WaitForMoreData wrote:
Normally when someone picks a winner and says "you heard it here first", they aren't picking the runner with the fastest time. The only runners to have run faster this year are both no longer in the 800 for the state meet. He may have had some off races, but he is still the favorite. "you heard it here first" would be more like picking Cain Evans, who is only in his 2nd year of HS track, and has gone from 1:59 to 1:52 this year, and is relatively unknown because he races in San Diego. And in his first and only year of XC, he ran 15:34 at Woodward Park. Now that's a lesser known talent that could surprise.
I predicted Joseph Lighthall last year in early May to win the state champ and I was right. And Ligons is very similar to him. Both have nearly identical PR's (to when Joseph was still in HS) and Ligons by far has more 400 speed than any other 800 athlete in CA.
That Cain Evans kid is impressive. If this is really his first time running competitively then hats off to him. Hopefully he'll qualify for states and he'll clash with Ligons as we still have quite a ways to go until then.