Toughest HS X-C courses

Ok, I have run on a lot of these courses you all have mentioned, Hereford, Brandywine, Salesianum, Van Cortland, Mt. Sac, and Holmdel, I can say without any doubt that Hereford is the hardest, not even close. I'm a former Virginia state champ in the mile and I wasn't really all that bad at hilly courses, but Hereford never lets up. The pictures do not even come close to describing the course, John Dye did a usual retarded job on it. The Dip, which is run twice, is really not the worst part, there is an absolutley brutal section coming out of the soccer field, a zig zag maze of hills and switchbacks, not allowing for any momentum, and a real killer as it is pretty much from mile 2.1-2.7, followed by 2.7 to end which is the Dip. The other courses I've listed are without a doubt tough as hell, but Hereford is a relentless onslaught of hills.

As for the course record:

I know Dusty Lieb ran a 16:00, but the course is now a little longer. Small guys always seem to do better on the course, so I would bet that if Centro wants the record, he could get it. Of course, I am not sure if he would even want to go for the record at states, as that sort of effort could ruin his chances at Footlocker.

not a hs course, but check out the pics of this 5k course:

http://www.wicked5k.com/coursephotos.htm

winning times are usually around 20 minutes.

i,ve been to slippery rock and the hershey state meet course when it was run both the old way and the new way, the schenley oval course in pittsburgh, penn state,s course for states and spike shoe, the bucknell course for states and several other course people say are difficult. My vote would be for the St. Francis of Pa high school course. know of no other course that has such punishing hills. If you can run well here you are a legit candidate for a state medal. its a shame they don,t run the invite anymore, always had great competition.

this guy is correct- the dip is a tough steep hill that you have to do twice- but the back part of the course is what kills you. Its just tough to run fast there are constant hills.

The record is actually I believe Myers from NJ at 1600- he and Dusty ran together pretty much stride for stride and he won. Yesterday Rob Wetzel from Spalding(the same HS as Lieb) ran a 16:03 to win the seeded race. Also Malloy of Hereford ran 1841 for girls record on her home course.

Hanseen, did you go up ? If I am not mistaken I read Centro was at Oregon this weekend.

Formosan Joe wrote:

Brandywine is tough, but only becuase people shoot their wad in the first mile.

I ran there once; my Junior year in '82.

First mile in 5:30 and I was in ~10th. Ended up 2nd to MD state champ (17:21 vs 17:24).

You have to be very aerobically fit to go out in <5:00 on that course and keep going.

Is the Brandywine Creek course the same as its been? I ran there in '86 (Salesianum Invite - I got 3rd in 16:51, I think) and I thought it had changed since.

lawrence, kansas rimrock farm over the 4th km. beautiful, but inopportune...

Read about:

the Big 12 meet will be there at the end of this month.

chiclets are good wrote:

lawrence, kansas rimrock farm over the 4th km. beautiful, but inopportune...

Having run on the Newtown Battlefield Course in Elmira, New York 3 times now i can definitely say it's the worst HS course i have ever ran and definitely should rank up there as the worst in New York State and possibly the country.

It has hosted the STAC Championships the last 2 years and many of the Binghamton area coaches have complained that the course is too tough and want it to go back to the Binghamton area on a flatter course.

The course record currently stands at 17:30 which was set by 2 time defending NYS Class D champion Christian Thompson. Thompson went on to the NY Federation meet to place 9th overall and run a 16:30 which would vouch for Newtown Battlefield to be tougher than the Wappinger Falls course.

I wish i had some pictures of the course and could describe it better from that...

every tough course in every city has a 'suicide hill'.

I don't know how you can call any course that is only 5k tough. When I came to the US from Canada for college I was amazed that HS kids only run 5k X-C here. We ran 5k in ninth grade then by the time you were a senior were running 8k. I have always thought an age group system makes more sense than school size, that way the best kids race each other. I know it will never change for tradition reasons, but would make sense.

Sunfair invite, Eastern Washington. 3.5 loops around a brutally hilly park. If the boredom doesnt kill you the massive hills will. There is 200m of total flat ground on the entire course. I believe you run over it twice, so 400m of flat. Its 3 miles though so a few people have come out of there with some quick times.

I have run, raced and trained on both Derryfield park's course (ran here 6 times in HS) and Herferd MD's course (raced on it twice, and we trained here at least once a week for college XC). And though Herferd can be a real bitch at time, mostly when muddy, as far as the hills go I would say Derryfield was a killer.

The first 400m was all up hill, takes the sting out of your legs if i remember correctly, and then there were 2-3 other major-long hills that you couldn't go veyr fast up at all, but you made up for it by the very very steep down hills. each year a kid would trip on the down hill part and just roll back before they changed the tar section to the trail.

Herferd is rolling, and the footing can be bad, but what HURTS the most (usually an indicator of toughness) is by far Derryfeild park.

And who are all the great Canadian runners who came out of this system that runs 8k xc courses in high school? The 5k distance is perfectly acceptable at that age no matter how tough the course is. I think the toughest x-country course I ever ran in Colorado was in Leadville which sits at 10,000 feet of elevation. If you went out too fast up there you were history.

Green Lakes is sadly not used in section 3 these days, or at least not much.

A real bear is the course at South Lewis high school on the tug hill pleateau - through farm land, one hill that is so steep its in your face, several more hills after that. Used to finish on a cinder track.

hey, that's nothing...it's only in recent years that the US high schools have gone to 3 miles and/or 5k +/-, courses.

When I was in high school in the 70s, X-C was a 2 mile race. (which seemed 'really far' to us, I have to admit). Not sure when they moved up the distance in US high schools. In college (again in the 70's), we ran 5 miles most of the time, (in NAIA/D2), 4 miles a few times and 6 miles rarely. (though D1 has run 6 miles/10k for decades).

Two come to mind. The first, and less difficult of the two, is Great Meadow, where the Virginia state meet is held. The course starts on a very flat, roughly 600 meter straightaway. Then, the course dips down and to the left. The course then takes runners up a short, but steep hill. Then, runners enter into a small loop in the woods that has rolling hills. Upon exiting the woods, the runners reach the one mile mark. This is where the course gets tough. It dips down and to the left, then goes up another short and steel hill. After, the runners get a break and have a long straightaway on uneven grass that can hurt your foot if you're not careful. The runners then get to a hairpin right turn where the ground is often muddy (it's usually cold, rainy, and windy here, as it's in the Shenandoah Valley). Then the runners go left and down, then take another sharp left turn that goes straight into a shin-deep creek crossing. Afterwards, runners go up and to the left on a steep hill. Another hairpin left turn is experienced, where runners quickly go down and to the right, then immediately back up. The runners then run downhill in a Z shape. The second mile marker is in this area. Then, the runners run a long stretch before turning left and going up yet another steep hill, the final one on the course. The runners run to the left and then back down the hill, then take a sharp right into the finishing stretch. The finish is demoralizing - it is close to 800 meters long and the finish line only seems to get farther away. Runners often say that it's among the toughest courses. Times rarely go below 16 here.

The second one is Kernstown Battlefield in Winchester, Virginia. This course sees the Judges Classic invitational held by John Handley high school every year. The start of the race is one massive hill. It's about 200 meters or more of a steep uphill. Runners then take a sharp left and immediately go up another short but very steep hill. Runners then turn right and enter the woods, where there are many large downhills followed by long, strenuous uphills. Runners then turn left and go up a long, steep hill that brings them back to the top of the second hill on the course. Runners then get a long downhill where they pass through the finish line and go down. The first mile is about 100m past the finish line. The second mile is fairly flat, yet times seem to always be slowest here. Runners cross through the parking lot and go up and to the left around some houses. Then, runners pass the infamous "stinging corner", aptly named as there are tons of wasp and hornet nests here that keep coming back regardless of how many times the battlefield gets rid of them. Usually around 25-35 percent of the people who run in each race get stung. Runners then go on a very short downhill and take a sharp right back into the starting hill. Yep, you have to do it twice. After traversing the starting hill, runners have to go up the second, steep hill AGAIN. This is where most people admit to walking on the course. Then, the runners turn into the woods section again and encounter the second mile marker. Then, runners go through the woods again but instead of going left as they did in the first mile, they go right, where they go on a long uphill that eventually turns left and goes into steep rolling hills. Then, runners go on a flst road for roughly 200m and then go up a steep hill. Then, runners encounter a downhill followed by another steep uphill that brings them back to the long downhill right before the finish line. This is where runners get simultaneously the most relief and the most grief, as the finish line never seems to get any closer. Times don't go below 16 here.

I know these two courses aren't as tough as a lot of the others (Bear Mountain in NY, for example), but they're definitely the two toughest ones that I've run myself.

random498 wrote:

I know these two courses aren't as tough as a lot of the others (Bear Mountain in NY, for example), but they're definitely the two toughest ones that I've run myself.

You must be thinking of another course because Bear Mountain isn’t particularly difficult…ton of pavement on that course.