Northwest XC 2024

Thought I read that Tostenson had the Flu. Would make sense with how he placed. So much of these post season races come down to who’s sick and isn’t.

to be fair that will be true for these kids in college as well. When you are a pro and this is all you do you can control your environment more. These high school and college kids have to sit in classrooms and walk around near hundreds or thousands of kids a day and cant control who came to school sick that day.

The sheer joy and excitement of the Star Valley kid who finished 2nd as he crossed the line. You gotta love it.

Huyler with some very measured and effective running at NXR. Quietly put together an undefeated season.

That kid is great. Such a consistent runner. Lots of kids have ups and downs, I haven't seen a "down" at all this season.

So is Crater definitely out for NXN? What a blow... I was at the finish line and saw them sitting there devastated for like 15 minutes while everyone else cleared out. Tostenson especially looked gutted.

Crater freshman Garrett Faught 15:53

He really fought through it

15:58*

Yeah he was so red faced in the final chute I thought he was crying. All of them did. I wonder what their coach was yelling at them during the race. They were probably trying to make up as many points as possible for Tostenson.

Washington homer...

Washington teams are 7th, 9th, and 11th in the boys race.

Idaho teams go 1, 3, 8. Oregon teams go 2, 4, 12. Montana teams go 5 and 6. Washington is the 3rd best state in the region as far as boys teams go and it's not going to change next year, and they honestly might even end up behind Montana next year.

Idaho will continue to be the best team in the region for teams on the strength of CDA, Mountain View, and Rocky. Rocky loses a lot but will reload just fine.

Washington had a few good decades - but looks like their time at the top is up. There may be a surprise team or two next year but they won't have the depth that they had like in 2018 when they had 6 of the first 8 teams.

Anyone else hear rumors that NXR NW will be leaving Eagle Island soon? May move to the new Spokane course that is being developed

Rocky had 2 guys up front at the beginning of the boys race. If their 5th man finished close to their 4th like he did at state, they would have autoqualified

Yeah, but if Crater has Josiah finish anywhere close to where he should have, Rocky doesn't auto qualify. That's a bigger swing than anything Rocky had going on. Hard to play the what if game when a few teams have a kid that has an off day.

Idaho will also have Boise, Eagle, Skyline, Centennial, Rigby, and Meridian that will all be relevant next year. Possibly Sugar-Salem as well. 5-6 teams will make the championship race next year and all of those teams will have good showings at regional races if they go.

The 6th best girls team in Idaho won the open merge at NXR and should have probably been in the championship race. Of the top 6 teams, none have significant enough losses to make them less competitive in the region.

I bet that Idaho gets both autoqualifiers on the girls side next year and has 4 teams inside the top 10 on the boys side.

Will this help the Washington teams do better at regionals?

Eagle Island is a $hitty course. The stupid hairpin 900m in makes it so that you have to get out incredibly hard on rough ground and if you go to the outside to avoid the traffic on the inside of the hairpin, you get boxed in on the next corner. It's gimmicky, and I hope that it moves away.

There’s a lot to love about the course, but they need to make significant improvements for safety and runner flow, IMO.

Mostly the Spokane schools that can drive 5-10 minutes to train on it. Just moving the advantage away from the Boise schools and giving it to Spokane.

They need to find a course where no one has access to it throughout the year