NY shouldn't be its own region anymore. The quality just isn't there. NY boys got hammered at NXN last year and it's coming again this year.
And on the team side it will be even worse next year. All of the top teams are senior-heavy, except North Rockland. The only impressive thing about this region is that the race was won by a sophomore, and that the top 2 individuals are coming back next year
NY shouldn't be its own region anymore. The quality just isn't there. NY boys got hammered at NXN last year and it's coming again this year.
And on the team side it will be even worse next year. All of the top teams are senior-heavy, except North Rockland. The only impressive thing about this region is that the race was won by a sophomore, and that the top 2 individuals are coming back next year
NR and Fairport. Fairport returns all 7 and had a massive dropoff from 4 to 5 but their #1 was injured and decided to skip xc to get ready for track.
So basically they return their #1 who is probably 180 and then 177,176,172,166. Even minor improvements and thats a nationally competitive team.
NR will have a very strong 1-2, strong 3, but will need a 4 and 5 to step up. But with a school of almost 3000 kids it should be doable.
And on the team side it will be even worse next year. All of the top teams are senior-heavy, except North Rockland. The only impressive thing about this region is that the race was won by a sophomore, and that the top 2 individuals are coming back next year
NR and Fairport. Fairport returns all 7 and had a massive dropoff from 4 to 5 but their #1 was injured and decided to skip xc to get ready for track.
So basically they return their #1 who is probably 180 and then 177,176,172,166. Even minor improvements and thats a nationally competitive team.
NR will have a very strong 1-2, strong 3, but will need a 4 and 5 to step up. But with a school of almost 3000 kids it should be doable.
In 2022 and 2023, Fairport won McQuaid, but at the state meet and NXR they weren’t close to winning or making NXN. Hopefully that changes and they peak at the right time next year
They should move Colorado to the Heartland region. They compete with that region for Footlocker qualifying, and it would even out the NXR regions.
Not a bad idea but this might hurt Heartland on the individuals side. Colorado always has some really good individuals just like Heartland.
But I’m not sure how this region will look in the future for individuals because Putz / Gonzalez / Mechura / Olds are graduating next year. But after graduating Heidesch / Breker / Birnbaum, the Heartland reloaded on the individuals side.
I’m admittedly not going to read all these pages to see if this has been covered.
But anyone else thinks it’s really wide open for the individual race? I can’t think of anyone I’m confident of being top 5, let alone winning. I feel like there are at least 20 guys you make a case for being top 5, maybe more. And no obvious “the guy to beat.”
I’m admittedly not going to read all these pages to see if this has been covered.
But anyone else thinks it’s really wide open for the individual race? I can’t think of anyone I’m confident of being top 5, let alone winning. I feel like there are at least 20 guys you make a case for being top 5, maybe more. And no obvious “the guy to beat.”
I'm with you on this. Not a season with a dominant athlete putting up big speed rating numbers. Briefly checking for contenders:
HL - Gonzalez, Mechura, Putz MW - Crane, Quagliaroli, Bontrager, Kimmel, Hansen SE - Smith, Latham, Steorts, Sheets, Mantecon NE - Barrett SW - Evans, Steadman, Vause, le Roux NW - Kitchen, Powell, Burton, Brownell, Stadlander NY - Sykes? maybe no one from NY
With team points to worry about, I could see Barrett, Leonard, and Mantecon playing it same, but I think any of these guys could make top-10. Some of these guys may run for the win and miss out on All American
edit-- And thats not evening counting California -- Kushen, Pretre, Fitchen-Young, Noonan, Holman, or whoever makes it in
This post was edited 11 minutes after it was posted.
I'm curious, why put Aiden Le Roux over Charlie Vause and Oliver Horton who beat him at nxr?
my reasoning is the 15:03 at Colorado State course, and that he lead a majority of the nxr southwest race, which tells me in a talented field he may have the talent to hold on.
Remember how Manny Putz lead the entire heartland field last year to a 14:30s finish? Then when nxn came around he finished 5th which showed he had more talent
After that performance it’s championship or bust for CBA this year. They’ve had a lot of good teams run comparable or better performances than their 2011 championship team only to come up short at NXN. The only real explanations were that they’d become major choke artists or that the rest of the country got a lot better in the last decade while leaving the northeast behind.
They just averaged 15:59 at Bowdoin which is absolutely absurd, they have a week off between regionals and NXN so they don’t have the excuse of less rest anymore. If this isn’t their year then I really don’t see them or any team from the NE/NY ever winning again unless there’s a major dynamic shift in the country.
CBA still returns 4 varsity guys for next year, and also another 16:49 guy from the open race. It’s gonna be tough to beat Niwot next year though