pham wrote:
I can imagine them beating both Cal Poly and Arizona State, but the fact of the matter is that all 6 of these teams are in possession of a number of former California state champions as well as Foot Locker finalists. UCLA had none of either category in Springfield last week. Michael Cybulski and Kent Morikawa are their first in recent memory and their impact will be felt in the future. [/quote]
B]report from the west wrote:
That's a hell of a fabrication. Oregon has an army of FLN/8:4x guys, but other than them UCLA is pulling comparable, if not superior, recruits to most other schools. Going down the list, UP has NO FL finalists, only a couple state champs (and they're freshmen/sophomores) and only two sub-9 guys. Stanford is loaded up on state champs but only a couple FL guys. Cal has a couple big-time FL guys but they're still young, other than that mostly 9:05-9:10 guys. Cal Poly's website sucks but I don't recognize any big name FL guys on their roster, I'd be surprised if they have more than 1 guy who's ran under 9:00. ASU has a couple young guys who just barely qualified for FLN and then some more 9:00-9:10 guys. UCLA has I think 3 sub-9 guys (which IMO is the equivalent of a FLN guy) and the rest of the A squad is mostly 9:05-9:10 guys with a 4:10 guy in Patterson thrown in there.
The only teams really pulling consistantly better recruits are UO and Stanford (and maybe UW, but they finished WAAAAY back). Maybe Cal and ASU pull slightly better recruits, but UCLA gets FAR better recruits than Cal Poly and Portland.[/quote]
Well, you certainly came around, at least a bit, from beginning by calling my post "a hell of a fabrication." By the time you got to the end, it was only Cal Poly and Portland that you singled out as the issue with my general statement.
OK, let's look at that. I will agree with you that UCLA has out-recruited those two schools over the past 2 years. And I noted the two strong and deep classes the Bruins have recruited as of late. And maybe that's why UCLA split the season with Cal Poly this year and nearly caught Portland in two of their three contests.
But Cal Poly does have a pair of Cali state champions on the roster (Johnsrud in T&F and Reid in XC with Gatel as a XC runner up to Matuzak). Troy Swier was also a #3 guy behind Matuzak when he won as a junior. No one on the UCLA roster has those credentials. And I was not talking about sub-9 guys, I was talking about former state champs and FLN guys. By the way, only 1 sub-9 UCLA guy in their top 9 at the end of the year (Crabill from Washington state).
And you're mostly right about Portland...my bad. Although Kinsella, Moore, and Kilburg all had outstanding prep careers, only Kilburg was ever a state XC champ. None of them ever made it to FLN. But that's still one more than UCLA had on their active roster this year. Give them credit for really ramping well and for peaking at the Regional race this year. Yes, their younger guys who didn't contribute this year have some more titles to add to this mix, but I wasn't counting them.
One last question (after agreeing with you about the OU and Stanford quality and depth)...do you really think that Cal's talent is only marginally better than UCLA's out of high school? ASU's maybe (though they have former state champs in Alcorn, Helmer, Heller, and Kelly...plus Helmer was a FLN guy), but Cal's is incredible (though not deep).
Torrance may be their best runner, but he didn't earn the accolades his other 4 teammates did in high school. Ghebray was a FLN guy and won state titles in both XC and T&F. Matuzak won the 1500m Jr Nationals and went on to earn a bronze at the Pan Am games. He also won state titles in the 1600m (twice), two more in XC, won the Nike Outdoor 2 mile, and was a 2-time FLN guy. Coe was the runner up at FLN, won the Nike Indoor 2 mile, the Nike Outdoor mile, and was a state champ in XC. Karlson won national titles in Iceland.
How many UCLA guys did any of this in high school? It's an easy answer.
I stand by my statement as being the truth. Read it more carefully next time or do better research.