A lot of the Cathedral runners (that ik of) are from within the same area or dealing with similar circumstances. I remember reading an article about Manny Perez and how his immediate family comes from a low income home and are immigrants. It’s a pretty inspiring read!
Yes they do! Manny lived in Compton up until his last couple years of high school. Him and his family ended up making it out with their buisness! Omar and his teammates all live near DTLA area/ skid row in like government housing. Makes character story good in my opinion. We don’t have a lot of runners like that nowadays making it out from gritty areas
Honestly hope cathedral gets the 4 peat this year at cif. Would be historic at that level. But I don’t know if it’s doable with how prominent servite is racing this year, but then again servite doesn’t have a distance runner like Fabila over at cathedral to score points, so cathedrals sprint squad really just has to excel on the day. They all do.
Guys like Evert Silva, Lalo Herrera, and Luis Grijalva have always been runners I’ve looked up during my running career because of all three of them having similar stories to me (low-income background, child of Latin-American immigrant parents). Their stories motivated me and set huge marks. Meeting some of them at the state meet during my senior year was kind of one my highlights. Though my hs running career didn’t go the way I wanted it, I’m still to this day reminded of their stories and apply what I learned to other walks of life besides running.
Personally, 2015-2017 era of running > Newberry park era. Sure Newberry park era was faster by a margin, but I don’t think it compares to guys like Teare, Grijalva, Herrera, Bolger, Vernau, Rocha, Tamango- that’s a generational run imo. They’re like the prime Lakers (like Kobe and Shaq) or prime Lebron
My guess is training. Technically we are only about half way through the season, so it's likely that many people are still in their toughest blocks of training right now, even with Arcadia.
Also, it was very hot. I would guess that there were some people unprepared for that.
Anyone know what's up with Morales? Scratched from the invite 800m. Such an incredible talent but it seems like he just can't stay healthy.
Word is he's super fit. At start of Oregon Relays Mile the race was recalled because of a fall just 20 meters into race. The kid that fell spiked Morales' heel so badly he had a 2 inch gash and he was lucky as it was right next to his achilles. Even with bloodied heel, he still ran 4:18 full mile and then went to urgent care in Eugene to get stitched up. Apparently his stitches open up the morning of Arcadia (according to one of his teammates).
Personally, 2015-2017 era of running > Newberry park era. Sure Newberry park era was faster by a margin, but I don’t think it compares to guys like Teare, Grijalva, Herrera, Bolger, Vernau, Rocha, Tamango- that’s a generational run imo. They’re like the prime Lakers (like Kobe and Shaq) or prime Lebron
For me it's the opposite. While meeting the L&L Young brothers during their prime (Dec. 2022) was life changing for me in how it made me take running seriously and made me a runner at heart, I think the POST-Newbury park era is peak. Sure, 2018-2022 had 4 national XC champions from California, but the DEPTH of running from the Central Coast section/Bay Area and running has never been stronger in our region before.
For the first time ever, CCS has arguably become a DEEPER region than the Southern Section with runners such as Aydon Stefanopoulos, Landon Pretre, Eli Fitchen-Young, Miles Cook, Grant Morgenfeld, Benjamin Bouie, Carson Hedlund, and now Yosef Berhan! They are like the prime Chicago Bulls (like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen) or prime Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Personally, 2015-2017 era of running > Newberry park era. Sure Newberry park era was faster by a margin, but I don’t think it compares to guys like Teare, Grijalva, Herrera, Bolger, Vernau, Rocha, Tamango- that’s a generational run imo. They’re like the prime Lakers (like Kobe and Shaq) or prime Lebron
For me it's the opposite. While meeting the L&L Young brothers during their prime (Dec. 2022) was life changing for me in how it made me take running seriously and made me a runner at heart, I think the POST-Newbury park era is peak. Sure, 2018-2022 had 4 national XC champions from California, but the DEPTH of running from the Central Coast section/Bay Area and running has never been stronger in our region before.
For the first time ever, CCS has arguably become a DEEPER region than the Southern Section with runners such as Aydon Stefanopoulos, Landon Pretre, Eli Fitchen-Young, Miles Cook, Grant Morgenfeld, Benjamin Bouie, Carson Hedlund, and now Yosef Berhan! They are like the prime Chicago Bulls (like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen) or prime Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I’d add Olaf Dietz from Berkeley there too. He’s kind of like a Yosef Berhan where he essentially just came out of nowhere. He only ran for two years (started in jr year) but managed to run 15:13, 8:51, and 4:11. He was even beating Lucas Cohen for the majority of track season last season until NCS and State. Ik someone who was on the team with him and I’ve heard after D3 regionals he suffered a stress fracture and is considering quitting running permanently- another underrated runner. Him and Josh Chu were my favorites to keep up with from the 23-24 season.
I’d add Olaf Dietz from Berkeley there too. He’s kind of like a Yosef Berhan where he essentially just came out of nowhere. He only ran for two years (started in jr year) but managed to run 15:13, 8:51, and 4:11. He was even beating Lucas Cohen for the majority of track season last season until NCS and State. Ik someone who was on the team with him and I’ve heard after D3 regionals he suffered a stress fracture and is considering quitting running permanently- another underrated runner. Him and Josh Chu were my favorites to keep up with from the 23-24 season.
Was it Olaf Dietz or Lucas Cohen who suffered the stress fracture?
the 4x100 was the most exciting of the races. Too bad the runnerspace video cut into all weird angles so you can't see the hand offs. this is why I bring my camera to these meets as the camera operators are not runners so they don't care about the right camera view of these races.
BTW I will be covering Mt. SAC Relays (most of the HS races with a few of the elite races) with the full spectrum of cameras (unlike Arcadia with just one camera).
the 4x100 was the most exciting of the races. Too bad the runnerspace video cut into all weird angles so you can't see the hand offs. this is why I bring my camera to these meets as the camera operators are not runners so they don't care about the right camera view of these races.
BTW I will be covering Mt. SAC Relays (most of the HS races with a few of the elite races) with the full spectrum of cameras (unlike Arcadia with just one camera).
PoMan, thanks for covering all these meets.
What is your "full spectrum" of cameras? How many cameras are you up to now? Six? Eight?
Yes they do! Manny lived in Compton up until his last couple years of high school. Him and his family ended up making it out with their buisness! Omar and his teammates all live near DTLA area/ skid row in like government housing. Makes character story good in my opinion. We don’t have a lot of runners like that nowadays making it out from gritty areas
Reminds me of German Fernandez. He was from a poor area if I recall correctly.
the 4x100 was the most exciting of the races. Too bad the runnerspace video cut into all weird angles so you can't see the hand offs. this is why I bring my camera to these meets as the camera operators are not runners so they don't care about the right camera view of these races.
BTW I will be covering Mt. SAC Relays (most of the HS races with a few of the elite races) with the full spectrum of cameras (unlike Arcadia with just one camera).
Thank you for your coverage PoMan. I can tell you for a fact that the entire state greatly appreciates it.
Up in the central coast section, Los Gatos High School and St Francis (Mountain View) High School boys are both going to be forces to reckon with in the upcoming years of CCS. They each have 2 FRESHMAN boys running 4:46< in the mile! Los Gatos has one boy running 4:38! For the first time as far back as I can remember, Bellarmine College Preparatory does not have the deepest freshman class in CCS!
Lynbrook HS also has a good freshman class as well but historically their talent does not go anywhere with the exception of individual, Adarsh Iyer.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
