I agree with you that expecting Sadie to be the #2 freshman (even the #2 US-born freshman) would be a tall order. Which is interesting, given that she consistently beat Rylee Blade in XC last year. But a long-term approach is more important than immediate results.
They only faced each other head to head 3 times last year. Blade won Woodbridge, and Sadie won Clovis and beat her at NXN. Blade's time at State was 11 seconds faster, but they weren't in the same division, but I'd score it Sadie 2, Blade 2.
I agree with you that expecting Sadie to be the #2 freshman (even the #2 US-born freshman) would be a tall order. Which is interesting, given that she consistently beat Rylee Blade in XC last year. But a long-term approach is more important than immediate results.
They only faced each other head to head 3 times last year. Blade won Woodbridge, and Sadie won Clovis and beat her at NXN. Blade's time at State was 11 seconds faster, but they weren't in the same division, but I'd score it Sadie 2, Blade 2.
If they only raced 3 times head to head, it’s 2-1. You can’t compare times when they ran against different competition, at different times of the day with different conditions and probably different goals.
If memory serves me, Engelhardt was very early in her season last year at Woodbridge when she lost to Blade, after saying she got a late start to her XC season due to her track season that went up to the Olympic Trials.
The true freshman (not redshirts) that are domestically produced, and hence are the appropriate age, who are having the best XC seasons thus far are H. Thomsen (Stanford), R. Blade (Florida State), C. Huyler (Notre Dame), S. Engelhardt (N.C. State) and Tessa Walter (Furman). It is very hard to gauge what foreign recruited athletes even approximate freshman in the traditional sense. Hedengren is obviously a step up from this tier, but in the Brooks PR 2 mile the order was Hedengren, Blade, Thomsen, Huyler. Both Thomsen and Huyler have mile PR's faster than all but Hedengren and Engelhardt.
Hedengren is obviously a step up from this tier, but in the Brooks PR 2 mile the order was Hedengren, Blade, Thomsen, Huyler. Both Thomsen and Huyler have mile PR's faster than all but Hedengren and Engelhardt.
Not exactly.
Hedengren 4:23 #1 all time
Engelhardt 4:27 #2 all time
Thomsen 4:36
Huyler 4:40
These are the hs PRs for the ladies at 1 mile. Per milesplit and t&f news.
I'm excited everyone is following these Freshmen this year, it's a great class. It's very seldom a true freshman makes All American, and even rare just that one is top 5 for their team.
