Official Idaho HS XC 2023 Thread

Boise easily wins Soda on both guys and girls.

scores?

What's the course like?

With athletes like Helder, Johnston, Kemper and others unable to break 16, it must be a pretty tough course and/or just a slow race all around.

You don’t go to that side of the state to run fast. You take your team over there to get strong and run on tough courses. It’s a legit Idaho course at altitude.

Boise ran incredible today. Those are very strong times on this course, Don’t be so quick to assume CDA will beat them.

The winner and 10 other guys that he shows up as having run with have watches ranging from 2.99 to 3.11. Only one runner has above a 3.08, one has 2.99, two have 3.04, and the rest have 3.06-3.07.

The course is about 12 seconds short at the winner's pace if you assume 3.07. Past speed ratings would give Boise ~179, ~173, 167, 166, 161. CDA still has the superior speed rating set by a good margin, but it does appear to be closer than one would think.

The 4-5 gap on the Boise boys team is somewhat big

I think CDA is going to win, but 13 seconds at the last meet is not that big of a gap.

Tiger Grizz Predictions???

Notable teams that will be in attendance:

Cen10, Highland, Idaho Falls, Owyhee, Preston, Rigby, Rocky Mountain, Skyline, and Timberline.

RM, IF, Centennial, Timberline on the guys.

Preston, RM, Owyhee, Timberline on the girls.

RM, Cen10, Timberline, IF for boys (IF still not running Athay or Liddle so they don’t have enough fire power without their top 2) We will see if Cen10 or Timberline can get close to Rocky without Heemeyer

RM, Preston, Timberline, Thunder Ridge for Girls (only 20 points separate 1st thru 4th place here) Timberline running full squad

Heemeyer isn't registered for Tiger Grizz but is for Firman. I would assume Athay and Liddle open up at Dani Bates next week.

Centennial doesn't appear to be at full strength. They are missing Hymas, Donahue, and McOmber still. That means that the first meet for Donahue and McOmber will be Firman or after since the East Boise meet has now been cancelled and they don't have a replacement meet showing. Any idea if they are even running right now? Hymas raced last week. It seems a little crazy to be rolling into Firman with one race on one of your top 5 and 0 races 2 of your other top 5 unless injury is the cause.

Stadtlander is almost certainly going to get the course record at Timberlake this week. It's 15:55 by Austin Bryer and CDA is there. It will be interesting to see the CDA boys have to really run for the win. Isaac Antonnen from Capital and Stadtlander will provide a good measuring stick for CDA vs Rocky vs Boise vs Centennial vs Timberline since Stadtlander has raced them Rocky and Boise twice and Timberline once. Antonnen raced Rocky and Timberline and week 2 and Centennial week 1.

Article mentions Star Valley as another contender on the guy's side. I think they get on the podium, but not a win.

Revising my prediction to RM, Timberline, Centennial, Star Valley in that order, RM in a landslide.

Keeping girls order the same, but TR will be 5th.

Unfortunately, no star valley entries in the seeded boys race.

For anyone interested in the 4a state title race this year, Dani Bates is going to be a great race to keep track of.

The 3 top 4a team contenders (BK, IF, Burley) will all be there, along with almost every frontrunner in the 4a individual race as well. Charlie Goss from BK the current top seed in 4a by time right now, but that comes without significant races from Luke Athay of IF(5a individual champ 2021), Jaiden Liddle of IF(Top returning time from last year's 4a state race) and Goss's teammate Isaac Edwards(2nd fastest returning time from last year's 4a state race). If all four of them run, it will make for a great front pack also highlighted by Twin Falls' Russell Frampton and Preston Dopp (current 2nd and 3rd fastest times in 4a), and BK's Manuel Valdez, Jack Tobin, and Liam Durcan (current 5th, 7th and 8th fastest times in 4a) along with the rest of IF and Burley's squads.

Both the individual and team winner of this race will no doubt be the favorite to win the 4a title if all teams are running at full power, so this meet can hopefully serve as an early season 4a state preview.

Thoughts? Predictions?