ck3237 wrote:
What about Hernandez from Oklahoma State as a freshman in his XC debut
I guess he was 4th as a red shirt freshman. Impressive.
And Nico was fourth as a covid freshman [ spring race]
Franklyn Sanchez of Gtown was fifth as a freshman
German Fernandez was top 8 most of the race until he fell very late in the race his frosh year. That very same race Luke Puskreda was 5th and Chris Derrick 7th as frosh. So there would have been three freshmen in the top ten if german had not fallen!
Sooooo...... Quite a few american high schoolers have immediately made an impact in the top ten at the ncaa cross country finals in their very first season in college. Yes, it's true there are even more foreigners now [ though they have always existed], however, the crop of recent american high school stars have put up such gaudy numbers in HS that one would expect them to be making a similar impact as some of the kids mentioned on this thread from the past, even with the increased competition. At least you would expect 2-3 frshman each year in the top 20-25. Doesn't seem to be happening.