Trey Caldwell BREAKS Historical California XC Course Record!

bumping this since there were 3 more boys under Kingery's old Crystal Springs record today at CCS. Eli Fitchen-Young has the new record at 14:23 (and from results, went out in 9:24?!?!). Pretre 14:24, Bouie 14:27. Absolutely insane.

Apparently not.

Course was short for all 10 races. Something screwy happened. Have not been able to find an explanation, just the notations in the race results below:

ca.milesplit.com

CIF Central Coast Section Championships 2024 - Meet Results

MileSplits official results list for the 2024 CIF Central Coast Section Championships in Belmont CA.

Link:ca.milesplit.com/meets/646467-cif-cent...

Landon Pretre's already an 8:48 3200m runner, so his 14:24 might have been on a short course, but he had to have been capable of getting close to the legit record.

I believe that notation just means that it's not a standard 5K/3M distance for Milesplit's listing purposes.

If you are familiar with the CS course, you'll know that, absent any misdirection, it's literally impossible to finish the race and not run the full distance.

I told you the record was soft and kept the receipts.

If any of the top 5 boys in the nation ran this course, the non-soft record would be closer to 14-flat.

That's exactly right. Milesplit uses "CC Short Course" when the distance is less than 3 miles. It doesn't mean the Crystal Springs course was mistakenly measured short yesterday. That course has been raced on for decades; start, course, and finish are well known.

Anyone who says the course is short either has never been to Crystal Springs or doesnt understand how the course works. This course is def 2.95 miles and that cannot change.

No way you waited a month and came back to prove your point. "I kEpT reCiePts". Get a life, this is high school cross country.

Ok. This makes sense.

Having raced @ Crystal Springs -- thus knowing the course is virtually impossible to cut or be misdirected on -- thought maybe the starting line had been moved or the course at the bottom of the hill had been changed due to a burst water pipe, electrical line being dug up, or some other unforeseen circumstance.

So, very happy to learn the current course managers have not decided to follow in Mt. SAC's footsteps and start fiddling with this historic venue, for any reason.

And, thx for those who pointed out how Milesplit lists course distances which are not 5k or 3 miles in distance.

Along with the perfect weather and course conditions, more national-calibre boys have run Crystal this year than ever before -- and the last few years have featured several national calibre runners -- thus explaining all the record-breaking performances.

Mitch Kingery's 14:28 CR from 1973 was due for a toppling. Just wasn't expecting four boys to break it within the span of 5 weeks.

Given that Eli Fitchen-Young is now the new CR holder and is ranked by DyeStat in its top-30, yet was beaten by Trey Caldwell last month by 16 seconds when Caldwell ran his then-CR 14:27, this is another confirmation of Caldwell's abilities as one of the best runners in the nation and is possibly the Foot Locker pre-race favorite.

Still, for perspective, the all-time course record is 14:14 by Matt Guisto @ 1987 Turkey Trot a few days after he finished 20th at NCAAs running for Arizona. Since Caldwell, Fitchen-Young, Boule, and Pretre are all seniors, don't expect the record breaking to continue next year or into the near future. Eli's new CR should last for another generation. And no one under 14:20 for another generation after that.

We would need to see how tully speed rates the performances before jumping to any conclusions about Fitchen Young being the next national champion. Midwest and Northwest had lots of very high rated performances. Caldwell was barely 193. Midwest had 5 runners faster than that today. Northwest had 8 today. That is 13 runners with better performances thus far in the season.

That is just today. There are 8 more regions to go.

I’m not sure how anyone could cut it short. The start line is cemented into the ground. You run out, loop back and follow the course to the finish. I’m glad the community of San Carlos and Belmont haven’t developed all over it. It’s a fantastic course.

Here we go again Letsrun - people trying to throw "shade" on a great accomplishment.

I wonder if his skin shade was a bit lighter would this be happening.

What? This is the worst take ever. The course was obviously short. A bunch of kids break a 50 year old record and you now say it won’t happen again for a generation? Please.

Well now they are throwing the same "shade" at Fitchen-Young and Pretre, so that answers your question.

What? This is the worst take ever. The course was obviously short. A bunch of kids break a 50 year old record and you now say it won’t happen again for a generation? Please.

A big YES to everything stated above.

Just to note that the current starting line was moved forward a bit after the inaugural 1971 season due to the SF Public Utilities Commission digging a trench for a new water main. The bottom of the hill was also manicured a bit to widen the course. This "first draft" was thus a bit longer than the current 2.95 miler which has been in use since 1972. As such, there are no times from 1971 that appear on the all-time record lists.

Crystal Springs xc course area cannot be developed because it is part of the SF watershed. Crystal Springs reservoir, which receives water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite Park as SF's water supply, lies just west of I-280 in a valley which sits upon the San Andreas Fault.

A few years ago, however, a few homeowners along Hallmark Drive wanted to close Crystal to xc racing and keep their little patch of open space heaven to themselves. Fortunately, they underestimated the course's popularity as well as xc running in general in the Peninsula area. The SF Water District, City of Belmont and College of San Mateo eventually worked things out.

Yes, I sure did. I’m a cross country geek of all levels.

I merely pointed out several weeks ago in this thread that the old record was “a bit soft”. A bunch of people overreacted to that statement. I then doubled-down and predicted Trey’s still-soft record would fall again almost immediately, and here we have 3 boys IN A SINGLE RACE breaking the record again, which proves my point and then some.

I can finally throw away the receipts now. This is me having the last laugh in this thread 🤣