California HS XC 2023 CIF

Looking at past results from individual California qualifiers / team qualifers, the goal should be to run your best race . Set very low expectations for yourself and try to surpass that. Aaron Salhman's goal at NXN was to place top 20. Leo and Lex's goals were to win it. Who had the better race in the end?

Give it everything you have and run a smart race. If you look at the past results, it's rare for a California individual qualifier to place top 30. That's because they underestimate the competition. Stay modest and you will do better, see the competition as better than you are. Aaron's winning time at NXN was probably equivalent to a 14:15 at Woodward Park. Expect to be 30-40 behind the leaders. Be sure to pass as many people as you can, every place matters and everyone you beat matters.

The only way that you can have a bad race is if you give up because you aren't finishing top 10 or top 20 like you expected. Whatever you do just don't give up. We will be rooting for you all.

Best to start visualizing now that there will be a lot of runners around you and many more ahead of you. There will be lots of mud so you will probably be slipping. Everyone is going to be faster than you and every place matters. So you have to be prepared to run hard in that scenario.

But even looking at season results oakdale beat 1 auto qualifier and niwot beat 0. And oakdale beat niwot at runninglane a year ago, although I assume that isn't considered at all

look at palisades... should a team that peaked perfectly, no sooner than needed, be punished as they don't have any significant results before? Everyone always preaches that the only time that really matters is post season and how teams do there, nowhere else. However, the at-large system and the committee is contradictory to that belief. There also wouldn't be this problem if the regions were properly balanced... Something needs to change but Nike probably won't do anything. Also this committee doesn't have a set system and their opinions can be construed fairly easily as objective.

And so many people are saying that New York and Northeast region should be combined and Nike will likely never be doing that.

Bro let it go. Palisades was nowhere near a berth to NXN. They were 6th in the merge. The qualifying criteria is pretty cut and dry. Get top two in the merge. If you want to be considered for an at large berth, finish 3rd or 4th. If you want to increase your chances of an at large, you also have to show up and perform during in season meets. Meaning going to major races and either beating an eventual auto qualifier whether that be in your own region or preferably outside your region. Those are pretty objective standards. Palisades did none of the above and absolutely deserve no consideration to go to NXN.

Yup... that's part of the racing rounds. You can run great all year and then you get to the "rounds" (In California that would be the CIF Process and State Meet) and then you have to preform to make it. Oakdale had a great state meet and should be proud

Sahlman won because he was running on pure hate.

also Lex and Leo were sick.

Leo and Lex were not sick. That is a lie made up by the internet.

While the California teams do very well at nxn, the individuals always run bad. They don’t realize just how competitive nxn really is. This is probably because of finishing times.

Nah they just got a good ol' taste of going out too hot at the beginning of the race like all of us hobby joggers are used to doing at our local races.

Other regions were taught to compete for place. California runners need to go into nxn with the same mindset.

California Individual qualifers and their placement at nxn. Throughout the years.

2022 - 11th, 44th, 45th, 46th, 60th

2019 - 4th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 117th

2018 - 1st, 8th, 42nd, 81st, 92nd

2017 - 3rd, 15th, 40th, 51st, 89th

2016 - 16th, 22nd, 23rd, 31st, 122nd

2015 - 5th, 26th, 30th, 39th, 55th

Only 30 california individual qualifers for nxn in the past 6 years. Almost all of the qualifers were in the low 15:0x or under 15:00 in woodward park. There have only been 8 of those 30 runners that were able to break into the top 20 at nxn. Top 20 nxn is huge.

Edit: In addition every other region is significantly faster this year. A low 14:4x woodward could put you in a position for top 20.

This is a bad take. Most of your post is reasonable but certainly not this. No high schooler has broken German Fernandez's record for good reason, and I firmly believe Aaron Sahlman was not capable of it. Only 3 men besides Fernandez have run sub-14:24 at Woodward park (Diego Estrada age 32, Kasey Knevelbaard age 25, and Evert Silva age 23) and all of them had years of post highschool training.

Pali also has the easiest path to the state meet possible. Go look at the city section, its worse then D5. Its the same joke in track also. If you are in D1 you can run 4:15 and not go anywhere after April. City section, get your ticket to the end of May state meet with a 4:45.

CA is a horror show

Ok, we will see shortly.

I guess you are assuming that Great Oak got the 4th at large bid.

Had Great Oak 3,4 and 5 went 1s slower each, Oakdale would have been third. Had Oakdale 3, 4 and 5 had gone 0.5s faster each then Great Oak’s 3,4&5 would have not had to go 1s slower. Long story short, Great Oak and Oakdale are tied.

Let’s see where Great Oak lands at NXN compared to other at large. My bet is #1. This year’s Great Oak team is on par with Great Oak 2017 which finished 6th at NXN. Expect them to finish top 6 again

Oakdale had a great state meet with a solid performance. My heart hurts for those boys, as I know they worked hard all season. It would have been great for CA to have two at-large teams.

But this conversation about how Great Oak and Oakdale never competed head to head is not accurate. Great Oak took second at the Clovis Invitational with 129, and Oakdale took third at 152. Great Oak also came in front of San Clemente at Clovis and the Mt. Sac Invite, and Dana Hills at Woodbridge. Their resume is solid for the at-large bid.

Yes, I expect Great Oak to finish top 6 at NXN and 1st of the “at large”.

maybe SW got four bids because the #5 and #7 teams beat auto qualifiers in CA and NW.