Bethlehem, a public high school in a suburb of Albany enrolls 1400 students in grades 9-12, about 350 per class.
There is no school choice.
If that’s true, their success at a National level is VERY impressive. I have a hard time believing it.
Regardless, a NY guy was empowered to rank the entire country on a (formerly) trusted website, and he ranked his home state team at #1 in the nation over one of the best teams ever ASSEMBLED, it definitely cost him and Milesplit a lot of credibility and opened the Bethlehem girls up to criticism that they didn’t ask for.
Bethlehem, a public high school in a suburb of Albany enrolls 1400 students in grades 9-12, about 350 per class.
There is no school choice.
If that’s true, their success at a National level is VERY impressive. I have a hard time believing it.
Regardless, a NY guy was empowered to rank the entire country on a (formerly) trusted website, and he ranked his home state team at #1 in the nation over one of the best teams ever ASSEMBLED, it definitely cost him and Milesplit a lot of credibility and opened the Bethlehem girls up to criticism that they didn’t ask for.
What is so hard to believe. NY as a State has no school mobility, you go where you live or choose a private school.
His ranking was not crazy. They put together 2 great races with speed ratings all between 130 and 140.
At that point in the season CO, UT & CA teams had not yet posted their best results.
They ran pretty well at nats to finish 5th, but they were competitive with 3rd and 4th.
Bethlehem, a public high school in a suburb of Albany enrolls 1400 students in grades 9-12, about 350 per class.
There is no school choice.
If that’s true, their success at a National level is VERY impressive. I have a hard time believing it.
Regardless, a NY guy was empowered to rank the entire country on a (formerly) trusted website, and he ranked his home state team at #1 in the nation over one of the best teams ever ASSEMBLED, it definitely cost him and Milesplit a lot of credibility and opened the Bethlehem girls up to criticism that they didn’t ask for.
Bethlehem is a deep team, but they are not an especially fast team (no low pegs). Colorado and California are extremely deep, and Bethlehem would have a hard time qualifying in those regions. Colorado had 13 finishers at NXN before NY had 2 (Bethlehem’s first). If you throw them in the SW region with all those fast runners ahead of them scoring team points, and they would finish right around 4th or 5th.
You do realize they just finished 5th at NXN ahead of Fossil Ridge by almost 100 points and only 20 back from Air Academy right? I realize Lone Peak had a great race at NXN after being the 4th team at Regionals but are you really going to imply that NXN Southwest is more competitive than NXN itself?
I don’t even know why I bother asking, all the Colorado people that post here are delusional/drunk on the success of the last two years and probably do believe that.
You do realize they just finished 5th at NXN ahead of Fossil Ridge by almost 100 points and only 20 back from Air Academy right? I realize Lone Peak had a great race at NXN after being the 4th team at Regionals but are you really going to imply that NXN Southwest is more competitive than NXN itself?
I don’t even know why I bother asking, all the Colorado people that post here are delusional/drunk on the success of the last two years and probably do believe that.
Fossil had an off race at NXN. They had a good race at NXR. Air Academy had the same score at NXN that they had at NXR (without a great #5 runner). Lone Peak scored better at NXN than at NXR. Wouldn’t be surprised if Lone Peak had sick kids at NXR and Fossil had sick kids at NXN. Bethlehem’s top runner at the NY Federated Championship was 3rd. In the SW, they’d be closer to 23rd (scoring wise). Their fifth runner would be closer to 40th (scoring wise).
Bethlehem is a deep team, but they are not an especially fast team (no low pegs). Colorado and California are extremely deep, and Bethlehem would have a hard time qualifying in those regions. Colorado had 13 finishers at NXN before NY had 2 (Bethlehem’s first). If you throw them in the SW region with all those fast runners ahead of them scoring team points, and they would finish right around 4th or 5th.
I realize you mean it differently, but Bethlehem really was not deep! They only had 5 good runners period.
That means those exact same 5 kids had to bring it in every single race all season, or Bethlehem was going home.
In NY we talk more about actual results than "what coulda been". The old, we were 7th, but our 2nd runner had an off day. The transfer wasn't eligible yet. etc.
The 5 ladies from Bethlehem produced results all season and at nxn, with no days off.
If that’s true, their success at a National level is VERY impressive. I have a hard time believing it.
Regardless, a NY guy was empowered to rank the entire country on a (formerly) trusted website, and he ranked his home state team at #1 in the nation over one of the best teams ever ASSEMBLED, it definitely cost him and Milesplit a lot of credibility and opened the Bethlehem girls up to criticism that they didn’t ask for.
What is so hard to believe. NY as a State has no school mobility, you go where you live or choose a private school.
His ranking was not crazy. They put together 2 great races with speed ratings all between 130 and 140.
At that point in the season CO, UT & CA teams had not yet posted their best results.
They ran pretty well at nats to finish 5th, but they were competitive with 3rd and 4th.
Congrats to Vista and Line Peak!
False. New York has charter schools and private schools that allow mobility. Additionally, NY schools are allowed to have middle school runners on their high school team.
False. New York has charter schools and private schools that allow mobility. Additionally, NY schools are allowed to have middle school runners on their high school team.
A charter school is private and usually does not have sports. Most are in inner cities with terrible public schools.
Sure NY has plenty of Catholic schools and prep schools that allow mobility, but usually they are not the schools repping NY at NXN. Xavier this year was a one off.
8th graders allowed mostly due small schools that otherwise could not field a team. Same for basketball etc. In most cases playing an 8th grader is a weakness.
You do realize they just finished 5th at NXN ahead of Fossil Ridge by almost 100 points and only 20 back from Air Academy right? I realize Lone Peak had a great race at NXN after being the 4th team at Regionals but are you really going to imply that NXN Southwest is more competitive than NXN itself?
I don’t even know why I bother asking, all the Colorado people that post here are delusional/drunk on the success of the last two years and probably do believe that.
Fossil had an off race at NXN. They had a good race at NXR. Air Academy had the same score at NXN that they had at NXR (without a great #5 runner). Lone Peak scored better at NXN than at NXR. Wouldn’t be surprised if Lone Peak had sick kids at NXR and Fossil had sick kids at NXN. Bethlehem’s top runner at the NY Federated Championship was 3rd. In the SW, they’d be closer to 23rd (scoring wise). Their fifth runner would be closer to 40th (scoring wise).
Federation was Bethlehem's worst race of the season, for what it's worth.
False. New York has charter schools and private schools that allow mobility. Additionally, NY schools are allowed to have middle school runners on their high school team.
A charter school is private and usually does not have sports. Most are in inner cities with terrible public schools.
Sure NY has plenty of Catholic schools and prep schools that allow mobility, but usually they are not the schools repping NY at NXN. Xavier this year was a one off.
8th graders allowed mostly due small schools that otherwise could not field a team. Same for basketball etc. In most cases playing an 8th grader is a weakness.
Three of their top five competed for their high school as middle schoolers at some point. The aforementioned 8th grader, a senior in their 5th year of high school competition, and a sophomore in their 4th year of high school competition (already has been in 4 years of NXR/NXN events). In 2023 they had 2 8th graders. In 2022 they had 1 and in 2021 they had a 7th grader. Not such a weakness after all.
Sophia Grant did not transfer after all. Can't blame her for considering running with the GOAT, but changing schools is often just too tough for a young lady, so she went back to Newbury Park.
She was the only person from NP who made state but she DNFed there.
Looking at what happened to the team at the state meet, even if she stuck with Ventura’s #2, Ventura still wouldn’t have gotten top 4 in the merge if Grant transferred to Ventura
Three of their top five competed for their high school as middle schoolers at some point. The aforementioned 8th grader, a senior in their 5th year of high school competition, and a sophomore in their 4th year of high school competition (already has been in 4 years of NXR/NXN events). In 2023 they had 2 8th graders. In 2022 they had 1 and in 2021 they had a 7th grader. Not such a weakness after all.
They would not have been able to field a team of 7 runners without using the 7th and 8th graders.
I agree if a coach gets to work with a kid for 5 or 6 yrs instead of 4, the kid has advantage of more training and experience. I'm not sure that advantage is as big as being able to pool the best runners from one city/region on one team via school choice.
I note that Niwot, Mountain Vista etc have great JV teams. At schools like Bethlehem and fabled Fayetteville-Manlius there is no JV team. They are lucky to get 10 kids out for the whole program...hence the 8th graders.
2 years ago F-M boys had 5 guys on the whole team.
If you have to start an 8th grader on your high school basketball team due low team turnout, you will usually be in for a long season.
If that’s true, their success at a National level is VERY impressive. I have a hard time believing it.
Regardless, a NY guy was empowered to rank the entire country on a (formerly) trusted website, and he ranked his home state team at #1 in the nation over one of the best teams ever ASSEMBLED, it definitely cost him and Milesplit a lot of credibility and opened the Bethlehem girls up to criticism that they didn’t ask for.
For the record tullyrunners pre-NXN prediction vs finish
Bethlehem Prediction: 140 for 4th place Finish: 149 for 5th place
Mountain Vista Prediction: 90 for 1st place Finish: 75 for 1st place
#14 - Actually, Chiara Dailey did qualifiy for NXN - just ahead of Blade and Engelhardt as the top time in Cali. She passed on NXN to run at Footlocker, but was sick and had to pull out of that race in her home town, unfortunately.