Crater, Niwot and Herriman are all more impressive to me because they did it for a longer period of time with less dependency on sets of brothers.
NP was still impressive if for no other reason to have 2 sets of bothers that good. The top 5 times were those 2 families. After them, it looks a lot more ordinary.
Some exaggeration but Newbury puts 5 guys in front of Niwot's #1 comfortably. Niwot is cool story. Like it was said, it won't be done again. "Crater, Niwot and Herriman" are not more impressive if you are talking about peak, but if you are talking about longevity, a lesser award, Niwot has been recruiting for a long time - yes.
Thank you for posting. Your team is not nearly doing the same workouts, with the same expectations, and your culture is lacking. Coaching “may” be an issue, and is likely an issue. So are the families and all involved at your school. Also, culture as a word is kind of dumb. It’s the first question on an HR approved Interview, yet a huge percentage of coaches, ADs, and programs don’t have a clue when it slaps them in the face.
Niwot has a clue and an approach; so do a handful of other programs. Many programs yap about it. Talking about it is not going to equal getting the kids to get after it. The system has to be smart enough to breed it. I am nowhere near Niwot, but its culture would blow your school away and cause parents and teachers to contact lawyers and SafeSport because Johnny ran 51 miles in a week and threw up once, and Sally is told that 5:15 is an entry level mark. It takes parents, kids, the school, and some success to commit to the work needed to produce a whole pile of sub 4:40 guys. It can be done nearly anywhere, but it is hard to get all of the components moving in the right direction. Ritz and Culpepper families converging on one HS is a pretty big deal for all involved. There may be genetics involved in that success, but it lifts up the others to outperform what they would do in another school. Success becomes… Monday’s standard workout. It’s expected and worked for. There are free resources and stories online that outline it all. Go find it.