Is Buchanan HS bad for hs distance running

Noteworthy:

*ALL of the Santiago Scorers are upperclassmen. 0 Freshmen

*Top three runners from Ventura are upperclassmen 4/5 of the scorers are upperclassmen. Runner 4 was a freshmen

*Top 2 runners from Flowermound are Seniors. Scorers are 3 seniors and 2 Soph. 0 Freshmen

*Buchanan put 3 freshmen on the line. 3 scorers were underclassmen. 2 Freshmen were almost the top two runners (a junior, also a former phenom was 1 second in front of the second freshman)

The first three teams seem to be investing in their kids and developing them as they go through the program.

It's not always as it seems. As an example, the girls that are now upperclassmen at Ventura, have been their top runners from the time they were freshmen. They now have two freshmen that look really good, but no sophomores. Sometimes it's just the way the luck works out. Buchanan has good freshmen coming in every year with their feeder middle school program.

Timpview both entries are upperclassmen

Trabuco Hills all runners are upperclassmen

Air Academy all scorers are upperclassmen

Some of the girls in Buchanans line up last night were top runners as underclassmen. One of them even holds the Woodbridge class freshmen course record. So there has been significant shifts. Another was projected to finish in the top 10 and was over a minute slower than the time last year.
They are not “lucky”. They design the entire program this way. The feeder school trains these kids with the high schoolers ALL summer. They run A LOT of mileage for middle schoolers. There is no luck about it.
Also they do have one Soph. 4th runner last night.

Check out Tully’s top team break down:
Of the top ten teams FIVE had freshmen.
Four of the teams had ONE freshmen
Buchanan had THREE freshmen.

It certainly appears that Buchanan relies heavily on incoming talent to help make up for the upperclassmen who seem burned out and peaked as underclassmen. Great if that works for them to win races and be competitive but it does appear to support the fact that after freshman year there is not a lot of support for growth and improvement. It also shows that other “top” teams are doing things much differently.

Flower Mound just reloads every year no matter how many seniors they lose

They came back from a disappointing performance at Woodbridge and dominated at Clovis, where they had a disappointing outcome the last two years

I appreciate him doing the interviews and getting it done but I just can't listen to his voice and the long winded questions. and that "AAAAAAAA". I have yet to make it through an entire interview.

Last year the boys team took 18th in the merge and this year they took 21st. all of their 1-6 were back too

For the girls. They are great. Very impressive. BUT the theory holds true about regression. Today they were led by two underclassmen. They have a couple of upperclassmen on that team who haven’t been close to their freshmen time PRs which trends *mostly* true for that program. Whereas across the individual leaders today they were mostly upperclassmen because they have developed as runners. They will continue to be a great program if the feeder school keeps training them up to have great freshman and Soph seasons. After that it’s a huge what if for consistent performance. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the program is a powerhouse but it is not a program to develop as a runner over the four years. It’s a strike while it’s hot and move to the next freshman type of program.

There are many girls that regress as upperclassmen everywhere. At every school.

Look at Summit OR. They won NXN in 2018 without a senior, and didn’t win in 2019.

Buchanan boys team finished lower than last year, but they did have a couple of guys step up - like Jack Beauchamp who was their 4th man at state. He is a senior and this is his only year on varsity, and every year he dropped approximately a minute off of his previous year’s 5k PR.

Fun fact, based on speed ratings, this year’s Buchanan boys team would have made NXN out of NY

That’s how much less NY deserves to have its own region than CA does

Niwot was kind of the opposite at NXN. Based on this interview, those guys weren’t serious there. And ultimately they won nxn

LRC Readers and critics: Rift Valley Africans have no physical advantage over other races. There are mountainous areas in nearly every country all over the world. Plus, you might not know that many of those so-called "gifted" people run 20 milers on zero food at times? I challenge you to read The Sports Gene by David Epstein and develop some love for disadvantaged people. I love those coaches who give Rift Valley Africans scholarships, they are the ones who have it right. Feed the Poor.