2025 California T&F Thread

Tyris19 wrote:

SJSGlaze wrote:

800: Wyland Obando (Wilson LB) should be the favorite, but I’d also watch our for Jackson Hein (Pleasant Valley) and Alden Morales. Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) and Keaton Robar (Newport Harbor) seem to be the ones to watch out for on the girls side.

1600: Tough to call to be honest- Ben Bouie (CSUS) and Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) seem to be the top returners. Marcus Salinas (Clovis East) and Westin Brown (if healthy) can also be right up there. Miles Cook and Aydon Stefanopoulous should also be thrown in the mix. With Sadie out of the picture, Braelyn Combe seems to be the fastest returner, could possibly thrown in Chiara Dailey.

3200: This is a no-brainer, Evan Noonan is getting himself another title. Landon Pretre, Trey Caldwell, Eyan Turk, Eli Fitchen-Young, and Broen Holman can also put up a great fight. Girls side can go either way, however I do think the title will be between Jaelyn Williams, Hanne Thomson, and Rylee Blade.

Now we obv had some breakouts in J.R. Lesher, Griffin Kushen, and Liam Miller but to be fair, I don’t really know what events those three would run in the state meet. Kushen has a history of usually running the 1600 but he seems to have potential to be a solid 3200 runner. Lesher and Miller most likely seem like they would prioritize the 3200.

Noonan isn't as strong as he was last year -

Tyris19 wrote:

SJSGlaze wrote:

800: Wyland Obando (Wilson LB) should be the favorite, but I’d also watch our for Jackson Hein (Pleasant Valley) and Alden Morales. Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) and Keaton Robar (Newport Harbor) seem to be the ones to watch out for on the girls side.

1600: Tough to call to be honest- Ben Bouie (CSUS) and Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) seem to be the top returners. Marcus Salinas (Clovis East) and Westin Brown (if healthy) can also be right up there. Miles Cook and Aydon Stefanopoulous should also be thrown in the mix. With Sadie out of the picture, Braelyn Combe seems to be the fastest returner, could possibly thrown in Chiara Dailey.

3200: This is a no-brainer, Evan Noonan is getting himself another title. Landon Pretre, Trey Caldwell, Eyan Turk, Eli Fitchen-Young, and Broen Holman can also put up a great fight. Girls side can go either way, however I do think the title will be between Jaelyn Williams, Hanne Thomson, and Rylee Blade.

Now we obv had some breakouts in J.R. Lesher, Griffin Kushen, and Liam Miller but to be fair, I don’t really know what events those three would run in the state meet. Kushen has a history of usually running the 1600 but he seems to have potential to be a solid 3200 runner. Lesher and Miller most likely seem like they would prioritize the 3200.

Not sure about Noonan repeating his 3200M title. Turk, Pretre, Holman, and Fitchen-Young all ran faster than him in the 3mile and 5K this year. Noonan isn't as strong as he was last year - I think he's had to deal with a bit of injury. It'll be a tossup for sure. My money's on Turk though, personally

Lots of young cracked 800M guys returning as upperclassmen this year, which I definitely look forward to. Morales has been a bit of an outlier though - I question his sub 1:50 sometimes. He went from 1:49 in February last year to 1:57 at the end of the season, and didn't make it past league trials. The rest of his results are intensely mediocre compared to his fastest 800M.

Hein has a good resume of peaking at the end of the season. Both his 800M SR's from 2023 and 2024 were at the state meet finals. So I would definitely not count him out either.

I'll throw in a wildcard - Jesuit SJS takes the 4x800M. They all got returning guys in the 1:54-1:56 range, and like half of them were underclassmen. Their freshman, now sophomore, Alberts, ran 1:54.

SJSGlaze wrote:

800: Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) and Keaton Robar (Newport Harbor) seem to be the ones to watch out for on the girls side.

1600: With Sadie out of the picture, Braelyn Combe seems to be the fastest returner, could possibly thrown in Chiara Dailey.

3200: This is a no-brainer, Evan Noonan is getting himself another title. Landon Pretre, Trey Caldwell, Eyan Turk, Eli Fitchen-Young, and Broen Holman can also put up a great fight. Girls side can go either way, however I do think the title will be between Jaelyn Williams, Hanne Thomson, and Rylee Blade.

Now we obv had some breakouts in J.R. Lesher, Griffin Kushen, and Liam Miller but to be fair, I don’t really know what events those three would run in the state meet. Kushen has a history of usually running the 1600 but he seems to have potential to be a solid 3200 runner. Lesher and Miller most likely seem like they would prioritize the 3200.

you'll never know wrote:

4 by eight wrote:

Which team has the best 4x800?

According to athletic.net,

Great Oak returns 1:52, 1:53, 1:56, 1:57. I think they will be hungry after being screwed over at the XC state meet.

JSerra looks better though. They return 1:49, 1:55 (transfer), another 1:55, 1:56, 1:57, 1:59. It’s crazy that 4 of them are only juniors now.

Jesuit returns 6 under 2 minutes

Great Oak has had injury problems season after season over the last few years. Also, Doug Soles is still sowing discord on the GO team from Utah (telling people to skip practice, do their own workouts, ect) so theres gonna be some BS happening on that team this year.

I like JSerra's chances if Morales doesn't go down again, but I have the most confidence in Jesuit. All of their guys had amazing XC seasons, huge steps up from the year before, and Walt Lange is one of the best coaches, if not the best coach in California.

Additional teams to watch out for, ranked by my opinion.

1. Glendora: Made NXN. Their slowest returner ran 2:03 last year, but comes into the season having gone from 15:45 to 15:04. on Woodward. The 1:54 returner, Kevin Sandoval, went from 16:37 to 15:20 on Woodward. The 2:01 returner, Dylan Flores, went from 15:21 to 14:59 on Woodward.

2. Monache: Returns 4 at 2:01 or faster, which isn't particularly impressive but man... you gotta see the XC seasons those guys had. If they stay healthy, they are gonna go crazy.

3. Loyola: Returns 4 under 2 mins with huge upside on two of the guys, who are 4x800 runners. Another one of their runners went from 16:42 to 15:27 over 5k this XC season.

4. Menlo: Made NXN. They return all of their top 4, with each having leveled up this XC season considerably. their #5, freshman Oliver Olbekson, is a monster in track. The only thing that holds them back is that Landon Pretre will almost certainly pursue the 3200 instead of the 4x800 during the postseason.

5. Matilda Torres: Returns 4 at 2:02 or faster, all of whom had great XC seasons.

6. Mountain View: Very deep squad with enormous improvement in like, all of their top 10 guys. Returns a very young, very fast group eager to make a name for themselves on the track.

7. Bellarmine: Returns 4 at 2:02 or faster, all of whom had great XC seasons. Questionable periodization. Sorry, said what I said.

Speaking of the 4x800, it's placement between the 3200 and 4x400 is still an abomination. I appreciate you getting the 4x800 added CoachB, but why did it have to be there 😭🙏??

SJSGlaze wrote:

800: Wyland Obando (Wilson LB) should be the favorite, but I’d also watch our for Jackson Hein (Pleasant Valley) and Alden Morales. Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) and Keaton Robar (Newport Harbor) seem to be the ones to watch out for on the girls side.

1600: Tough to call to be honest- Ben Bouie (CSUS) and Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) seem to be the top returners. Marcus Salinas (Clovis East) and Westin Brown (if healthy) can also be right up there. Miles Cook and Aydon Stefanopoulous should also be thrown in the mix. With Sadie out of the picture, Braelyn Combe seems to be the fastest returner, could possibly thrown in Chiara Dailey.

3200: This is a no-brainer, Evan Noonan is getting himself another title. Landon Pretre, Trey Caldwell, Eyan Turk, Eli Fitchen-Young, and Broen Holman can also put up a great fight. Girls side can go either way, however I do think the title will be between Jaelyn Williams, Hanne Thomson, and Rylee Blade.

Now we obv had some breakouts in J.R. Lesher, Griffin Kushen, and Liam Miller but to be fair, I don’t really know what events those three would run in the state meet. Kushen has a history of usually running the 1600 but he seems to have potential to be a solid 3200 runner. Lesher and Miller most likely seem like they would prioritize the 3200.

matt_c wrote:

SJSGlaze wrote:

800: Wyland Obando (Wilson LB) should be the favorite, but I’d also watch our for Jackson Hein (Pleasant Valley) and Alden Morales. Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) and Keaton Robar (Newport Harbor) seem to be the ones to watch out for on the girls side.

1600: Tough to call to be honest- Ben Bouie (CSUS) and Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) seem to be the top returners. Marcus Salinas (Clovis East) and Westin Brown (if healthy) can also be right up there. Miles Cook and Aydon Stefanopoulous should also be thrown in the mix. With Sadie out of the picture, Braelyn Combe seems to be the fastest returner, could possibly thrown in Chiara Dailey.

3200: This is a no-brainer, Evan Noonan is getting himself another title. Landon Pretre, Trey Caldwell, Eyan Turk, Eli Fitchen-Young, and Broen Holman can also put up a great fight. Girls side can go either way, however I do think the title will be between Jaelyn Williams, Hanne Thomson, and Rylee Blade.

Now we obv had some breakouts in J.R. Lesher, Griffin Kushen, and Liam Miller but to be fair, I don’t really know what events those three would run in the state meet. Kushen has a history of usually running the 1600 but he seems to have potential to be a solid 3200 runner. Lesher and Miller most likely seem like they would prioritize the 3200.

What about Max Douglass (Corona DM) and Callum McBride (Albany) in the 1600m?