Have just received word that Keith Gilliland, the former longtime cross country coach at Crescenta Valley High and the Kenny Staub Invitational meet director, passed away last night. 💔 Always one with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Please keep his loved ones in your prayers. pic.twitter.com/Xu0Mzyqka5
@SJS_Glaze, regarding your tier list: I would also include Oliver Olbekson from Menlo in Mid Tier, he already has a mile PR in the 4:30's. In addition, Los Gatos High School has two freshman who ran 4:5X and 4:4X in the mile in middle school so I would also classify them as "on the come up."
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Okay sure you can say that this year but how about last year.
Josh Bell 9th at NxN 15:20 to 14:50
Jason Parra 8th at NxN 15:13 to 14:56
Lucas Cohen 24th at NxN 15:46 to 14:45
There is also something called having an off day. Abbott who ran 15:04 this year lost to Lesher and Kushen by 20 seconds at state but ended up finishing in 53rd ahead of both of them. If those guys ran how they were supposed to they would have probably been in the top 30. All I am saying is give this class of 2026 some time. We should not write them off yet.
Lucas Cohen was sick during his Jr. year state race. Hence why he "improved" by so much his senior year. We should all understand that there is a chance someone might've been sick at CIF states this year and then might be exceptional next year like Cohen did.
Alright let us out of staters know who to follow now that Noonan and a couple of the other guys are graduating.
Maximo Zavaleta beat all California nonseniors at every race except the state meet. He beat some individual qualifiers in big races too. He probably had an off race at state. Connor Lott won the D1 race (the large school division) at the state meet. Others individuals to watch out for are on teams that will likely make NXN as a team. Matilda Torres has Hunter Hannah and Benjamin Fernandez. Jesuit has 4 solid individuals (Abbott, Hoferer, Jakary, Ogilvie).
Jesuit will have 4 of the fastest times of the day and might beat the Newbury Park 2022 (twenty-twenty-TWO) team time (14:55)
Didn’t this guy also ran 4:25 as an 8th grader? Crazy stuff. There are quite a good amount of freshman this year Mario Montoya (Redondo Union: 15:28 5k, 9:00 3k), Elias Thronson (Davis: 15:31 5k, 4:29 as an 8th grader- he’s also beaten some of the Jesuit guys during his 6-7th grade years like an 8th grader Isaac Abbott, a 7-8th grader Matthew Ogilvie, and 7-8th grader Lucas Alberts), and Caden Ehrhorn (Campolindo: 15:35 5k, 9:20 3200, 4:23 1600 also ran 4:41 as an 8th grader)
Maximo Zavaleta beat all California nonseniors at every race except the state meet. He beat some individual qualifiers in big races too. He probably had an off race at state. Connor Lott won the D1 race (the large school division) at the state meet. Others individuals to watch out for are on teams that will likely make NXN as a team. Matilda Torres has Hunter Hannah and Benjamin Fernandez. Jesuit has 4 solid individuals (Abbott, Hoferer, Jakary, Ogilvie).
Jesuit will have 4 of the fastest times of the day and might beat the Newbury Park 2022 (twenty-twenty-TWO) team time (14:55)
Definitely looking like a top 2 team at nationals especially if they find a 5th man at that level. Gonna be tough to beat Niwot / win NXN either way though (Niwot returns 5 guys under 15:05 in the 5k)
I mean, they return literally everyone but Kadel. They have a great 4, but their 5th runner should be running at the very least sub 15:20 if they want to get on Newberry Park’s level. Plus, Jesuit always gets transfers every year and end up going crazy (ex: Spencer Pickren, Brandon Moreno, Ajani Salcido, and Drake Hoferer)
Based on the Buchanan Distance Classic, one of the teams that could do really well next fall is Clovis North. They return these 1600 times from the Buchanan distance classic: Lott - 4:20 - Jr Leath - 4:29 - Fr Castaneda - 4:32 - Jr Fields - 4:33 - Jr Wong - 4:41 - Jr
Also from the state meet: Locke - 16:37 at the state meet - Jr Rubenstein - 16:50 at the state meet - Fr
They had only 2 seniors on varsity last fall but next fall they will have a lot of seniors, so I’m sure they will want to accomplish big things
The runners are very open about their workouts on strava. I have checked it a few times. About 50-60 a week for the top guys. Workouts are not too difficult. Seems like they just have a lot of good guys pushing each other to fast times. I think Lange is about to add a couple more guys to that elite all time list.
Last Years Best Times All frosh soph
Abbott - 9:11
Hoferer - 4:12
Jakary - 1:55 (made huge jump)
Ogilvie - 9:15
Alberts - 1:54
All come back next year so maybe one of them gets a record this year but next year will be ridiculous.
The runners are very open about their workouts on strava. I have checked it a few times. About 50-60 a week for the top guys. Workouts are not too difficult. Seems like they just have a lot of good guys pushing each other to fast times. I think Lange is about to add a couple more guys to that elite all time list.
Last Years Best Times All frosh soph
Abbott - 9:11
Hoferer - 4:12
Jakary - 1:55 (made huge jump)
Ogilvie - 9:15
Alberts - 1:54
All come back next year so maybe one of them gets a record this year but next year will be ridiculous.
Yeah Jakary went crazy this year. It's what happens when a couple of talented hard working guys go to a good program and buy into it. I forgot Jesuit is not like Crater and they have their stuff on Strava.
D4 looks pretty desolate after this year aside from Jserra.
Palos Verdes could maybe challenge if they can bring up a good 5th runner. Harvard Westlake returns 6 guys but they are way back.
Don't think any other team has even 3 guys left.
Palos Verdes just added a really good transfer from Palisades (Sigworth, Jr). He just ran a 9:17 3200 at the Redondo Nike Invitational.
Now the JSerra boys team is going to have to work really hard to get that D4 championship, but they get a transfer every year too. But this time, to win the state championship, the JSerra transfer (if they get one) will likely need to be at the same level that Arrey / Newman are at right now, because both of those guys are graduating and will be tough to replace.
Just based on the state meet results, Palos Verdes looks better than JSerra at every scoring position except #5, but that 16:57 guy is only a freshman and many people make big jumps from freshman to sophomore year
what about girls? Also beckman should be #2 or #3.
Wouldn’t be surprising if Beckman is that good or even autoqualifies for NXN.
Their #1 guy had an off race at state and is not graduating. They lose 4 guys, but they are deep and every year they have some good runners transfer in.
Based on the state meet results, Matilda Torres looks to be the favorite for second, but they look to be only 5-deep so all 5 will need to be healthy and on their A-game at state to autoqualify for NXN.
Mira Costa was consistently a top Californian team in 2024 with a ton of depth and little spread between their runners. They return 5 of their top 7 and most of their impressive depth, although 2025 seems to be the last year that they will be at the top for, as most of their top returners will be seniors.
They seem to reload every year. For the last few years, they lost many varsity seniors and still did really well. They always seem to have underclassmen step up.
I wonder if and when the NXN qualifying steak for Buchanan and JSerra girls will ever end
Buchanan will never fail, they are inevitable.
JSerra is pretty shakey after last few years performance, although they still return a great scoring roster for the next year. If they still had Summer Wilson I think they would have been dominant this year.
An on point Corona or Ventura with True not injured could have maybe sniped that 3rd NXN spot this year.
Yeah Buchanan girls 1600 times today were 5:02, 5:03, 5:04, 5:06, 5:07. All 5 of them are coming back