Why is it that Albany has like a GOATed individual every year?
I'm a recently former team member part of class of 2024 (the unknown Albany 3rd man lol) - Sean Morello ('23), Lucas Cohen ('24), Callum McBride ('25) have come from a long string of talent we've received by almost pure luck over the years, lining up perfectly for a state championship win and a #3 finish the next year when Lucas was sick. Our team culture that Sean and many '23 boys built up has led to each one being able to reach their full potential and it even inspired me to pick up running and committing despite starting way late as a junior, and ending up doing quite well for myself - but I believe as of late with the coaching change (Craig Stern retiring in 2022) and the many graduates leaving the culture is starting to decline a bit and Albany might become irrelevant once again. There hasn't been an outstanding member for class of 2026 except for Finn Gradia who only recently began running (junior year start just like me 😮💨) but has showed outstanding talent. I'm excited to see next year. Finn is looking like an 18:00 junior -> 15:00 senior kinda guy, so it might not be over for the Albany dynasty just yet 😂
Hi Nick Yang. I've made friends with Theo and Charlie at SCU and they told me all about the Albany team and the team dynasty. They told me about your running journey and your interest in the sport of running. As a fan of the sport myself, I also want to wish you a strong congratulations on your running journey. Unfortunately, the team hasn't seen the same amount of Success under Coach Yvonne but I am hoping that Albany and you may continue their success in running.
Prior times for this one are probably irrelevant? Seems his usual strategy is to secure a comfortable win in the league meets and reserve all-out energy for the bigger stuff. He's got championship and masters(?) to go, then NXN. Hopefully he's ironed out whatever had him bonking so hard before.
The course is slightly different this year with the start moved off to the grass and there is a short but steep climb at about 100 meters after the start. Entire race with Noonan here
On the boys side: Jesuit clearly soft pedaled their way through the race. They won D2, but there were 3 faster teams in D1. D1 boys looks interesting. It was like 2 completely separate races. There were 5 pretty good teams up front, all scoring less than 87 points (That's saying a lot in a field of over 200 guys!) then there was everyone else. Davis, Folsom, McClatchy, Turlock, and Oak Ridge all looked strong. Oak Ridge was 5th but clearly going easy with an 8 second spread from 1-6. There's going to be 2 pretty good D1 teams left home from the state meet this year.
On the girls side, SJS looks down this year. Whitney was the fastest on the day in the merge, but are well off of last year's team. They may have been going pretty easy, though.
On the boys side: Jesuit clearly soft pedaled their way through the race. They won D2, but there were 3 faster teams in D1. D1 boys looks interesting. It was like 2 completely separate races. There were 5 pretty good teams up front, all scoring less than 87 points (That's saying a lot in a field of over 200 guys!) then there was everyone else. Davis, Folsom, McClatchy, Turlock, and Oak Ridge all looked strong. Oak Ridge was 5th but clearly going easy with an 8 second spread from 1-6. There's going to be 2 pretty good D1 teams left home from the state meet this year.
On the girls side, SJS looks down this year. Whitney was the fastest on the day in the merge, but are well off of last year's team. They may have been going pretty easy, though.
Any team that was going hard at Subsections won't be a contender. These results don't really say much.
The very good teams such as Jesuit/Davis and Whitney/Oak Ridge/Davis always take it easy. They race arguably the hardest course in the state for sections so I would not really look at anything from this meet besides possible individuals who could qualify for state. I expect Saturday everyone will race all out at sections though and that will give a better indicator of how the SJS section is looking. Around 30-40 seconds slower than woodward park for their section course according to my historical data.
I am a former SJS runner. Subsections is the equivalent to SS Prelims at Mt Sac- shouldn’t not be raced hard. Though these team times may look meh on paper, you’re supposed to hold back on subs. Teams and individuals are just trying to qualify to sections.
Any team that was going hard at Subsections won't be a contender. These results don't really say much.
To be sure. My point regarding D1 boys was that, even though they were going easy, the top 5 teams FAR outclassed the rest of the field. My point regarding Whitney was that it's too early to tell, but they don't seem as strong as the previous year.
FWIW, the only years I've had my teams go hard as subs were the years I didn't think we were a lock to qualify. That being said, I think you can still tell a fair amount about how teams are looking based on Subs.
For instance, it appears that in boys D1, Oak Ridge's boys ran the most controlled out of the contenders and still were in the mix in the team scoring. Whereas teams like Turlock (yeah, go Bulldogs!) and McClatchy were a little more spread out indicating that their guys might have been running closer to their actual potential. IMO, the qualifiers in this race will be the 3 SFL teams, Davis, Folsom, and Oak Ridge with Oak Ridge reversing the 1 point deficit to Folsom that they had at their league meet (Sorry, Turlock, I really want to see you guys make it again, though. Fingers crossed for y'all)
