Assuming Lukas wins Footlocker on Saturday, I think there will be enough data to make the case for placing him over Pre, Virgin and Ritz, notice I have removed Reina and Solinsky, etc., from the discussion. The difficult person to compare is Gerry Lindgren, who predated the national meet; however, based his track performances and how he did as an NCAA athlete makes it hard to say how Gerry would have fared in head-to-head competition against Lukas. Although track and cross country are 2 different things, it is impossible to remove it from equation in trying to figure out who is the absolute best without having a uniform set of standards. I suspect for some people, even if Lukas wins Footlocker comfortably, it will take a Jr. Cross victory and/or some outstanding track performances to end all doubt.
A few things to keep in mind:
Lukas would have finished no worse than 3rd at FLNC as a freshman and possibly could have won it.
Lukas won FLNC comfortably as sophomore, he is the only sophomore to win FLNC; he quite possibly could have won by the greatest margin ever if he hadn’t clearly decided to cruise in.
Lukas won NXN as a Junior beating perhaps one of the best fields ever and the kid that finished second has track PRs of 5K (14:30), 10K (29:46) and 3K SC (9:06) possibly run at altitude.
Lukas could win FLNC on Saturday, becoming only the 3 male athlete to accomplish that.