Sac Runnning wrote:
This is going to come down to who’s healthy, un-injured and shows up with the right attitude. According to the new rankings that 2nd and 3rd NXN spot is up for grabs.
JSerra would have to completely collapse at State to not take the top spot, but their depth makes any failures highly unlikely. Also, considering that Buchanan returns their entire top 5 that finished 2nd in State last year, they should be a lock for an auto birth, #2 spot.
We have seen Buchanan develop middle school talent via their club connections, but then the girls have lesser improvement during their high school years. JSerra girls also tend to have smaller progression in high school. These 2 schools that are known to "attract" top middle school talent - which allows them to build a solid, deep teams. Keeping it real, both schools "assemble" talented lineups, but neither school has developed individual XC stars or elite college recruits over the past few years.
I'd say the 3rd and 4th spots are up for grabs, and the best hope for CA's 3rd and 4th place finishers (presumably Santiago and Mira Costa) to get an at-large NXN birth is to keep the merged scoring within 25-50 points of the top 2. St. Francis will fight for that spot as well. Don't count them out.
