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Thanks for all the work you put into this. I use your work as base of further analysis all through track and XC. I am in California, and I very pleased by how many events you do speed rate. It may seem thankless at times, but know that your efforts are very much appreciated by a good number of us who really understand what you are doing and its purpose.
Great Cow run - Glendora (in the rated race at Woodbridge), beat Palisades (in the sweepstakes race) by a good margin, and both teams were at full strength from what I could tell. Glendora went 1,3,7,9 with juniors. A team to watch in the Woodbridge rated race.
These woodbridge entries are really bad the director didn't do their homework. Rock Canyon, CO showed in recent races that they are the best team in Colorado, and they got put in the rated race. Skyridge, UT showed they are a top 5 team in Utah, and got put into the rated. A few Texas teams also deserve to be in the sweepstakes.
Skyridge’s team isn’t entered. They have an individual entered
Based on Milesplit Top 25 Boys Teams2. Crater (OR)4. Southlake (TX)8. Herriman (UT)17. Great Oak (CA)23. Ventura (CA)Who else in consideration Sweepstakes?
"... Another high-impact development involved Oaks Christian — who we originally pegged as the #6 team in the state — sliding down several spots as its projected top returnee has decided to drop the sport in favor of pickleball. Yes, we are serious. ..."
Imagine being good enough to potentially get an individual NXN qualification and you go to pickleball.
A story like that doesn't surprise me at all. Distance running is not for everybody, in fact only a small percentage of the population actually enjoys it. In my senior year, our 3 best runners had begun to hate running and hate our coach even more. They didn't quit, but they spent the year doing things to be disruptive, cutting every distance run and daring the coach to kick them off the team.
I wonder if deep programs like Herriman, past Great Oak teams, and Southlake Carroll have people like that. They probably do, but probably none of those people are good enough to be on their varsity
"... Another high-impact development involved Oaks Christian — who we originally pegged as the #6 team in the state — sliding down several spots as its projected top returnee has decided to drop the sport in favor of pickleball. Yes, we are serious. ..."
Imagine being good enough to potentially get an individual NXN qualification and you go to pickleball.
A story like that doesn't surprise me at all. Distance running is not for everybody, in fact only a small percentage of the population actually enjoys it. In my senior year, our 3 best runners had begun to hate running and hate our coach even more. They didn't quit, but they spent the year doing things to be disruptive, cutting every distance run and daring the coach to kick them off the team.
“First thing for me was: Hey coach, I gotta go to work. And then I was like: What are you talking about? We don’t go to work. This [cross country] is the work.”
A story like that doesn't surprise me at all. Distance running is not for everybody, in fact only a small percentage of the population actually enjoys it. In my senior year, our 3 best runners had begun to hate running and hate our coach even more. They didn't quit, but they spent the year doing things to be disruptive, cutting every distance run and daring the coach to kick them off the team.
“First thing for me was: Hey coach, I gotta go to work. And then I was like: What are you talking about? We don’t go to work. This [cross country] is the work.”
This doesn't surprise me either. That matches up with what he did at Great Oak. If you wanted to be on the "elite squad" that did extra training beyond the rest of the team, and be part of the travel team, you had to be fully committed. Having a job that conflicted with the training would be a no-go in all but the most extreme cases. I doubt he is unique in this regard.
“First thing for me was: Hey coach, I gotta go to work. And then I was like: What are you talking about? We don’t go to work. This [cross country] is the work.”
This doesn't surprise me either. That matches up with what he did at Great Oak. If you wanted to be on the "elite squad" that did extra training beyond the rest of the team, and be part of the travel team, you had to be fully committed. Having a job that conflicted with the training would be a no-go in all but the most extreme cases. I doubt he is unique in this regard.
Herriman XC still probably has kids that have jobs and have trouble committing to the sport, but they just aren’t good enough to make their varsity
Not sure if the Utah rules but you can go around the CIF practice hours limit time by adding a “class” that is actually just more training for the team.
4 of their top-5 guys ran in the D1 boys senior race. Harrington (soph) ran in the soph race Based on the results, this team is very much looking to be 5-deep this year
Newbury Park girls might not qualify for the state Championship in Fresno. They didn’t look good. How are they ranked 2 in SS
Who else will beat the NP girls team at sections besides Ventura?
Claremont. The latest PrepCalTrack rankings has them #3 in Div 2. As for the larger question of how good they are in their division, the 5 teams ranked right behind them, and the 2 above them, will all be at Woodbridge, which should give some solid objective data.
Listen to this episode from The XC Report on Spotify. It's hard to imagine just how competitive this race is going to be. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-xc-report/message Support this...
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?
Bruh it's even crazier than I imagined..
Well so Lucas came back after doing solid 30-50mi weeks throughout summer and first race of the season he lost his race shoes in his house and so casually ran a 14:37 3mi at the Hayward High NCS course in his worn down Hokas, won Varsity. No one even close to push him and frankly did not seem like a big effort at all. NXN qual is looking very possible this year.
Morgenfeld broke his leg over summer. He ran the meet as a workout.
Either way, I highly doubt he will be a contender for NXN.
Any more info on what "broke his leg" means? Technically any fracture is a broken bone. I don't mean to be cold or dismissive, it is just that he is still entered in the Woodbridge Sweepstakes race as individual, and he is from Palo Alto. Last year, he came alone as well. That's a long way to go if you aren't in good racing shape. I can see doing it for the team, but not to travel that far as an individual.
I see his team is scheduled to run the Lowell Inv. on Saturday. Maybe he will give it a harder run and see if it is worth the trip to Woodbridge.
He did run at Woodbridge, 33rd in 14:25, so he is not all the way back but pretty close. Still more than 2 months away from states, plenty of time to get into top form.
Biggest surprise at Woodbridge to me was Beckman boys finishing #6. Even with their new transfer, I only had them at #14 in state, and scoring wise way, way behind Dana Hills, Trabuco and Mira Costa, but their 4th and 5th runners ran extremely well, finishing way ahead the 5th runner of other teams that I thought were much deeper.
And St Francis in 10th was also a surprise, and the guy who is probably their #1/2 runner had an off race.
On the girls side, unless I am blind, I don't Saugus anywhere on the PrepCalTrack southern section rankings, and they seem to still be in the SS. They finished 17th in sweeps, ahead of many teams that are ranked, and some ranked pretty high.
Dana would’ve been 4th or 5th in the race if they had their runner Jayden Hernandez in the line up. Dana would scored approx 266~275 with him running. He won’t be eligible to race with the team until October.
