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Public’s soft recruit too through media stardom and open enrollment e.g. Newbury, GO, etc. over the years, etc. totally silly and lots of privates are so small they can’t even field full teams in CA.
This.
Oakdale finished 4th in the state power merge this year after picking up a guy who went 9:29 as a sophomore. They picked up another guy this track season who ended up going 9:29
Those two guys will likely be their #1 and #2 as they try to repeat as D3 champs (which will be tough after graduating Daley and C. Cavanaugh.
The vast majority of private schools in our area are terrible at distance, with the few exceptions of the ones that are great (Jesuit, St. Francis)
4th in the power merge at the xc 2022 state meet? Actually Oakdale finished 5th. Merge went like this: 1- Newbury Park 2- Great Oak 3- San Clemente 4- Granada 5- Oakdale 6- Ventura
I do know that some programs "recruit" but from the outside it looks like more than it is. If you have the best program in your area then you are going to get a certain amount of transfers each year or kids that ran middle school or club trying to come into your program. I am NOT saying that schools don't recruit.
All Returning Girls from the \'22 CIF-State Cross Country Championships held on the 5K Woodward Park course in Fresno, including four returning division winners.
Oakdale finished 4th in the state power merge this year after picking up a guy who went 9:29 as a sophomore. They picked up another guy this track season who ended up going 9:29
Those two guys will likely be their #1 and #2 as they try to repeat as D3 champs (which will be tough after graduating Daley and C. Cavanaugh.
The vast majority of private schools in our area are terrible at distance, with the few exceptions of the ones that are great (Jesuit, St. Francis)
4th in the power merge at the xc 2022 state meet? Actually Oakdale finished 5th. Merge went like this: 1- Newbury Park 2- Great Oak 3- San Clemente 4- Granada 5- Oakdale 6- Ventura
The list seems pretty solid but I also have a sleeper teammate who only really threw down times during Junior year track season and was sick for almost a month during cross country NCS and State meet so was pretty much out of the picture.
Lucas Cohen, 4:09 in the 1600m and 9:00 in the 3200m with no specializing, could maybe pull something off during senior XC season. Getting huge base mileage in this summer and our new coach is more freeform so workouts might be better/more personalized...
Wow that’s crazy, I guess that’s going to be the top 7 at state and nothing surprising is going to happen. You know what? Why even have the state championships when the all powerful milesplit is here to tell us how it’s going to go
The list seems pretty solid but I also have a sleeper teammate who only really threw down times during Junior year track season and was sick for almost a month during cross country NCS and State meet so was pretty much out of the picture.
Lucas Cohen, 4:09 in the 1600m and 9:00 in the 3200m with no specializing, could maybe pull something off during senior XC season. Getting huge base mileage in this summer and our new coach is more freeform so workouts might be better/more personalized...
Any chance?
he looks pretty solid but.. He had a really fast teammate to help him train last track season, which he doesn't have this season. I think he could beat half of these guys if he stays 100% focused on running, training goes well, and he isn't just a "track guy" but can also perform well in cross.
However, if he has a lot of untapped potential he should be aiming to rep California by winning either nxn or footlocker. I am pretty sure Parra and Noonan have that potential and will be shooting for a win at either race. I would say it's more important to be psychologically and physically ready after the state meet. A lot of runners get too excited for woodbridge and can't keep up the momentum all the way too the national meet.
Wow that’s crazy, I guess that’s going to be the top 7 at state and nothing surprising is going to happen. You know what? Why even have the state championships when the all powerful milesplit is here to tell us how it’s going to go
The list seems pretty solid but I also have a sleeper teammate who only really threw down times during Junior year track season and was sick for almost a month during cross country NCS and State meet so was pretty much out of the picture.
Lucas Cohen, 4:09 in the 1600m and 9:00 in the 3200m with no specializing, could maybe pull something off during senior XC season. Getting huge base mileage in this summer and our new coach is more freeform so workouts might be better/more personalized...
he looks pretty solid but.. He had a really fast teammate to help him train last track season, which he doesn't have this season. I think he could beat half of these guys if he stays 100% focused on running, training goes well, and he isn't just a "track guy" but can also perform well in cross.
However, if he has a lot of untapped potential he should be aiming to rep California by winning either nxn or footlocker. I am pretty sure Parra and Noonan have that potential and will be shooting for a win at either race. I would say it's more important to be psychologically and physically ready after the state meet. A lot of runners get too excited for woodbridge and can't keep up the momentum all the way too the national meet.
True, Sean graduating is rough for us and Lucas doesn't seem to do nearly as well in cross for some reason (it really might be the shoes imo he always races in flats and never laces up the vaporflies cause discomfort, and the first time he wore dragonflies on the track he went from Soph PRs of 4:17-9:26 to 4:09-9:00 within a few weeks, it was wild.
Honestly wasn't really considering him winning NXN at all, was just mentioning him as a potential qualifier and a displacer to the milesplit top 7 list, but we'll see as the season starts, our first race Farmer Invitational upcoming in a bit.
Also to @Panther Pride, our new cross country coach is the old girls head coach and she's moved in as head coach, but overall the Albany XC/TF culture has always been super freeform with us doing workouts of our own on days we feel good and I think for cross country our coach is looking to continue doing everything old coach has been doing, maybe a bit more of the trail work and hill rep days, but the rest of the days were and will be pretty much without coach intervention, so I think she'll do well.
Well... he dislikes the 3200m (it's not super fun either lol) and pretty much ran it hard once that season at Arcadia, and I'm pretty sure if he knew that he was going to go 4:09 he would have run the mile at Arcadia instead, it was just too late to change.
The point is he wasn't doing particularly high mileage (like 30-40 a week maybe) and training more on the speed end for the mile.
Well... he dislikes the 3200m (it's not super fun either lol) and pretty much ran it hard once that season at Arcadia, and I'm pretty sure if he knew that he was going to go 4:09 he would have run the mile at Arcadia instead, it was just too late to change.
The point is he wasn't doing particularly high mileage (like 30-40 a week maybe) and training more on the speed end for the mile.
he may not like the 3200 (and neither did birnbaum) but from what you are saying it sounds like he is a very talented 3200 runner considering the low mileage, and only running it once. Aaron Sahlman hated the 3200 but loved the 800. However, realistically he would have hit way better times in the 3200 than the 800.
So who is the new Albany coach? And what happened to the old coach, appeared he did a great job with the team?
Ohhh also I missed some questions, Coach Craig was great but he retired last year, nothing bad happened to him just finishing up his many years coaching here... Still around and well, jokingly said he's gonna "quit while he's ahead with two state titles". There was already talk of him retiring last year but he stayed for Sean's final year and another chance at states.
Also, from what I've seen Albany's sudden appearance to the running map was more from a random influx of talent from 2022-2025 that created depth (Standouts like Sean Morello, Lucas Cohen, Callum McBride as well as several solid 16:20-40ish 5k runners), new class of 2026 coming in is more normal with less outliers and I feel like chances are slim we make states after class of 2024 graduates.
Oh also answering the other post about burning out and peaking for woodbridge, I wish we went to woodbridge but Albany has never attended. Maybe a good thing for this from what you're saying.
