loudoun valley has 11 boys out of 24 in the state 3200 championship

Coach Joan Hunter wrote:

Recruiting wins Championships wrote:

Edited to remove transfers

You, my friend, get a big fat 'F' on research skills. You took out kids who were not 'transfers' and left in some kids who were 'transfers.'

LMAO classic LR

Well you are just saying exact opposite of what is true. The state of Virginia wants the best kids at state so they use a qualifying mark that multiple kids from the same school can hit. The Olympics do not want the best people there. They want a representation of the world which is why they limit each country to only 3 entrants even if Kenya and Ethiopia had all of the top runners.

Thank you. You have confirmed that some kids are just more talented than others which 95% of us recognize. But there are a few people who think that if every 21 year had the identical upbringing to Drew, they would all be breaking 4 minutes in the mile right now. I have seen high schoolers do the same training for 4 years with the same drive and interest. One runs 15:30 and the other one runs 19:30.

States are goofy wrote:

It is amazing how different the rules are across the states. Illinois has guys sitting at home who run 4:15 while Virginia has guys at state running 4:40. I can see why the Hunters were pushing to get 2 teams to NXN. They are in a system that treats it as an individual sport while most states treat it as a team sport. Someone mentioned Kenya and the Olympics. That is a good analogy. If Kenya and Ethiopia have the top 40 guys in the 5k next year, should they all be allowed to compete at the Olympic games?

I don't think it's that simple, individual sport vs team sport. I also don't think HS athletics should be the same as the Olympics. In the Olympics, each country gets to determine their 3 entries in the way they want, whether from a trials race, or some fuzzy method that no one really understands. And not everyone gets 3 entries if they don't make the standard.

As for the HS qualifying in Virginia, with times being one way and place at regionals another, it makes for interesting team title races. Generally, schools with sprinters and field event athletes are gonna win team titles because sprinters and jumpers in Virginia can do more events. Think about how many points Grant Holloway could score! Not too many distance kids are also doing field events, and in Virginia, if you run the 3200, you can only run one other event in a 1 day meet. Thankfully, States is a 2 day meet, so they can run 3 events. Also, if you want to talk about 'fairness', schools in our county are NOT ALLOWED to have pole vault, which STINKS. So we automatically are at a disadvantage there, as we do not even have the opportunity to put kids in that event, unlike every other school.

As for the NXN thing, we just felt that if we had 2 teams of 7 boys that were good enough to beat other schools' teams of 7 boys, they deserved to race head to head. That's how it works at the indoor national meets. You can enter multiple relay teams that meet the standards. Our second 7 boys in cross definitely belonged in the seeded race at NXR, from a race performance standard. We didn't really have any illusions that they would make it to NXN, but they were fast enough to make the A race at NXR. Oh well...

Genes rule wrote:

Thank you. You have confirmed that some kids are just more talented than others which 95% of us recognize. But there are a few people who think that if every 21 year had the identical upbringing to Drew, they would all be breaking 4 minutes in the mile right now. I have seen high schoolers do the same training for 4 years with the same drive and interest. One runs 15:30 and the other one runs 19:30.

Not sure how anyone thinks talent doesn't matter, obviously it does. But other things matter a lot, too. Proper training, consistent training (not missing training due to injury, taking too much time off, illness, doing stupid hard workouts that lead to burnout, etc), a good team culture that recognizes kids for their improvement and builds their confidence, etc. One thing that I think gets overlooked is the importance of durability and being able to run more mileage and stay injury free. Generally speaking, the 'average' kid who can run more mileage each year, and stay injury free, is gonna be better than some kids with more talent who are always missing out on training due to minor injuries, illness, etc. Also, our kids who generally run 7 days a week are better than our kids who run 6 days a week- one reason I think our girls are not at the same level of our boys. Our girls don't run 7 days a week, either because they aren't allowed to by their parents, or they think they will get injured, or we have tried it and they seem to get more fatigued than our boys do so it is counterproductive. Most of our top boys are able to run 7 days a week successfully. I am sure some will be offended by this idea or will accuse us of valuing mileage too much, but to be honest, adding mileage IF YOU CAN STAY HEALTHY is one of the easiest ways to get kids to improve. One of my best girls from the last few years was able to run 55-60 miles a week as a senior. I can promise you she would not have been very good if she were running 30-40 miles per week like most HS girls. She NEVER had an injury and ran 7 days a week. Had some talent, but not off the charts. Smart, consistent work and staying healthy led to her success.

Damn 10 minute 3200 wouldn’t even get you to state in Florida and you guys are competing for state championships with that time lol.

Some fast times at the 2A VA state meet this week! Runner up was 10:15. The state champion solo'd a 9:52

1 Wilson-Cook, Oliver 12 Robert E. Le 9:52.36

2 Sachs, Adam 12 Maggie Walke 10:15.62

3 Stearns, Cameron 9 Mathews 10:17.74

4 Zearfoss, Daniel 9 Glenvar High 10:18.32

5 Downs, Adam 11 Auburn 10:23.33

6 Neuwirth, Ben 11 Maggie Walke 10:24.69

7 Deel, Andrew 12 Wise Central 10:27.59

8 Leo, Vincent 12 Wilson Memor 10:36.41

9 Kelly, Clay 10 Riverheads 10:45.29

10 Csorba, Francis 12 Bluestone 10:48.07

11 Booher, Josh 12 John Battle 10:53.41

12 Zhai, Richard 11 Maggie Walke 10:57.38

13 Graham, Austin 11 Floyd County 11:05.89

14 Hersel, Nathaniel 11 Union High S 11:08.00

15 Ramsey, Ben 12 Radford High 11:18.34

16 Pridgen, Jordan 12 Galileo High 11:38.06

Misunderstood Guy wrote:

The Olympics do not want the best people there.

Are you really claiming that the Olympics are not trying to gather the best athletes on the planet?

That's just silly.

Hani Saleem wrote:

Misunderstood Guy wrote:

The Olympics do not want the best people there.

Are you really claiming that the Olympics are not trying to gather the best athletes on the planet?

That's just silly.

Do you even watch the Olympics? For Rio, Kenya had about 25-30runners in the top 50 for the 5k that season. But could only send 3. Meanwhile, Solomon Islands sent an athlete who ran 15:47 (A PR for him). He is slower than Katelyn Tuohy at an indoor meet in January. But due to Olympic rules, he got a spot over about 100 sub 14 5k runners.

The Olympics is balancing the desire to have the best athletes in the world against the desire to have a commercially viable, attractive product. On pure fairness or best athletes grounds, it would be best to have qualification be solely by time. But that would lead to situations throughout the games in which entire categories of competitions were dominated by one or a few countries. Which makes those sports less marketable throughout the world. The Olympics is primarily a commercial/graft enterprise.

Misunderstood Guy wrote:

Do you even watch the Olympics? For Rio, Kenya had about 25-30runners in the top 50 for the 5k that season. But could only send 3. Meanwhile, Solomon Islands sent an athlete who ran 15:47 (A PR for him). He is slower than Katelyn Tuohy at an indoor meet in January. But due to Olympic rules, he got a spot over about 100 sub 14 5k runners.

that is actually against the rules in loudoun

ric flair woo wrote:

LVParentNoTransfer wrote:

- coach Joan actually DOES recruit: from the sole middle school feeder school who have an awesome yearly 1 mi run for the top 10 kids in grades 6,7,8. And for all those calling Loudoun Richie riches, the track is a 1/5th a mile loop, blacktop path, and has a distinct up hill and downhill

Neuqua Valley and York both do that here in Illinois

Added the post that I was quoting for being illegal in Loudoun

5 of these 11 transferred to LV at some point. Some of the others moved in just prior to freshman year.

Let's have 32 Divisions wrote:

Some fast times at the 2A VA state meet this week! Runner up was 10:15. The state champion solo'd a 9:52

1 Wilson-Cook, Oliver 12 Robert E. Le 9:52.36

2 Sachs, Adam 12 Maggie Walke 10:15.62

3 Stearns, Cameron 9 Mathews 10:17.74

4 Zearfoss, Daniel 9 Glenvar High 10:18.32

5 Downs, Adam 11 Auburn 10:23.33

6 Neuwirth, Ben 11 Maggie Walke 10:24.69

7 Deel, Andrew 12 Wise Central 10:27.59

8 Leo, Vincent 12 Wilson Memor 10:36.41

9 Kelly, Clay 10 Riverheads 10:45.29

10 Csorba, Francis 12 Bluestone 10:48.07

11 Booher, Josh 12 John Battle 10:53.41

12 Zhai, Richard 11 Maggie Walke 10:57.38

13 Graham, Austin 11 Floyd County 11:05.89

14 Hersel, Nathaniel 11 Union High S 11:08.00

15 Ramsey, Ben 12 Radford High 11:18.34

16 Pridgen, Jordan 12 Galileo High 11:38.06

Yeah cause everyone in here breaks 9:30 and is a F******* superstar. This site is full of douche bags like you that couldn't hit a free throw so you have to hang your hat on a fast mile. Grow up big guy. It's like hippies at a phish show. It's the only place you ever fit in, so of course you have to make fun of anyone else who might enjoy it but isn't as much of a wook as you.

loco loco wrote:

that is actually against the rules in loudoun

Excuse me? So I am not allowed to go watch the event, tell kids, "Great job!" and encourage them to run when they get to Valley? Not to mention that at least one Hunter child has run in it every year since Drew, so I am definitely going to be there. And seeing how the school admin welcome me, not sure how we are breaking any rules.

Maybe you should try it at your middle school. Your team might be better if you could get some 9th graders out. BTW, the pacer they do in PE is a good one to look at too if you would like good kids.

Misunderstood Guy wrote:

Hani Saleem wrote:

Are you really claiming that the Olympics are not trying to gather the best athletes on the planet?

That's just silly.

Do you even watch the Olympics? For Rio, Kenya had about 25-30runners in the top 50 for the 5k that season. But could only send 3. Meanwhile, Solomon Islands sent an athlete who ran 15:47 (A PR for him). He is slower than Katelyn Tuohy at an indoor meet in January. But due to Olympic rules, he got a spot over about 100 sub 14 5k runners.

Correct because the priority is to gather the best athletes on the planet - while the Solomon guy gets an entry as an afterthought to promote 'the spirit of the games'.

A HS state association is VERY likely to have those priorities weighted differently.

Coach Joan Hunter wrote:

BTW, the pacer they do in PE is a good one to look at too if you would like good kids.

Do you remember what Drew could get on the pacer test? I'm extremely curious.

Thanks for these comparisons, Coach. I would have loved to be a part of a program like that.

Most states have a system similar to the Olympics in that each school (like each country) can only enter 2-3 individuals at a qualifying meet. Virginia is in the minority in allowing unlimited people per school.