New England HS XC Champs-5 guys break Ben True's Course Record!

Hopper also broke Cabral's Wickham record by 1 second...he just got outleaned by Alvarado. Will be interesting to see how he develops...

CTBoss wrote:

Hopper also broke Cabral's Wickham record by 1 second...he just got outleaned by Alvarado. Will be interesting to see how he develops...

Forget Hopper!

what about this genetic freak of nature:

9 424 David Principe Jr. 9 La Salle-RI 15:46.9

even Guor Marial only ran 15:30'ish on Derryfield. Most runners don't even touch sub-16 as a senior, never mind 15:46 as a freshman. If he puts in the work in, he'll be a real terror next year, and easily a 14:45 guy senior year.

No Hopper deserves the props here. The 15:46 freshman might not pan out. Hopper just took down a FootLocker finalist and ran 9 seconds faster than True did in HS. Hopper's 3,200 PR is 9:07 and he's going to annihilate that this year.

Why didn't RI go to the meet this year?

SomeCoach wrote:

Why didn't RI go to the meet this year?

They did.

Now I see that, but they are not included in the results link in the OP

NE Runner454 wrote:

http://nh.milesplit.com/meets/148806/results/276850

Epic!

derrick111 wrote:

Forget Hopper!

what about this genetic freak of nature:

9 424 David Principe Jr. 9 La Salle-RI 15:46.9

even Guor Marial only ran 15:30'ish on Derryfield. Most runners don't even touch sub-16 as a senior, never mind 15:46 as a freshman. If he puts in the work in, he'll be a real terror next year, and easily a 14:45 guy senior year.

Amazing freshmen who don't do a whole lot more are a dime a dozen.

Check out Philip McQuitty, Palo Alto, CA, HS class of 2010. Was gonna be a world beater...

Of course I hope Principe does great things in the future - goes on to win Olympic Gold and all that. Just don't be counting on it.

Ef Why Eye, Ahmad Haji has the course record at Wickham, 15:21.

For those wondering, Twin Brook is a long established course. Usually, it is the place Maine runs New England's. It is pretty well groomed, yet challenging with a pretty tough stretch of mid-sized steep hills. It is not what most would call a fast course. The top times are undoubtedly worth sub 15 for the top 3 or 4 guys. I ran New Englands 3 times in Highschool, and this one was the hardest.

The meet was at Derryfield Park in New Hampshire, not in Maine. The Derryfield course hasn't changed since at least the early 90s, so that record was legit. Also, the Wickham course was changed in 2008 and it is much slower so the "new" course record was broken this year. I can't believe how fast some of those kids ran on the boys and girls sides. Pretty great day.

It is interesting/unusual to see a 9th grade kid do well when it's so commonplace to see the girls do it.

Obviously it's a question of strength.

He was born in Ethiopia and adopted as a 2 year old.

Erroneous wrote:

Ef Why Eye, Ahmad Haji has the course record at Wickham, 15:21.

No, the course Haji ran on, while at the same venue, was not the course they run today. That course was barely over three miles.

The for a year or two there was a course that was well over 5,000 meters.

Finally, Goldilocks and the the rest of the CIAC found one that was JUST RIGHT. That is the course they run today. To be honest, I can't remember if the course Cabral ran his senior year was the long one or the current one.

Being new to New England, I like seeing this kind of regional meet. And I like seeing my new state of CT running so well. But where were the Mass schools?

Mass doesnt' even have its all-state meet until next weekend. Mass runners have always had an air of arrogance toward the New England meets, often sitting out for no reason whatsoever. New England's is on a good date, right after state for most kids, and with two weeks to get ready for FootLocker Northeast. If Mass wants to run it, they need to changed the date of their state meet.

You must mean two weeks to get ready for NXNNYNE at Bowdoin Park on Nov 30.... Promises to be epic with PA sending Unionville, Pennsbury, West Chester Henderson, and other really good PA squads to mix it up with Barrington, LaSalle, BH, CBA, WWS, Ridgefield CT among others....

NXNNYNE outdraws FLNE three to one.....for good reasons

You are well named sir wrote:

No, the course Haji ran on, while at the same venue, was not the course they run today. That course was barely over three miles.

The for a year or two there was a course that was well over 5,000 meters.

.

Are you saying the old course was barely over 3 miles? The one where Pete Rea's CR of 15:30s held up for nearly 20 years? The one where only two kids (Haji and Coombs) ever broke 15:30?

Surely you jest. Didn't know they changed it, and not sure why, but that course had to be 5000 meters.

I'm not sure the Wickham course is slower now. It was pretty slow back when I ran on the old course that started up that hill and finished up the same hill at the end. I've run on both courses and I find the old course to be tougher.

The Derryfield Park course with its 1000 meters of paving is an illegal course and should not be used for a championship race. The trail portion is good but the first mile of fields / roads is awful. I will be writing a formal complaint to the New England Council about it.

Aside from that the races were fantastic and the talent is legit. The most impressive thing I saw was the girl from Staples High School their just destroying a good field of runners in the girls race. I cut up through the woods to the upper hill in the middle of the race and this kid was taking control. She was hardly breathing. The girls around her were all in pain.