NXN 2023 Way too early preview: Dawn of a new Era

Anyone done a hypothetical meet later based on the top team’s speed ratings?

That would upset too many people, speed ratings are hypothetical and fun. Northeast speed ratings seem unfairly high to other regions.

sick move made by fasthorse at clovis on an uphill to break away from field

That was breathtaking view of the course from above, you can also see noonan in the pack behind. Hes too far away to know that fasthorse has already left the pack.

This performance got him a 198 speed rating, my friends strava watch said 3.14, so its a true 5k.

Why doesn't Evan Noonan ever go out with the top guys? Is he saving it for NXN?

it's just his way of racing. He likes to move up at the end and out-kick the field

What does everyone think are the best girls teams by the region?

I can only fill in the regions I know well:

California - Jserra, Buchanan

Southwest - Air Academy, Lone Peak

Northwest - Lincoln, Boise

South - Southlake Carroll, Flower Mound

Ventura beat Buchanan at Clovis

Ventura just beat Buchanan at Clovis, so gotta put them at #2 in CA.

Niwot (Southwest) should be mentioned too. They ran a perfect score at the Desert Twilight

Mountain Vista (who got many transfers) and American Fork seem like solid teams in Southwest too. Vista has a transfer from Valor Christian (Keeghan Edwards) who isn’t varsity-eligible yet

Santiago Corona actually tied Buchanan at Clovis invite

Updated list - help fill in the blanks

Northeast - Union Catholic crushed last year’s NXN champs Saratoga. North Allegheny is good too.

I’m curious on how Saratoga girls team will end up doing this year. They have a strong 1-3 (all of them are seniors and scored last year along with the Wheeler twins who graduated), but after that there is a big drop-off, and when they raced against Union Catholic, this showed how much this drop-off hurt them

Belen is a true national contender?

I wouldn’t say so. I think Herriman and American Fork are the main two.

It’s kind of hard for a team to win NXN if their #1 guy is a freshman. They are also missing Socarras (one of their scorers), but I’m not sure how much difference that will make if he returns since their 3-5 are pretty similar

I think It would be a mistake to count Belen, Southlake Carroll, and Christian Brothers out of the equation of national contender. Yes the main 2 are Herriman and American Fork, but it isn't unreasonable to think any of these 5 teams can win.

top 5 teams are closer than people realize. There isn't really much of a gap at all between herriman/american fork and belen/southlake/christian. We will see which team is really the best come nxn.

Absolutely. Two legitimate low sticks (they might have the first #2 across the line) and a very strong pack behind them. That’s a formula for contending at NXN