Dalia Frias is more impressive to me, though I might be slightly biased as I've known about her since she was a freshman. She had never competed in any sport prior to high school, her parents have no running background, and Dalia did not take running seriously until her course record at Woodbridge. She's a serious talent, hopefully she can remain healthy at Duke.
Your claim that Dalia didn't take running seriously until after her course record at Woodbridge is hard to believe. I was there. She smoked a very high quality national class field, including the spectacular Natalie Cook.
Dalia is either the most naturally talented runner in the history of the world, or she was training a lot harder than you realize.
Her Strava is public if you want to look at her training, but I know her and her teammates, I'm from the South Bay. What I mean is that she doesn't train as hard as a typical top high school runner; her workouts aren't geared for what she runs, her normal runs are slow, and she committed to Duke because she cares more about academics than running. I wouldn't necessarily say that she's undertraining, but she's no Brynn Brown and she certainly isn't running anything close to 60mpw.
In the early season, Natalie Cook wasn't nearly as sharp as she was in the end and NP's Sam McDonnell outkicked her at Woodbridge. Both Dalia and Sam were gapped by more than 30 seconds at RunningLane.
Your claim that Dalia didn't take running seriously until after her course record at Woodbridge is hard to believe. I was there. She smoked a very high quality national class field, including the spectacular Natalie Cook.
Dalia is either the most naturally talented runner in the history of the world, or she was training a lot harder than you realize.
Her Strava is public if you want to look at her training, but I know her and her teammates, I'm from the South Bay. What I mean is that she doesn't train as hard as a typical top high school runner; her workouts aren't geared for what she runs, her normal runs are slow, and she committed to Duke because she cares more about academics than running. I wouldn't necessarily say that she's undertraining, but she's no Brynn Brown and she certainly isn't running anything close to 60mpw.
In the early season, Natalie Cook wasn't nearly as sharp as she was in the end and NP's Sam McDonnell outkicked her at Woodbridge. Both Dalia and Sam were gapped by more than 30 seconds at RunningLane.
I have only talked to Dalia once, but she seems nice and I wish her well. If she can run 4:35 for a mile off only a few months of serious training, then the college girls are in big trouble next year.
I have my doubts as to how much more Natalie Cook can improve doing her 20 miles per week plus cross training routine, so who knows, maybe Dalia will end up being the most successful distance girl in the class of 2022.
I wasn't able to be there at Azusa Pacific, but hopefully Dalia will be running at either Arcadia or Mt SAC these next 2 weeks.
It will be interesting to see a rematch of those two later this spring at some point.
They have already developed a bit of a rivalry but Frias has largely had the upper hand between them. Probably started right out of the gate in their first cross country race when Engelhardt out kicked her at Sundown. Frias was visibly miffed that this freshman stole the win from her when she had basically already been crowned best runner in the state going into her senior year. After that Frias ran her best times against Engelhardt, smoking her at Woodbrige and again at the Southern Sectionals then outdueling her in the State Championships. My guess is Frias had that first race still in her head when they met again this weekend.
These are all of the Invitational, Seeded and Rated 1600m and Mile races from the 2022 Meet of Champions Distance Classic track meet held March 26 at Azusa P...
It will be interesting to see a rematch of those two later this spring at some point.
They have already developed a bit of a rivalry but Frias has largely had the upper hand between them. Probably started right out of the gate in their first cross country race when Engelhardt out kicked her at Sundown. Frias was visibly miffed that this freshman stole the win from her when she had basically already been crowned best runner in the state going into her senior year. After that Frias ran her best times against Engelhardt, smoking her at Woodbrige and again at the Southern Sectionals then outdueling her in the State Championships. My guess is Frias had that first race still in her head when they met again this weekend.
Thanks for the backstory. Frias really walked Sadie down with that 66 final circuit. Credit to Sadie for shouldering the load most of the way.