If you're also a running shoe geek, you'll watch this and see that menlo runners raced in the unreleased and unannounced Nike streakfly 2 prototype. Could this be an unfair advantage for the Menlo runners given the shoe's big upgrades over its predecessor?
Very Impressive Numbers from both sides. Jesuit having one senior is pretty crazy to me. 186/186/186/182/168/162 is their returning lineup. It will be good for them to get some experience at NXN this year so if they do return next year they will be more prepared.
Great that Hanne Thomsen qualified. Given the fact that she literally won Clovis as a sophomore and has been at the top of CA XC for her first 3 years of high school running, it would have been devastating if she didn’t qualify.
Today was not a great day for San Diego boys. Best team in the merge was Poway in 51st. Coincidentally the top SD individual was Cooper Castleberry from Poway and he is 51st in the merge. No top 10 individuals or team finishes in any division
There is hope next year will be much better. Their top teams are almost all coming back. Not NXN contenders, but possible good finishes in their divisions.
Poway (SD) Top 5 Average Speed Rating = 166.8 Cooper Castleberry 11 181 Blake Littrell 9 170 Tanner Jackson 11 168 Adam Gregg 11 159 Dylan Nash 9 156 Anthony Menolascino 11 141
Cathedral Catholic (SD) Top 5 Average Speed Rating = 165.0 Nathan Wilber 11 177 Teddy Lang 11 172 Aidan Angeles 10 161 Spencer Todd 11 161 Andrew Martinez 11 154 Makai Labayen 11 153 Zachary Albers 10 145 Makana Gibbons 9 131
Sage Creek (SD) Top 5 Average Speed Rating = 164.4 Josiah Bowman 11 182 Max Marchi 11 172 Grant Beasley 9 161 Tanner Fillion 9 154 Colton GILLESPIE 11 153 Bradley Lyon 9 130 Trennan Lange 11 115
Time for my annual post state meet post of "Who the heck is that?", where I skim down the results looking for something unexpected. Since I follow Cal XC very closely, I wouldn't expect there to be a runner who can run under 15:30 at Woodward Park that I am unfamiliar with. This years "Who the Heck is that?" winner is junior Owen Souther. As an individual qualifier in SS D3 I had seen the name, but the 15:24 time was a surprise. So I looked up what he did last year, and he has no prior results other than this year. So I assumed he must be a transfer, but I found an article after section finals that says, "Souther, a first-year runner, finished eighth overall in SS Division 3 at 15:32.6. Velarde (his coach) said the goal for him is to finish in the top 20. His coach added, 'For a first-year runner that has no prior history of any background in running, yet alone distance running, it’s pretty uncalled for what he’s accomplishing'". Yep, and he improved from section finals down to 15:24. Well done. Also finishing right behind Souther in the merge at 15:24 was (JR) Mehari Winheim. Another name I had look up results for, and I see he missed all of last XC season, and barely ran track. I assume he was injured. His career best track results are 4:41/10:04. He basically ran that pace over 5K with hills. Congrats on a huge run. And finishing right behind him in 15:25 was (SO) Clark Gregory. Who?? Another trip to athletic.net shows he ran 16:31 here last year, had track PRs of 4:41/9:59. He didn't even run a race this year until Oct. 23, a 3200m time trial in 9:54. Ran his first XC race this year on Oct. 30th, a Frosh-Soph race, and then 30 days later ran 15:25 at state finals. Wow, that is a big leap, and a quick one. No wonder I never heard of him. Congrats on the great results, and for getting on WaitForMoreData's radar. Now on to track. No pressure, but last year's winner of this prize was first year XC runner Cain Evans. He then went on to improve his unremarkable 800m PR of 1:59 to be **state frickin champ** in 1:50. The year before that, it was first year junior XC runner Olaf Dietz and sophmore runner/pole vaulter Henry Baun who went on to run 15:13/15:09 respectively their senior years. So keep the tradition going.
And finishing right behind him in 15:25 was (SO) Clark Gregory.
Clark Gregory is part of Campolindo so he was always on my radar. Check rough rider results (woodward park). Campolindo has a solid sophmore and freshman class. They will be big this year and next year if they have good coaching and are serious about it
And finishing right behind him in 15:25 was (SO) Clark Gregory.
Clark Gregory is part of Campolindo so he was always on my radar. Check rough rider results (woodward park). Campolindo has a solid sophmore and freshman class. They will be big this year and next year if they have good coaching and are serious about it
If this thread wants to talk about Crazy returning woodward park times, look no further than:
However, none of the projected teams, whom returned super speed ratings or really fast track times, ended up at the top. Nobody early season predicted Menlo, Glendora, Oaks Christian and Matilda Torres would dominate all the favorites. So I would take these times with a grain of salt..
Does anyone know what the current record is? My first guess is 2021, with 8.
Number of runners that broke 14:50 at Woodward Park 2023 - 5 (record) 2022 - 3 2021 - 4 . . .
Number of runners that broke 15 at Woodward Park 2023 - 11 (record) 2022 - 4 2021 - 8 . . .
So, for boys at the 2024 State Meet:
Under 15:00 12 (record)
Under 14:50 7 (record)
The girls were even more dramatic:
Under 17:30 10 + 1 tie (not for certain, but likely the record)
Under 17:00 5 (prior record was 1 as best I can tell)
In fact -- from a quick scan of the WP records lists on prepcaltrack.com -- 5 girls under 17:00 is by far the most for any meet, including the 19 Kinney/FL meets from 1980 - 1998. Believe the prior record for most sub-17s in a race was last year & this year's Clovis Invites where Englehardt & Blade ran their best marks.
Some have speculated on German Fernandez's 14:24 CR.
I'm of the camp believing that, since the Youngs & Sahlmans (especially Nico) couldn't do it after multiple attempts, then we'll probably have to wait until the next decade -- or possibly another generation -- before someone that talented comes along and has his best day on the course, either at the Clovis Invite or State Meet.
Now believe the same for the girls.
Notice that Englehardt's 16:24.+ is exactly 2 minutes back of Fernandez's 14:24. This is where it should be, as most of the nation's top girls run times approx 2 minutes slower than the nation's top boys at regional/national meets. (Foot Locker records @ Morley Field: 14:37 and 16:39.) Thus, looking at Sadie's CR with the same historical respect as German's CR. Since neither Sadie nor Rylee nor anyone else could come close to the record today in their final dance at Woodward, not expecting anyone else to in the foreseeable future.
Now, curious to see how all these historically fast time jumble up the next Dyestat/Tully national rankings, especially on the boy's list where Eyan Turk, E F-Y and Landon Pretre were highly undervalued while Liam Miller and JR Lesher were not even on the next-15 "Watch List."
Number of runners that broke 14:50 at Woodward Park 2023 - 5 (record) 2022 - 3 2021 - 4 . . .
Number of runners that broke 15 at Woodward Park 2023 - 11 (record) 2022 - 4 2021 - 8 . . .
So, for boys at the 2024 State Meet:
Under 15:00 12 (record)
Under 14:50 7 (record)
The girls were even more dramatic:
Under 17:30 10 + 1 tie (not for certain, but likely the record)
Under 17:00 5 (prior record was 1 as best I can tell)
In fact -- from a quick scan of the WP records lists on prepcaltrack.com -- 5 girls under 17:00 is by far the most for any meet, including the 19 Kinney/FL meets from 1980 - 1998. Believe the prior record for most sub-17s in a race was last year & this year's Clovis Invites where Englehardt & Blade ran their best marks.
Some have speculated on German Fernandez's 14:24 CR.
I'm of the camp believing that, since the Youngs & Sahlmans (especially Nico) couldn't do it after multiple attempts, then we'll probably have to wait until the next decade -- or possibly another generation -- before someone that talented comes along and has his best day on the course, either at the Clovis Invite or State Meet.
It is stunning that the course record has held up even through all of the latest super-shoes. It likely would be just under 14:20 had GF had access to the same shoe technology runners are benefiting from today.
