#8 Woodbridge Aidan Antonio (9) - 177 Aiden Zavala (10) - 176 Inban Kathiravan (10) - 172 Iniyan Kathiravan (10) - 158 Thomas Yohn (9) - 156 - Woodbridge has never been good until recently. Hopefully this fine group of young freshman and sophomores can put together something special. They already have 3 runners above 170s+. This team doesn’t have much depth past their 5th.
Speaking of Woodbridge, any predictions of what top teams will be at this meet? (Especially out of state teams)
I think Herriman, Southlake Carroll, and Crater will be there since they were there the last 2 years.
Hopefully Austin Vandergrift gets put in the sweepstakes race. They finished high in the rated race.
How will Woodbridge do in their home meet?
Will the Woodbridge course be measured correctly this time?
Obviously SW is top dog - Herriman, Niwot, Mountain View, AF
American Fork loses 6 of their varsity guys so it will be harder for them to qualify than it was the last couple of years. But they still return 4 sub-10 guys and another 4:25 guy so they still have a shot to qualify. Herriman, Niwot, and Mountain View are looking to be top 3 in the Southwest. Besides American Fork, some other teams that can challenge for the 4th NXR SW spot are: Coronado, Valor Christian, Mountain Vista, and Cheyenne Mountain.
Riverton returns 9:05, 9:33, 9:44, 9:48, 9:54, 9:55 Another team that will be nationally ranked even if they don’t make NXN & graduate 4 varsity seniors
my personal feel for the top 10 returning runners for next year in no particular order
manny putz - hl tamrat galenas - ne evan noonan - ca ty steorts - se tj hansen - mw joe barrett - ne tommy latham - se robert mechura - mn owen powell - wa josiah tostenson - or
honorable mention - benjamin anderson, juan gonzalez
my personal feel for the top 10 returning runners for next year in no particular order
manny putz - hl tamrat galenas - ne evan noonan - ca ty steorts - se tj hansen - mw joe barrett - ne tommy latham - se robert mechura - mn owen powell - wa josiah tostenson - or
honorable mention - benjamin anderson, juan gonzalez
Just the fact you don't have Caden Leonard indicates you didn't make a great effort at your list. Caden the 7th returner with regular season times this year already 4:06/8:53. There is only 1 returner with a non-Arcadia 3200 time faster. Most of the Arcadia times will be season bests, but Caden's season bests are still to come.
I think Kaden Evans from American Fork should be in that list too. He ran an 8:46 at Arcadia. He will be carrying the torch for American Fork after Daniel Simmons leaves. He will also have some solid teammates to train with.
my personal feel for the top 10 returning runners for next year in no particular order
manny putz - hl tamrat galenas - ne evan noonan - ca ty steorts - se tj hansen - mw joe barrett - ne tommy latham - se robert mechura - mn owen powell - wa josiah tostenson - or
honorable mention - benjamin anderson, juan gonzalez
No one from the Southwest region in this list (except in honorable mention)…wow hard to believe.
There were a lot of Southwest boys that made the top 10 at NXN last year but they are all graduating.
I'll only speak as to the NW predictions, as that's my specialty. Jesuit and CDA are right where they should be, although it should be noted that it's likely going to be a tossup based off of who has a better track season.
Crater could be third, but I'd more likely take Rocky Mountain or Helena over them, as Crater looks pretty good on paper, but I will note that only one or two of their guys improved off of 2022 to 2023, and that they all have really fast PR's that were run on a track which artificially inflate how good they seem.
I think Rocky is better than Helena. Helena returns 6 of 7, but it's from 11th place at NXR, where none of them placed in the top 78.
Helena returns these top 7 places from NXR: 79, 86, 95, 110, 157, (182), 185. (Parenthesis means open race time plugged in to championship)
Rocky returns these top 7 places from NXR: 13, 71, (112), 154, (169), 177, (188)
Looking at returning places, these teams both look really even, but I would give the edge to Rocky given their much heavier depth.
Crater will have a strong top 2 (Tostenson and Kitchen) who went 8:39 and 8:49 at Arcadia, so they will have each other to train with and both should do very well individually. They also return the following times from the Oregon relays: a 9:42 junior, and also 2 sub-10 freshmen. They also return another junior who ran a 16:04 at NXR.
The question with Franklin was if they could find a new 4 and 5. They now have 5 pretty decent developmental pieces, most of which are young. Besides, they still put 3 returners in front of Rocky’s #2 returner at NXR.
So… Franklin returns 3 junior scorers from NXN, and now…..
they also have: a 10:02 2-mile freshman and a 10:07 2-mile sophomore. Both times were run at the Oregon relays.
Many know that Valor Christian received a new head coach in 2022, but I heard he’s gone now. Unless they get a really good new head coach, their chances of going to NXN aren’t that high.
They were junior-heavy last year but they are losing their #1 (Eike).
Valor XC is a sh*tshow. Complete mess over there. Sad to see how they have fallen on the team level (Eike is still a phenom). Their girls team has gone from NXN caliber to just Brooke Wilson (2nd NXN) to just 5ish serious members in a short time. Boys have a shot if they can run as a pack to avg 15:40s at NXR.
The juniors on the Valor Christian team had better 8th grade times than Cheyenne Mountain class of 2022 did… and with all this drama and coaching changes, prospects of going to NXN aren’t looking too good for Valor Christian. Gotta feel for those guys…
knoxville catholic with be the best team coming out of Tennessee and tn best chance of sending someone to nxn. they have Keegan Smith that went 14:39 last year and radek who will go under 15 this year. there 3 through 5 also was under 16:30 and how they have been running for track they also all should go under 16. there also getting pretty much all the good kids in the class of 2028 which is not as strong as past class like the 25 and 26 class but will get a sub 4:40 miler from a school with bad tranning so the coach should be able to whip him into a contributer
I would agree about your assessment Jesuit OR has 5 sophomores under 9min in 3k and 2 who weren't in the top 7 last year who've made big leaps since xc. Franklin has a good 4 but not sure about 5 or 6 they may come around before xc I've heard they run a lot of miles not sure if it's true. Crater has 2 individuals who can make NXN but they are always deep.
knoxville catholic with be the best team coming out of Tennessee and tn best chance of sending someone to nxn. they have Keegan Smith that went 14:39 last year and radek who will go under 15 this year. there 3 through 5 also was under 16:30 and how they have been running for track they also all should go under 16. there also getting pretty much all the good kids in the class of 2028 which is not as strong as past class like the 25 and 26 class but will get a sub 4:40 miler from a school with bad tranning so the coach should be able to whip him into a contributer
Yeah the second spot in the Southeast is up for grabs.
Belen Jesuit Prep is as close to a lock as there can be for the #1 spot in the Southeast.