to Newbury park of course

Some guy in this thread said Newbury Park is going for a 5-peat (not sure if he meant 5-peat for nxn champs or qualifying for nxn )