greatest hs xc runners -male

TX - Reuben Reina

overall would be Dathan Ritzenhein hands down

Rudy Chapa is better than any of the guys listed. The little Dyestat kids will crawl all over themselves to tell us how much better Fernandez or Derrick are, but neither one of them ran 28:32 10K in HS. That's back to back 14:16 5K pace. That's amazing for a HS kid!!!!

Chapa would have killed Derrick....Fernandez is in his league but Chapa was better.

Fernandez and Derrick never ran a 10k.

Good call about switching Merrick and Broe. Merrick was running on the old, old course--2.8 miles??? I think that is why I kind of left him far down. However, his track times spoke for themselves when he was running sub 9:00 on the track.

Derrick's 13:52 is just ridiculous though. After watching guys like Sage and Torres run 14:00 and 14:03 on the slightly shorter course, Derrick's 13:52 really puts things into perspective. Torres and Sage would not have finished in the top 40 in the national race either during their senior years. The difference is that Derrick may have beaten them both. In hindsight, here is my revised list:

1)Virgin

2)Graves

3)Torres

4)Merrick

5)Derrick

6)Broe

7)Sage

8)Maddux

9)Spivey

10)Sitko

For the other poster who mentioned Pifer--he was great, but I put him back with Jager, Withrow, and some of the recent IL greats--but I still don't think they could touch anyone on that list.

It would be cool to see these guys race--Virgin would burn through the first mile in sub 4:20 with Derrick on his heels out to prove he is the real course record holder, Sage would have a hell of a kick at the end, Torres would be plodding along 5 meters back, waiting to make his move at 2.5 miles. Broe wouldn't know what to do since he was so used to blowing out the competition (most of the better runners in the state were sophomores/juniors when Broe was a senior). And everyone would be looking at Troy Maddux saying "Who the hell is that guy?"

I had to smile at your comment, because it is so very right.

Of course, we could also throw Marius Bakken up there as well, for the one year he spent in state. :-)

if you don't think Matt Withrow belongs in the top 4 you are crazy. In 2003 Matt was the most dominant High School country runner in the this country. He proved that at Footlocker regionals, Illinois State finals (A longer course if you believe all the hype around it), and the Footlocker Nationals.

let be but it another way....In 2003 I could see Josh McDougal and Galen Rupp running under 13:55 at Detweiller Park, yet Matt beat them both pretty easy. Seems like a no brainer to me....and it sounds like you give to much weight on the times run at Detweiller and don't GIVE enough respect to WINNING and beating big time performers!

let be but it another way....In 2003 I could see Josh McDougal and Galen Rupp running under 13:55 at Detweiller Park, yet Matt beat them both pretty easy. Seems like a no brainer to me....and it sounds like you give to much weight on the times run at Detweiller and don't GIVE enough respect to WINNING and beating big time performers!

Am really enjoying your comments Jabs. Olderxcguy you make a good point about Withrow. I\'d consider putting him #10 instead of Sitko. Sitko seems to be the only elephant in the room.

As someone pointed out, Torres made Footlocker four years in a row. That is extremely sick, especially from the midwest regional. How many times would Virgin have qualified for Footlocker? Twice, right? Graves? Maybe three times if he were very lucky. That\'s why I\'d move Torres up to #2.

We had a guy in our conference (Central Suburban League)named Joey Paul (Maine West) who won 26 dual meets in a row at a time when it was very difficult to win more than a few in a row. I think he took third at state in \'74. He would rate an honorable mention in my book. Ron Craker (York) was also very studly but not in the top 10.

awwwwwwyeahhhhhh!!!! wrote:

Rudy Chapa is better than any of the guys listed. The little Dyestat kids will crawl all over themselves to tell us how much better Fernandez or Derrick are, but neither one of them ran 28:32 10K in HS. .

Rudy Chapa's company owns Dystat.

Jorge Torres state finishes-2nd-champ-champ-champ footlocker-13th-5th-2nd-champ. No one better then him

Stop comparing cross country times! Detweiler is a great course but the time comparisons have to stop because there is no way of telling anything from them.

I'm surprised no one has taken a stab at Oregon yet.

Prefontaine. Ian Dobson. Bill Dellinger. Bill McChesney, Jr., Galen Rupp, Grant Robison, Rhy Reynolds.

Also, from Washington State, Issac Ferris, Matt Davis, and Micah Davis all come to mind.

olympians wrote:

footlocker-13th-5th-2nd-champ. No one better then him

Although you make a great case for Torres, I think Ritzenhein has better credentials overall in XC (just in high school alone). Ritz went something like 8th-1st-1st. I think he had an outside shot to make it to footlocker his freshman year. With his time in the freshman sophomore race he would've placed in the top 30 in the seeded race. Not to mention his world junior XC 3rd.

Dathan was also only about 7 seconds behind Jorge Torres when he was a sophomore and Torres was a senior in the seeded race. The times were slow but it was a complete slopfest that year.

Tx-Everyone says Reuben Reina and I agree, however 1 person left out of mention is Bobby Aguiire (1980-1983). His era is not given the credit it deserves, even the UIL (Tx governing body for HS Athletics) website archives starts at 1984. He had an amazing 4 year career in TX.

good point, I was mainly referring to Torres being the best in Illinois

out of washington id have to say lindgren would be #1

If Barack Obama decided to run xc hewould undoubtedly be the greatest runner ever to lace up

runnerguy123 wrote:

out of washington id have to say lindgren would be #1

I just read the entire thread to see if anyone posted Lindgren for Washington yet, and boom two posts before the end there it was. Anyways I 100% agree with you. Lindgren was the original high school phenom, and over 40 years later is still the #2 5k runner.

On a related note who thinks Rupp will become a Schizophrenic who ditches his wife and kids?