Best All-Time HS All-Star XC Team by State

How about Jim Euell or Charlie Duggan? Would they have been able to mix it up with the Connecticut kids from 30 years later?

Bump. This was a great thread, would love to see it fill every state

Oklahoma: Easy. Money.

Ben Barrett (Only sub-9 Okie)

Matt Young (underrated in my opinion)

Isai Rodriguez (most post-hs success from any recent Oklahoman)

Kevin Connolly (Chile Pepper XC Champ)

Bryce Balenseifen

Daniel Mazzei

Mark Thompson (3x XC Champ!)

Recency bias because I am young, these are in no particular order

Michigander wrote:

Rtiz

Grant Fisher

Greg Meyer

Herb Lindsay

Todd Williams

Other Footlocker champs

Michigan for the win.

Bonkers wrote:

[quote]sub-2 in the 802 wrote:

Here's my best evaluation for the state of Vermont:

Boys:

1. Mint Henk

2. Ken Bunnell

3. Kyle Powers

4. Marc Brandmeyer

5. Jeremy Grosvenor

6. Brendan Copley

7. Malcolm Plunkett

Alternates: Sam Nishi, Dage Minors, Dan Ramsey

Bruce Hyde is the only guy I remember from VT. Pretty sure him and Mint were top 3 in NE's the same year.

Who came up with the Nebraska list?

MI Strong wrote:

Michigander wrote:

Rtiz

Grant Fisher

Greg Meyer

Herb Lindsay

Todd Williams

Other Footlocker champs

Michigan for the win.

Doug Brown ranks ahead of all of those Michigan guys except Ritz.

New Englander wrote:

Bonkers wrote:

[quote]sub-2 in the 802 wrote:

Here's my best evaluation for the state of Vermont:

Boys:

1. Mint Henk

2. Ken Bunnell

3. Kyle Powers

4. Marc Brandmeyer

5. Jeremy Grosvenor

6. Brendan Copley

7. Malcolm Plunkett

Alternates: Sam Nishi, Dage Minors, Dan Ramsey

Bruce Hyde is the only guy I remember from VT. Pretty sure him and Mint were top 3 in NE's the same year.

Eric Morse was a beast as well. My list:

Mint Henk (fl finalist)

Eric Morse

Bruce Hyde (NE 3rd place)

Nathan Shenk-Boright

Jeremy Grovesner

The girls actually have a good team for a small state, VTs male all stars would be in the running for the worst in the nation. Not surprising based on population.

sp2 wrote:

King of Lafayette NY wrote:

Jersey's gonna rock the house on this...

Right off the top, I'm thinking:

1. Ches.

2. Rosa.

3. Rosa.

Liquori, Hudson, Keino, ... who else? Help me out.

ROBBY MF ANDREWS

Seyta wrote:

Illinois:

1) Lukas Verzbicas (3:59, 8:29, 13:53 3mile XC, 14:06 indoor 5K, 2x FL Champ, NXN Champ, NBIN Mile, 2Mile, 5K Champ)

2) Craig Virgin (4:04 1600m, 8:40, 13:50 3mile XC)

3) Chris Derrick (8:48, 13:53 3mile XC, 13:55 5K, NXN Champ)

4) Donald Sage (4:00, 8:42 *3200m, 14:03 3mile XC)

5) Dave Merrick (4:05i, 8:43i, 13:36i 3mile)

6) Tom Graves (4:07, 8:49, 13:56 3mile XC)

7) Evan Jager (4:05, 8:47, 14:07 3mile XC)

**A few might argue that Jim Spivey should be up there. I don't disagree at all. He could certainly substitute in for any of trunners there excluding the top 3**

Honorable mention: Matt Withrow (**See FL win against Galen Rupp**)

I would be very surprised if another state could muster up something like this.

Illinois just murdered this thread....great googly moogly that lineup is insane. evan jager #7? Withrow doesn't even make the top 7 because its so stacked.

ric flair woo wrote:

Seyta wrote:

Illinois:

1) Lukas Verzbicas (3:59, 8:29, 13:53 3mile XC, 14:06 indoor 5K, 2x FL Champ, NXN Champ, NBIN Mile, 2Mile, 5K Champ)

2) Craig Virgin (4:04 1600m, 8:40, 13:50 3mile XC)

3) Chris Derrick (8:48, 13:53 3mile XC, 13:55 5K, NXN Champ)

4) Donald Sage (4:00, 8:42 *3200m, 14:03 3mile XC)

5) Dave Merrick (4:05i, 8:43i, 13:36i 3mile)

6) Tom Graves (4:07, 8:49, 13:56 3mile XC)

7) Evan Jager (4:05, 8:47, 14:07 3mile XC)

**A few might argue that Jim Spivey should be up there. I don't disagree at all. He could certainly substitute in for any of trunners there excluding the top 3**

Honorable mention: Matt Withrow (**See FL win against Galen Rupp**)

I would be very surprised if another state could muster up something like this.

Illinois just murdered this thread....great googly moogly that lineup is insane. evan jager #7? Withrow doesn't even make the top 7 because its so stacked.

Dylan Jacobs ran faster at detweiler than sage, jager, and merrick AND he won a national title. Jacobs should definitely crack the top 7.

Interesting that 3 FL champions (Jacobs, Torres, and Withrow) didn't make your list. I don't disagree with your picks, but it just goes to show how insanely talented an all-star IL team is.

Cali

1. German Fernandez

2. Jeff Nelson

3. Ryan Hall

4. Marc Davis

5. Meb Keflezighi

6. Yong Sung Leal

7. Jay Marden

Honorable Mention:

Mitch Kingery

Aj Acosta

Mastalir Twins

Michael Stember

Bolota Asmerom

Austin Tomagno

Chad Hall

Steve Scott

Oklahoma (I used MileSplit rankings as an easy reference). I ranked based on High School performance, college PRs are explicitly extra information:

No. 1 Ben Barrett- #1 all-time 8:57, only sub-9 okie, #2 all-time 4:09, other PRs of 1:57/52.35, ran 14:51 at FL South for the #2 XC all-time. Runs for NC State, 14:13 on the track, 23:44/30:42 for XC.

No. 2 Kevin Schwab- #2 all-time 9:08, XC credentials are crazy: 3-time state champion, 2-time OK/AR Duel champion, also won Chile Pepper as a sophomore in 14:44, which MileSplit says is the state record. In college got 21st-3rd-2nd-2nd at D1 Midwest, running for OU. 23:27/29:30 XC PRs. 13:40/28:53 on the track.

No. 3 Bryce Balenseifen- #3 all-time 4:11 #6 all-time 9:16, #7 all-time 1:52.98. 7-time state champion on the track. 3-time cross country state champion, OSU jamboree champion. Can't really tell what happened to him in college, looks like he might've fell off.

No. 4 Zach Black- #1 all-time 4:09, #5 all-time 9:15, also ran 1:55 in HS. State and OK/AR champion. College PRs of 1:50 and 3:44, comparatively unremarkable XC career (24:43/32:36)

No. 5 Isai Rodriguez- Ran 14:53 for the #3 XC all-time, comparatively unremarkable track times (4:27/9:26). Impressive college times of 4:05/7:54/13:53 and 23:26/29:10.

No. 6 Daniel Mazzei- #4 all-time 4:12, 5-time state track champion, 1-time Meet of Champions winner. Also a 9:18 runner. Don't know or can't find much on his college endeavors. A bit of a personal anecdote, but the one time I raced this dude in a 3200, I thought I had gotten second, only to find out I had gotten third because he was so far ahead that I had lost track of him.

No. 7 Jed Helker- #5 all-time 4:13, 3-time track state champion, 2-time XC champ. Currently a freshman for Wichita State, has gotten that mile down to 4:11. Some more personal stories: I saw this guy literally cruise to four gold medals at State. In 6A, the largest division. (By the way, I'm not counting relays into the state champion count.) Also saw him destroy a cross country race running 16 flat in a pair of Brooks.

Alternates (because I spent way too much energy on these not to include them):

Henry Williams- #3 all-time 9:11, consistently got 2nd at state track championships. XC OK/AR Duel champion, State runner-up. Couldn't find anything on college, probably not that great.

Matthew Young- #4 all-time 9:11, 3-time state champion, 4th at NBNO 5000m. Won XC State his senior year. College pedigrees of 4:09/8:04/14:13/29:30 and 24:06/30:31.

There you go. Almost four hours of my time down the drain trying to figure out the fastest runners from the most unremarkable state.

Pack Attack wrote:

Cali

1. German Fernandez

2. Jeff Nelson

3. Ryan Hall

4. Marc Davis

5. Meb Keflezighi

6. Yong Sung Leal

7. Jay Marden

Honorable Mention:

Mitch Kingery

Aj Acosta

Mastalir Twins

Michael Stember

Bolota Asmerom

Austin Tomagno

Chad Hall

Steve Scott

This is XC

Ralph Serna

Eric Hulst

Thom Hunt

Rich Kimball

I would replace Copley with Dan Grosvenor and Ken Bunnell with Tyler Marshall or Sidi Abdoulaye

I disagree strongly with your list.

Zack Black: All-time oklahoma great for sure, but definitely not in the way of cross country. The dude just wasn't dominant like some of the others. Same with Henry Williams.

You left out key guys from the 90's/early 2000's that displayed absurd dominance and speed such as Mark Thompson and Kevin Connolly.

I neglected Kevin Schwab which is certainly a mistake on my list though. Definitely would put him in place for Matt Young.

Amber Trotter

Jordan Hasay

Julia Stamps

Sarah Baxter

Claudia Lane

Sara Bei

Kim Mortensen

Overall, I'd say it's only been recently in the 2000s where Texas has started to improve and show up as a great XC state.

Texas

Colby Lowe

Craig Lutz

Ruben Reina

Reed Brown

Samuel Worley

Maybes?

Graydon Morris

Alex Maier

Scott Macpherson

Alan Culpepper

Brad Hauser

For Wisconsin:

1. Chris Solinsky

2. Drew Bosley

3. Finn Gessner

4. Chris Rombough

5. Ryan Kromer