Highschool Cross Country all-stars race by decade Footlocker style, which decade wins?

beersandmiles wrote:

AM Runner wrote:

Just to be clear here 1980's arent getting enough Beyond Reina and Kennedy and the aforementioned Eric Reynolds, you also have John Trautmann, Brad Hudson, Todd Williams, Joe Falcon, Matt Giusto, Mark Coogan and Marc Davis

Shoot the 86 final had Davis, Williams and Kennedy 1,2,3

I think they would hold their own against any decade. a lot of recency bias here.

I'd toss Scott Fry in there too for the 80's.

Definitely a lot of recency bias especially toward the late 2010's, early 2020's.

Also Roman Gomez Belmont California 1984 and 1985 state champion in the 1600 and 3200.

Also the Mastiler twins from Jesuit HS California.

historical accuracy wrote:

historical accuracy wrote:

Forgot about Kessler - my mistake. And undoubtedly the 2020s will have more sub-4 guys, maybe this year, but right now they have one.

Also Leo Daschbach is 2020.

since this is a more xc-focused post I included him in the 2010's since his xc season ended in 2019.

This is not a troll post... really, it's not.

But I'm curious, what are people so concerned with HS stars? I mean, they are rarely (if ever) the best in the nation or world so what's the fixation with how good someone was in HS.

Some of the people in HS were just more mature than those they were competing with at that age... no?

I mean some of those who were great in HS went on to become great in college and then on the world stage but many who were great in HS were just great in HS... why is that something to focus on?

Again, I'm not trolling, it just doesn't make sense to me to care about HS results... it's HS.

Ok. Flame away.

Many small time JV kings here. They love HS stuff and hate BYU because they are fixated on age group stuff. They have 16 minute 5k PRs which makes it seem incredible that kids run faster. They will be talking about Tuohy's HS glory days forever.

Here he comes wrote:

Many small time JV kings here. They love HS stuff and hate BYU because they are fixated on age group stuff. They have 16 minute 5k PRs which makes it seem incredible that kids run faster. They will be talking about Tuohy's HS glory days forever.

Your assessment of us is wrong. We’re just true fans that compare all runners of different eras just as sport fans from other sports do.

So if you got your rocks off putting us down good for you.

A huge portion of runnning fans in the US are in highschool, most of whom stop running competitivpy after HS and almost all of whom stop running competitively after college. Most of us still love the collegiate and professional side of the sport, but have a little bit of a deeper connection to the HS scene because a) many of us race against these guys or at least can compare our own times to thirs and b) because its interesting to see how far unpaid, and mostly non-adult runners can push themselves

Jonathan Commentor wrote:

A huge portion of runnning fans in the US are in highschool, most of whom stop running competitivpy after HS and almost all of whom stop running competitively after college. Most of us still love the collegiate and professional side of the sport, but have a little bit of a deeper connection to the HS scene because a) many of us race against these guys or at least can compare our own times to thirs and b) because its interesting to see how far unpaid, and mostly non-adult runners can push themselves

Like I said, my original post wasn't to troll or judge anyone... it's just odd to me and I ran in HS, college, and post collegiately. I can understand current HS kids focusing on HS because that is their current reality but after that I have a hard time understanding it because HS is not the peak of performance in distance running.

Again, I am not trolling but why not talk about who the best middle school runner was or the best elementary school runner. It's just an age category and like I said earlier, the great ones went on to become better in their later years. Many HS runners are just more mature at that point in their life so they are simply better at that point in time.

The fixation with HS seems very unique to distance running. Is there a "Let's hoop" out there where people post about how great guys were as HS basketball players? Or a "Let's Putt" ? A "Let's Swing (baseball)? To my knowledge there isn't anything like this in other sports because HS level isn't important.

Anyway, I am not judging it ... all I am saying is it seems odd to me.

15_50 wrote:

The fixation with HS seems very unique to distance running. Is there a "Let's hoop" out there where people post about how great guys were as HS basketball players? Or a "Let's Putt" ? A "Let's Swing (baseball)? To my knowledge there isn't anything like this in other sports because HS level isn't important.

I guess you’ve never heard the legend of high school Austin Rivers. Sad.

Back on topic, though, this is required viewing for everyone here:

https://youtu.be/UgHJjmRk71U

The ultimate compilation:

Top 7 from each decade:
1960s: Gerry Lindgren, Jim Ryun,
Rick Riley, Steve Prefontaine, Marty Liquori, Garry Bjorklund, Tracy
Smith
1970s: Craig Virgin, Dave Merrick, Jeff Nelson, Eric
Hulst, Rich Kimball, Thom Hunt, Rudy Chapa
1980s: Reuben
Reina, Scott Fry, Marc Davis, Bryan Dameworth, Eric Reynolds, Bob
Kennedy, Mark Mastalir
1990s: Adam Goucher, Jorge Torres,
Abdirizak Mohamud, Corey Ihmels, Louie Quintana, Meb Keflezghi, Matt
Downin
2000s: Dathan Ritzenhein, Chris Solinsky, German
Fernandez, Alan Webb, Ryan Hall, Michael Fout, Chris Derrick
2010s:
Edward Cheserek, Futsum
Zienasellassie, Lukas
Verzbicas, Grant Fisher, Nico Young, Drew Hunter
2020s:
Leo
Daschbach, Colin Sahlman, Leo Young, Lex Young, Riley Hough, Aaron
Sahlman, Hobb Kessler

Results
1. 2000s
2. 1970s
3. 2010s
4. 1980s
5. 2020s
6. 1990s
7. 1960s

Very good but I would add Sage to your 90s list.

You're right actually Sage should be on there probably over Matt Downin.

The best part of most superhero flicks is the first half of the first movie - the origin story.

I’m not remotely saying we should be more entertained by hs running than college or pros, but for whatever reason the origin story for running plays out in a very interesting way.

Plus compared to other sports a disproportionate share of fans are either running in HS or have kids currently running in HS.