Not sure why Dyestat keeps ranking GO so highly. There are 3-4 teams better than them right now with actual results on paper. Bob Firman didn't do much to put confidence in their current roster without the other Brown brother and that's assuming he magically returns to being their #1/#2 runner after super long absence from injury.
It should be power rankings of current results not what they could do if everyone was healthy.
I think Rich had a health issue at the start so he has just been a little slower trying to cover everything this year so try not to hate too hard. He just dropped some analysis Pre-Clovis covering the entire state. Girls drop tomorrow.
It’s great that he’s even doing these rankings , considering the health issues he had
D5 looks pretty stacked this year- this may be (potentially) the fastest D5 has ever been. You got Menlo, which looks like a solid NxN contender (if you want to disagree, they did have the fastest Woodbridge CA time and didn’t even race sweepstakes). You got Crystal Springs and Turk. But that’s not even it- Olly O Connor (Viewpoint) blistered a 15:14 at the Clovis invitational. Ryan Fitzpatrick (Nueva School- also part of the same league as Menlo and Crystal) ran a 15:26 with Theo Udelson Nee (Wildwood) right behind him with 15:28. D5 is looking absolutely insane
Also are Turk and Ortiz racing? I see the Borrughs (Ridgecrest) is racing Clovis, but no mention of Ortiz in the Pre-Race boys article (who is quite literally a no brainer to include in the championship race)
D5 looks pretty stacked this year- this may be (potentially) the fastest D5 has ever been. You got Menlo, which looks like a solid NxN contender (if you want to disagree, they did have the fastest Woodbridge CA time and didn’t even race sweepstakes). You got Crystal Springs and Turk. But that’s not even it- Olly O Connor (Viewpoint) blistered a 15:14 at the Clovis invitational. Ryan Fitzpatrick (Nueva School- also part of the same league as Menlo and Crystal) ran a 15:26 with Theo Udelson Nee (Wildwood) right behind him with 15:28. D5 is looking absolutely insane
I think the unfortunate thing about their NXN chances is the division split. They will be in a super slow state meet race with little competition and depending on scheduling, later in the day. They will have to really lock in and aim higher than just winning their state meet race to stand a chance in the results merge.
They may have the fastest time on paper, but different courses, competition, weather, and training time could all bridge the gap between them and the other contenders. It worked out on Woodbridge spectacularly, but that's only one result so far. Other teams aren't just going to sit down and let it happen.
Plus the likely chance of no CA at larges means it could possibly be only 2 (maybe 3 if the CA teams start showing some life) teams getting out of CA instead of the usual 4. Jesuit seems almost a certain lock for 1 of those spots, so only 1 spot left is pretty dicey for Menlo.
Agree to disagree- there may be a lot of conditions, but looking at D5 on paper rn. You got Turk, Bouie, & Crystal Springs, O’Connor, Fitzpatrick, and Udelson-Nee both had pretty amazing showings tdy at Clovis- it’s looking like the fastest D5 has ever been. Though Menlo’s chances look dicey- I do want to disagree about the division being super slow as if rn- it’s looking to be the fastest we’ve ever seen and seems to be decently competitive on the individuals. Don’t be surprised if there are about 3-4 sub 15s in the state race.
Also, does anyone know if Nate-Griffin Yeh (Las Lomas) is racing Clovis? I saw that the Las Lomas girls team raced today in I think in one of the small or medium races; so I’d assume he’d also be in either one of those races for guys. Or is it possible he’s racing in a larger school race? Also, what’s the scoop with Will Mulliken (Archie Williams)? He hasn’t raced all season and their usual #2 is now their number #1. Mulliken is usually the top runner for Archie Williams, and alongside Caldwell, Rattary, Sagiraju, and Yeh- is one of the top returning individuals in the North Coast Section.
D5 looks pretty stacked this year- this may be (potentially) the fastest D5 has ever been. You got Menlo, which looks like a solid NxN contender (if you want to disagree, they did have the fastest Woodbridge CA time and didn’t even race sweepstakes). You got Crystal Springs and Turk. But that’s not even it- Olly O Connor (Viewpoint) blistered a 15:14 at the Clovis invitational. Ryan Fitzpatrick (Nueva School- also part of the same league as Menlo and Crystal) ran a 15:26 with Theo Udelson Nee (Wildwood) right behind him with 15:28. D5 is looking absolutely insane
Dont forget Crystal springs uplands. Benjamin Bouie ran 15:04 last year, and then ran 4:06/8:58 with a 1:51 4x800 split during the track season. His teammate Tarik Baker is fast as well.
We only mentioned Woodbridge two times in this page, and part of it is lowk relevant in the discussion. Now I’m just wondering the status of Yeh and Mulliken are. Are they injured? Is Yeh racing Clovis? What is the status with them? Anyone in NCS know what’s up with them?
Jesuit didn't beat anyone significant, but at least they had a strong 5 and beat everyone they should. It is really the first strong performance by one of the top Cal teams this year, and it is good to finally see one. Millikan had basically their pre-season projected squad, but they lost to some teams I was hoping they would beat. Hopefully they can keep improving. Great Oak at Firman ran OK, but without Westin Brown their lack of depth makes them a team outside the national top 30. The 2 NXN spots are so wide open right now that even Brown in pretty good form still puts them in the mix. JSerra in 13th looks bad, but if Morales could be up near Friedl (they both were speedrated at 172 last year, and both had good track seasons) they would be so much better. If that had happened today they would be about 70 points better, which is a lower score than Great Oak. Maybe whatever injury he had at the end of track season is still an issue.
Bellarmine looked good and very deep today without their #1. Another team I would like to see how they stack up at Clovis.
It looks like there are several good 9th graders this year, better than the last couple of years. But being good at 2 miles, or flat 3 miles, is still different than holding up at Woodward Park, so that's another thing Clovis should tell us.
Millikan has long ways to go to make state. 16th in the blue Large boys race at Clovis
Jesuit didn't beat anyone significant, but at least they had a strong 5 and beat everyone they should. It is really the first strong performance by one of the top Cal teams this year, and it is good to finally see one. Millikan had basically their pre-season projected squad, but they lost to some teams I was hoping they would beat. Hopefully they can keep improving. Great Oak at Firman ran OK, but without Westin Brown their lack of depth makes them a team outside the national top 30. The 2 NXN spots are so wide open right now that even Brown in pretty good form still puts them in the mix. JSerra in 13th looks bad, but if Morales could be up near Friedl (they both were speedrated at 172 last year, and both had good track seasons) they would be so much better. If that had happened today they would be about 70 points better, which is a lower score than Great Oak. Maybe whatever injury he had at the end of track season is still an issue.
Bellarmine looked good and very deep today without their #1. Another team I would like to see how they stack up at Clovis.
It looks like there are several good 9th graders this year, better than the last couple of years. But being good at 2 miles, or flat 3 miles, is still different than holding up at Woodward Park, so that's another thing Clovis should tell us.
Millikan has long ways to go to make state. 16th in the blue Large boys race at Clovis
Millikan and Clovis North had solid performance at Portland getting 6th and 7th in the championship race. They seemed to have struggled today only getting 6th and 16th in the large blue race.
engelbardt and blade both look really strong right now. They are pushing each other to try to become the new record holder for this course. 5:12 in the mile and still pushing hard