Richiutti was clearly in the top 5 going into that last turn and got caught at the line. Really sad way for him to end his career, gotta feel bad
Hoping he can land one of the 5 individual wild cards. We'll see.
I will say... it really looked like he sacrificed an (almost) guaranteed top five spot by trying to win. He took the lead with that nice little move inside by the fence with about 600 to go, with the help of an elbow nudge. He did something similar on the final straight, swinging wide to have a clear path to the finish and then dipping back inside. I think if he'd just "settled" for being in the top five he'd be going to Portland. However, I don't think that's in Sam's nature. Dude is competitive as hell, and I'm glad he went for it.
Maybe he gets rewarded with that wild card. We'll see.
Merging the results from the four Invitational races with the Championship race and reassembling the teams that had guys in both, it was Jerome that had the best day of the Ohio teams, finishing 7th of 118 teams in the hypothetical race. Westerville North was next in a hypothetical 12th, then Orange in 20th, Lancaster in 21st, Mason 23rd, Scioto 25th... Several teams ran with one or more guys missing from their usual top 7.
Looking at the overall strength of the states, Illinois is dominant with 5 of the top 9 teams (21pts scored as an XC race). Indiana is a distant second (62), Ohio (83)... An interesting question is; why is Illinois so dominant? The margin suggests there is more going on than just the typical cyclical rotation.
Maybe logistics play a role... for example, would more NEO teams participate if it didn't mean getting home after midnight Monday morning or maybe two days/nights of travel and living expenses?
Despite the logistics question, Illinois is clearly on a different level right now... maybe it's just the "rising tide" raising the level of all the ships... Teams chasing the most elite make more elite teams... I guess...
Merging the results from the four Invitational races with the Championship race and reassembling the teams that had guys in both, it was Jerome that had the best day of the Ohio teams, finishing 7th of 118 teams in the hypothetical race. Westerville North was next in a hypothetical 12th, then Orange in 20th, Lancaster in 21st, Mason 23rd, Scioto 25th... Several teams ran with one or more guys missing from their usual top 7.
Looking at the overall strength of the states, Illinois is dominant with 5 of the top 9 teams (21pts scored as an XC race). Indiana is a distant second (62), Ohio (83)... An interesting question is; why is Illinois so dominant? The margin suggests there is more going on than just the typical cyclical rotation.
Maybe logistics play a role... for example, would more NEO teams participate if it didn't mean getting home after midnight Monday morning or maybe two days/nights of travel and living expenses?
Despite the logistics question, Illinois is clearly on a different level right now... maybe it's just the "rising tide" raising the level of all the ships... Teams chasing the most elite make more elite teams... I guess...
I don't think Ohio is far behind Illinois overall. In fact I think it's awfully close, particularly at the top. When you score it like like state-to-state competition:
Illinois - 46
Ohio - 50
Michigan - 73
Indiana - 83
Missouri - 96
Further, when you look at the top 50 in the boys championship race, Ohio has the highest number of finishers (17), compared to Illinois (14), Indiana (8), Missouri (6), and Michigan (5).
To be fair to the Michigan and Missouri apparent lack of depth, I imagine that can be attributed to some degree to them being the farthest states away. Though to your point, NEO is a hike to Terre Haute.
As far as teams and the Illinois dominance, definitely there is something there. I think it's more of running hotbeds in Plainfield and Downer's Grove than something embedded across the state. I mean, BOTH Plainfield schools finished in the top 3 - North and South. That'd be like both Pickeringtons advancing. Or both Worthingtons. Can you imagine combining the two Plainfields?? Unreal. And the enrollment of these three schools are in the 2100-2400 range. Not incredibly huge, more along the lines of Coffman, Orange, etc.
Carmel IN (4th place), by comparison , has an absolutely ridiculous enrollment of 5400. Combine all three Dublin high schools and you have a comp.
Ohio should be better. They have almost twice the population of Indiana and Missouri.
Michigan’s athletic federation has historically made it hard for Michigan schools to compete at NXR.
Which is why Ohio performed much better than Indiana and Missouri. I'm not sure what your point is. Illinois was the focus of GalesXC's commentary to which I was responding...
The point seems to be that Ohio isn’t very good but should be. Especially looking at a team perspective.
I imagine that's because most schools in Ohio aren't spectacularly large, like Carmel and it's 5k+ students. Look at the breakdown previously posted. Ohio is right there. Your issue is more about high schools than it is about the quality of XC overall in the state.
Illinois is a strong state because the ratio of high schoolers to classifications. They only have (3) classifications and they have a rather large playoff system to get to the state championship. Also from what i’m told the playoff system in Illinois is geographical early on so great teams have to compete against other great teams to advance
Is there a reason the OATCCC does not do Coach of the Year awards for each division like other sports? It would be great to recognize the deserving coaches in each division.
Who would be some of your picks for this award this year outside of the usual names? (Woodridge and Minister coaches could win the award every year. Mason could too most years.)
I imagine that's because most schools in Ohio aren't spectacularly large, like Carmel and it's 5k+ students. Look at the breakdown previously posted. Ohio is right there. Your issue is more about high schools than it is about the quality of XC overall in the state.
I doubted that Carmel had that many students so I looked it up. Sure enough, are 5,400ish students. That isn't how some schools in Ohio report their population, 7th to 12th grades, that's grades 9-12. I have never heard of a school that large in my entire life. The demographics of Carmel are similar to that of Mason in Ohio. Combine the student population, numbers and demographics, with decent coaching, and it would be nearly impossible not to have good athletic programs.
What is weird about Ohio is that most of the largest schools from a population standpoint are in SW Ohio, primarily in the Greater Miami Conference. The school districts in the Columbus and Cleveland/Akron areas don't have high schools with near the population. It seems that in NE Ohio, although the population of NE Ohio is greater than that of SW Ohio, the districts are smaller. In Central Ohio the districts are large but there are more school in the districts. Mason could easily have 2 high schools. It makes me think that if there were not so many schools in districts like Olentangy & Dublin that they would be competitive with Mason.
I imagine that's because most schools in Ohio aren't spectacularly large, like Carmel and it's 5k+ students. Look at the breakdown previously posted. Ohio is right there. Your issue is more about high schools than it is about the quality of XC overall in the state.
I doubted that Carmel had that many students so I looked it up. Sure enough, are 5,400ish students. That isn't how some schools in Ohio report their population, 7th to 12th grades, that's grades 9-12. I have never heard of a school that large in my entire life. The demographics of Carmel are similar to that of Mason in Ohio. Combine the student population, numbers and demographics, with decent coaching, and it would be nearly impossible not to have good athletic programs.
What is weird about Ohio is that most of the largest schools from a population standpoint are in SW Ohio, primarily in the Greater Miami Conference. The school districts in the Columbus and Cleveland/Akron areas don't have high schools with near the population. It seems that in NE Ohio, although the population of NE Ohio is greater than that of SW Ohio, the districts are smaller. In Central Ohio the districts are large but there are more school in the districts. Mason could easily have 2 high schools. It makes me think that if there were not so many schools in districts like Olentangy & Dublin that they would be competitive with Mason.
Last year at Obetz...
1. Sam Ricchuiti - 2nd (4:16/9:06/15:05)
2. Liam Shaughessey - 10th (4:17/9:08/15:12)
3. Weston Day - 17th (9:07/15:15)
4. Josh Razor - 19th (4:09/15:25)
5. Will McGraw - 39th (1:55/4:11/15:34)
(Non scorer... Geurrera - 9:10)
87 points... to Mason's 128. Yeah, I'd say Dublin would be pretty good.
At 2022 NXR...
1. Sam - 14th, 15:06 (8pts)
2. Liam - 19th, 15:12 (11)
3. Josh R - 32nd, 15:25 (17)
4. Weston - 43rd, 15:31 (22)
5. Will - 99, 15:52 (61)
Team Score: 119
They win NXR over Hinsdale, IN (121), Plainfield South, IL (141), Downers Grove, IL (175).
Essentially... if combined, Dublin would be NBP of the midwest, headed to NXN on the regular.