Great Oak ... best high school cross country team ever?

They're the best team ever

These times at Woodward Park? I'd give them the nod... (the girls also won D1).

http://www.prepcaltrack.com/2015/11/01/cif-state-division-1-boys/

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Athlete # Team Score Time

3 Dodds, Spencer 695 Great Oak 3 15:00.0

5 Spencer, Cole 698 Great Oak 5 15:04.5

7 Cortes, Isaac 694 Great Oak 7 15:05.8

12 Fountain, Solomon 687 Great Oak 11 15:20.0

22 Quintana, Nelson 689 Great Oak 17 15:38.3

33 Robinson, Tony 696 Great Oak 26 15:46.1

53 Shields, Brandon 697 Great Oak 42 16:00.6

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Athlete # Team Score Time

1 Rocha, Phillip 53 Arcadia 1 14:42.9

2 Herrera, Eduardo 937 Madera South 2 14:48.8

3 Dodds, Spencer 695 Great Oak 3 15:00.0

4 Ogden, Jake 482 Dana Hills 4 15:03.9

5 Spencer, Cole 698 Great Oak 5 15:04.5

6 Reynolds, Garrett 1789 Ventura 6 15:05.0

7 Cortes, Isaac 694 Great Oak 7 15:05.8

8 Vernau, Michael 488 Davis 8 15:07.8

9 Luevano, Paul 1776 Venice — 15:09.2

10 Landgraf, Jack 480 Dana Hills 9 15:12.6

11 Villar, Miguel 932 Madera South 10 15:15.6

12 Fountain, Solomon 687 Great Oak 11 15:20.0

13 Coppi, Mason 481 Dana Hills 12 15:24.1

14 Grijalva, Luis 70 Armijo — 15:24.4

15 Katzman, Zachary 1580 Skyline — 15:25.0

16 Kurdy, Sean 770 Jesuit 13 15:27.4

17 Holland, Benjamin 766 Jesuit 14 15:28.1

18 Comeaux, Ethan 1314 Redondo Union — 15:33.8

19 Stein, Colin 483 Dana Hills 15 15:34.6

20 Garcia, Hector 966 Marshall — 15:35.8

21 Cuellar, Cisco 235 California 16 15:37.9

22 Quintana, Nelson 689 Great Oak 17 15:38.3

23 Fitzgerald, Colin 454 Crescenta Valley — 15:39.1

24 Browning, Kellen 495 Davis 18 15:39.9

25 Aguirre, Angel 231 California 19 15:40.6

26 Biedebach, Michael 581 El Toro — 15:40.7

27 Chrisman, Tim 1092 Monte Vista 20 15:41.2

28 Rodriguez, Nestor 1790 Ventura 21 15:41.7

29 Borowsky, Nick 494 Davis 22 15:42.9

30 Randazzo, Nick 1784 Ventura 23 15:42.9

31 Chahal, Jagdeep 225 Burroughs/Burbank 24 15:44.0

32 Hough, Brandon 477 Dana Hills 25 15:45.8

33 Robinson, Tony 696 Great Oak 26 15:46.1

34 Jones, Brendan 767 Jesuit 27 15:46.6

35 Pope, Charlie 1697 Torrey Pines 28 15:46.8

36 Riley, Darius 1307 Rancho Cucamonga 29 15:47.1

37 Lackner, Michael 771 Jesuit 30 15:49.2

38 Beaudoin-Rouss, Meik 124 Bellarmine 31 15:50.2

39 Ochoa, Michael 933 Madera South 32 15:50.5

40 Wilfert, Thomas 479 Dana Hills 33 15:50.7

41 Villagran, Justin 230 Burroughs/Burbank 34 15:51.1

42 Pride, Daniel 1476 Santa Rosa — 15:52.1

43 Richardson, Matt 123 Bellarmine 35 15:53.0

44 Krajewski, Mikolaj 902 Lowell 36 15:53.6

45 Ramirez, Marcelo 549 Eagle Rock — 15:54.3

46 Janes, Tyler 809 King, M.L. — 15:56.3

47 Lopez, Raymond 798 Kennedy — 15:56.5

48 Turner, John 478 Dana Hills 37 15:56.7

49 Cummings, Patrick 769 Jesuit 38 15:57.4

50 Doblar, Dylan 122 Bellarmine 39 15:58.6

51 Miller, Tristan 1084 Monte Vista 40 15:59.4

52 Hamer, Ben 1195 Palisades Charter 41 16:00.2

53 Shields, Brandon 697 Great Oak 42 16:00.6

Obvi wrote:

They're the best team ever

Agree. next week will be a walk in the park, boys side; no other great teams.

the girls will have a tough time with FM, but sweep is possible!

top three were all under 4:10 last year (Cortes 1:51 and 4:06).

Private high schools can recruit from all over the country. At public high schools you'd get fired for that.

Wasn't there a great South Eugene team back in the day? McChesney brothers, Hess, Chapa and a couple of others.

4 x Mile 17:06.6 South, Eugene, Oregon Eugene, Oregon 5/07/76 (Dirk Lakeman 4:16.9, Chris Nielsen 4:19.7, Bill McChesney 4:11.8, John Gustafson 4:18.2)Not sure about their XC performances.Mead HS ('93-ish) always comes up in these discussions.

steve red wrote:

Wasn't there a great South Eugene team back in the day? McChesney brothers, Hess, Chapa and a couple of others.

Mead 93 does come up a lot, but their old course record (77:22) at Woodward has not stood up against recent giants of Arcadia (77:00-2012 nxn champ, 76:12 - 2010 nxn champs), DaNa Hills (77:01 this year), and Great Oak (76:09 this year).

Soles of their shoes wrote:

Mead 93 does come up a lot, but their old course record (77:22) at Woodward has not stood up against recent giants of Arcadia (77:00-2012 nxn champ, 76:12 - 2010 nxn champs), DaNa Hills (77:01 this year), and Great Oak (76:09 this year).

Mead '93 isn't even the fastest team in Washington history. I think the support for Mead comes not only from how fast it was, but how fast they were compared to their peers. It took 15 years for a Washington team to come close, and Washington has been a very good state on the guys side.

I'd have to imagine that Great Oak could take a very credible crack at South Eugene's 4 x mile record.

I hope they do.

Mead deserves credit for being from out of state. All the faster times are from SoCAl schools, no? Also, as mentioned, while modern teams may have "caught up", there is an equal argument for dominating their era. If you were to time-transport them, to what extent would an historical team "step-up?" In any case they are always in the discussion.

Oh? wrote:

Soles of their shoes wrote:

Mead 93 does come up a lot, but their old course record (77:22) at Woodward has not stood up against recent giants of Arcadia (77:00-2012 nxn champ, 76:12 - 2010 nxn champs), DaNa Hills (77:01 this year), and Great Oak (76:09 this year).

Mead '93 isn't even the fastest team in Washington history. I think the support for Mead comes not only from how fast it was, but how fast they were compared to their peers. It took 15 years for a Washington team to come close, and Washington has been a very good state on the guys side.

Best top 3 of all time possibly?!?!

You have to remember that they are in an open enrollment district of about 20,000 kids. That definitely helps when looking for talent. Still hats off the Great Oak and Soles for the sweep.

What do you mean by an open enrollment district? Kids pick schools? Do they have to sit a year if they do it?

This team is the overwhelming favorite on paper to win NXN. Unlike other teams, they have room to make a couple mistakes, and they are too good to have multiple guys have off-days. GO ftw

Oh? wrote:

Mead '93 isn't even the fastest team in Washington history. I think the support for Mead comes not only from how fast it was, but how fast they were compared to their peers. It took 15 years for a Washington team to come close, and Washington has been a very good state on the guys side.

I think they were. If you are talking about on the Wa State course, that thing has been moved around and changed enough, and it has gotten quite a bit faster than it used to be.

Rob Aubry went 4:10 and 9:07

Matt Davis went 4:10 and 9:04

Greg James went 4:11

and Skiy Detray went 4:07 and 8:58 the next year

and Micah Davis went 4:08 and 8:58 the next year

(They were both under 4:15 that year)

Matt and Micah placed 3rd and 10th at FootLocker Nationals

Don't forget they did lose to Timpanogos (UT) at Bob Firman, and were only a couple points ahead of third.

M.C. Confusing wrote:

Oh? wrote:

Mead '93 isn't even the fastest team in Washington history. I think the support for Mead comes not only from how fast it was, but how fast they were compared to their peers. It took 15 years for a Washington team to come close, and Washington has been a very good state on the guys side.

I think they were. If you are talking about on the Wa State course, that thing has been moved around and changed enough, and it has gotten quite a bit faster than it used to be.

Rob Aubry went 4:10 and 9:07

Matt Davis went 4:10 and 9:04

Greg James went 4:11

and Skiy Detray went 4:07 and 8:58 the next year

and Micah Davis went 4:08 and 8:58 the next year

(They were both under 4:15 that year)

Matt and Micah placed 3rd and 10th at FootLocker Nationals

Yes, Mead was very deep in track. But this is talking about XC.

I would take Gig Harbor '13 over Mead '93 for Washington's best XC team of all time if we aren't adjusting for era. Both would be among the Top 5 ever in US History.

It is always funny to see people try to come up with reasons why Great Oak is good (amazed at the things people said to me at Arcadia last year after our girls won the 4x1600...You are private, you recruit, you run 100+ miles a week, etc. None of which are true.

True Stats

-Public high school - 2 feeder middle schools

-The district is open enrollment, but Great Oak is full (impacted) and has been for years so you can't just choose it as an option. You want to go to GO? You have to pretty much buy or rent a $500,000 home in our boundary (very few apartments, etc.) Not easy for a lot of people to do. None of our current varsity athletes are at GO on an Intradistrict transfer.

-about 3500 kids this year

-Opened in 2004

-Awesome school spirit and participation

-0 athletes on the team have been recruited (most from Vail Ranch Middle School - a feeder school of local kids).

-Since the school opened we have had a couple boys and a couple girls transfer to GO that have run for me since 2004. Very few transfers.

-We can not use middle schoolers.

-Military area (Camp Pendleton) - we lose athletes to transfers and get a few kids that move into the area each year due to transfer orders. Balances out. Have lost some of my top young athletes in the past because of this.

Yes, we did lose at Bob Firman which was clearly our worst race of the season. Solomon Fountain just had an off day, and one of our top 3 guys found out one of his close family members had passed away the day before. He left the meet immediately after the race to fly home to be with family. Obviously not his best race either. The mark of a great team is not in losing, but the fact that they would choose to line up against a loaded field and give themselves a chance to get beat. We could have cruised an easy meet, gone undefeated, etc. We chose to search out the best competition. We ran our best race when it mattered.

All the best,

Coach Soles