It’s tough for me to view some of these high school teams that are stacked with recruits “the greatest.” As someone who has been around for a long time, I just know so many coaches and teams who have put in the work year after year to build very solid teams without depending on transfers and recruits. Those teams deserve more credit. But over the years, we are seeing a big change and these super teams are here to stay. If you what to get on the podium at NXN m, you are going to have to get in that sort of game now for sure. The Colorado and CA schools have started figuring that out.
This transfer ridiculousness started in 2017 when Loudoun Valley got 2 scoring transfers and won NXN, then in 2018 they got even more transfers
It is getting ridiculous that we keep focusing on people moving their children to what they view as successful programs, and they achieve some sort of critical mass and then more people come, and never give any thought that it was the coaches there that created the environment for success.
As much as I am not a fan to the Hunters, they did good work, and the level of continued success at LV dropped almost immediately with their departure. Yes, LV still does well, however, it is not at the same level it was in the Hunter era.
The reason parents (do not be naive, parents are certainly choosing where to take their kids these days) are going to MVHS, Valor, Niwot, AAHS and now Coronado has everything to do with the work those coaches and schools are putting into creating a quality running program. This does not mean I agree with some of the more mercenary parents that are out there hopping from school to school, but, other schools can work to get the check collectors, bullies (yes, adult coach bullies), and toxic culture under control, or not, however, successful programs will.
NXN Girl's Predictions 1. Mountain Vista (CO) 2. J Serra (CA) 3. Ventura (CA) 4. Lone Peak (UT) 5. Buchanan (CA) 6. Air Academy (CO) 7. Niwot (CO) 8. Union Catholic (NJ)
Mountain Vista will take first by a solid margin. The CA schools will battle it out for second and third.
Not counting out Lone Peak for a podium finish. They will be very good this fall with a lot of depth, and they had an extremely impressive showing on the girls side at the Utah State Meet in May.
Yeah I think Buchanan will beat Lone Peak.
Lone Peak has depth but they lose 2 of their stars - Andie Aagard & Addie Meldrum
so if Im reading this correctly this preseason list is based strictly on "achievements"? and is only inclusive of "some" runners and not meant to be comprehensive? is that why Ritzenhein is above Leachman and Hedengren? and why Elin Latta is nowhere to be seen? Alyssa Sauro? Maya De Brouwer? Macy Wingard? Payton Meineke? Chloe Huyler?
so if Im reading this correctly this preseason list is based strictly on "achievements"? and is only inclusive of "some" runners and not meant to be comprehensive? is that why Ritzenhein is above Leachman and Hedengren? and why Elin Latta is nowhere to be seen? Alyssa Sauro? Maya De Brouwer? Macy Wingard? Payton Meineke? Chloe Huyler?
I was quite surprised that Chloe Huyler wasn’t on the list. And Payton Meineke too.
so if Im reading this correctly this preseason list is based strictly on "achievements"? and is only inclusive of "some" runners and not meant to be comprehensive? is that why Ritzenhein is above Leachman and Hedengren? and why Elin Latta is nowhere to be seen? Alyssa Sauro? Maya De Brouwer? Macy Wingard? Payton Meineke? Chloe Huyler?
Sometimes incoming 9th graders are missed. Not every state allows middle schoolers to compete in high school races. Latta did run a 17:24 at the NXR community race though
so if Im reading this correctly this preseason list is based strictly on "achievements"? and is only inclusive of "some" runners and not meant to be comprehensive? is that why Ritzenhein is above Leachman and Hedengren? and why Elin Latta is nowhere to be seen? Alyssa Sauro? Maya De Brouwer? Macy Wingard? Payton Meineke? Chloe Huyler?
Any time a ranking shows a team or an athlete (who had a good day in the mud at NXN) rank above teams or athletes who were better than them all year, that list loses a lot of credibility. NXN was a complete mess, and those NXN results should not influence overall rankings as much as they do. Mud was the equalizer. Leachman, Hedengren, Engelhart are all better than Ritzenhein.
so if Im reading this correctly this preseason list is based strictly on "achievements"? and is only inclusive of "some" runners and not meant to be comprehensive? is that why Ritzenhein is above Leachman and Hedengren? and why Elin Latta is nowhere to be seen? Alyssa Sauro? Maya De Brouwer? Macy Wingard? Payton Meineke? Chloe Huyler?
Any time a ranking shows a team or an athlete (who had a good day in the mud at NXN) rank above teams or athletes who were better than them all year, that list loses a lot of credibility. NXN was a complete mess, and those NXN results should not influence overall rankings as much as they do. Mud was the equalizer. Leachman, Hedengren, Engelhart are all better than Ritzenhein.
Say what you want about the NXN course but you can't deny that Ritzenhein has a direct head to head win DURING XC (not track) over virtually every top girl in the country.
That alone warrants a top 3 ranking, if not a straight up #1
Any time a ranking shows a team or an athlete (who had a good day in the mud at NXN) rank above teams or athletes who were better than them all year, that list loses a lot of credibility. NXN was a complete mess, and those NXN results should not influence overall rankings as much as they do. Mud was the equalizer. Leachman, Hedengren, Engelhart are all better than Ritzenhein.
Say what you want about the NXN course but you can't deny that Ritzenhein has a direct head to head win DURING XC (not track) over virtually every top girl in the country.
That alone warrants a top 3 ranking, if not a straight up #1
I would put her three, sure (until Engelhardt provers herself to be the dominant force in cross country that she clearly has in track). I get the head to head thing no matter how technical the win and I get that an NXN win is considered the crown jewel achievement of cross country by the traditionalists so if you are giving away rankings based on achievement points this may be it (and the family name doesnt hurt). But if you are ranking athletes based purely on how good they are (which is really what I think ranking systems should be for; especially preseason ones!) or at least on how much potential they have then I cant see her ahead of Leachman or Hedengren. Not at this point. And I dont think thats a radical take either.
Say what you want about the NXN course but you can't deny that Ritzenhein has a direct head to head win DURING XC (not track) over virtually every top girl in the country.
That alone warrants a top 3 ranking, if not a straight up #1
I would put her three, sure (until Engelhardt provers herself to be the dominant force in cross country that she clearly has in track). I get the head to head thing no matter how technical the win and I get that an NXN win is considered the crown jewel achievement of cross country by the traditionalists so if you are giving away rankings based on achievement points this may be it (and the family name doesnt hurt). But if you are ranking athletes based purely on how good they are (which is really what I think ranking systems should be for; especially preseason ones!) or at least on how much potential they have then I cant see her ahead of Leachman or Hedengren. Not at this point. And I dont think thats a radical take either.
Completely agree. Using one extremely atypical race as the primary source of a ranking is just not very ambitious.
Say what you want about the NXN course but you can't deny that Ritzenhein has a direct head to head win DURING XC (not track) over virtually every top girl in the country.
That alone warrants a top 3 ranking, if not a straight up #1
I would put her three, sure (until Engelhardt provers herself to be the dominant force in cross country that she clearly has in track). I get the head to head thing no matter how technical the win and I get that an NXN win is considered the crown jewel achievement of cross country by the traditionalists so if you are giving away rankings based on achievement points this may be it (and the family name doesnt hurt). But if you are ranking athletes based purely on how good they are (which is really what I think ranking systems should be for; especially preseason ones!) or at least on how much potential they have then I cant see her ahead of Leachman or Hedengren. Not at this point. And I dont think thats a radical take either.
I am going to coin this: Niwot Derangement Syndrome. Just cannot say, those guys do a good job. Right now, they are the top dogs. Maybe it will change this year, however, right now...
I know there’s been some discussions about transfers in other threads, but I thought I’d make a thread for this. List of transfers so far: Brenna Jorde - IMG Academy FL to Mountain Vista CO Sophia Grant - Newbury...
I honestly don’t know how anyone could predict anyone other than Sadie Englehart. How could anyone predict anyone else other than her? She obviously just had a bad race at NXN last year.
I honestly don’t know how anyone could predict anyone other than Sadie Englehart. How could anyone predict anyone else other than her? She obviously just had a bad race at NXN last year.
I can predict Ritzenhein because she had a good race at NXN when it mattered most and her track season hasn't been anything to worry about.
I can predict that Hedengren would beat Engelhardt, because she won Woodbridge head to head over Leachman, Engelhardt, Blade, ect ect, before being injured. Hedengren's track season had been better than Ritz's, and close in caliber to Engelhardt, despite Hedengren being better at XC