Let's talk Ohio HS XC

I know something wayyy harder. Winning 3 national titles in a row. And Newbury Park did that. Exponentially harder to win 4 in a row which Newbury park will do this year.

Manlius girls team has had a string of consecutive national championships

Mason is obviously very good. I’d say they deserve the number 1 expectation.

Also, out of stater here, which Ohio teams ran full squads at the Mason Invite? If they didn’t, where did their varsity go instead?

Mason won the state title last year without a low stick. It looks like they have one this year and they’re still really deep, it’s hard to see anyone beating them. TSF is definitely in the mix for second, someone said we haven’t seen the full St. Xavier varsity but they ran their top two returning guys and still got beat by 60…I’m sold on TSF.
I don’t put much stock in the fact Mason didn’t really run against any Ohio teams, the out of state teams were really strong.

Another thing is, last year’s #1 nonsenior on Mason’s team at the state meet was Neuberger, not Schachleiter. Neuberger also had a better 3200 time. So he might be up with him too so if healthy they could have 2 low sticks, not just 1.
I think they are better than last year and could make NXN if Center Grove can’t finally put it together at NXR. Maybe Xu can close the gap on them considering his 3200 time.

Center Grove has been incredibly underwhelming this season. They were the favorites in the region coming into the season. I mean, they have Ty Garrett and the rest of their varsity back. And got beat by some Indiana teams that won’t go to NXN. What were they missing? Maybe Costelow made a mistake of not coming back?

Here's what I have seen out of the ranked boys teams.
Make corrections or fill in the blanks if you can.
#1 Mason 1st at Mason
#2 Mas. Jackson 2nd behind D2 Marlington at Wooster (could they truly be the best team in Ohio)
#3 Springboro ??? (JV at Mason)
#4 Hil. Davidson ???
#5 St. Xavier 2nd behind TSF at Tiffin, have yet to run their full Varsity team
#6 Medina 2nd at Seneca East behind West. North
#7 Solon 7th at Tiffin
#8 Loveland 1st at Loveland
#9 West. North 1st at Seneca East
#10 Lancaster 1st at McGowan Invite (Watkins)
#11 TSF 1st at Tiffin
#12 Perrysburg 4th at Tiffin
#13 Chardon 1st at Walsh Jesuit Pat Ritchie
#14 Dub. Coffman ???
#15 GlenOak 5th at Wooster
#16 Gah. Lincoln 10th at Mason
#17 Olen. Orange 5th at Tiffin
#18 Rocky River ???
#19 Worth. Kilbourne 3rd at Tiffin
#20 Columbus DeSales ???
#21 Mentor 7th at Wooster
#22 Miamisburg 5th at Mason
#23 Mas. Perry 3rd at Walsh Jesuit Pat Ritchie
#24 Centerville ??? (JV at Mason)
Dub. Jerome ???
Beavercreek 5th at Seneca East

I think Miamisburg, West. North, Lancaster, and TSF had the most impressive weekends relative to their current ranking.

Insane freshman talent coming out of d3 right now with the kid from Rittman

He's good, but he did lose to another freshman from New Philadelphia at Wooster. Which is a stupidly fast course every year, by the way. I think coaches seek it out for their runners to drop an unrealistic time, to be completely honest. I think Snyder's 16:48 or 16:27 is probably a more realistic time - I'm not buying the Riverside times either.

Still solid for a frosh. Not insane.

Wooster is typically stupid fast. Tiffin is pretty fast as well.

Nothing beats that Dublin Jerome Celtic Clash course though. I wonder if they fixed that course for this season or not. It was so bad last year MileSplit didn’t even count those times.

Rocky River was 7th at Tiffin, and DeSales was 10th. Hawken (D2 #7) was 9th.

Add Kilbourne to your list of impressive showings, as they knocked off higher-ranked Solon, Rocky R, Orange, Perrysburg, and DeSales at that meet... only behind top-5 squads TSF and St X.

Coffman was at Watkins, but didn't run Shaugnessey or McGraw (1 & 2 )

I think this still looks pretty good. At this point I think there are 3 tiers: Mason in tier 1, Tol. St. Francis through Springboro in tier 2, and then the rest. Also important to keep in mind it's still really early in the season, a lot can change between now and November.

Thanks. Not sure how I missed that, my bad.

It's all good. Thanks for compiling that info. I tend to know the Central OH stuff pretty well, but fall short outside of there. So I appreciate the insight and perspective on those other teams.

I was at Seneca East and I have to say I wansnt too imprest with Westerville North. Their top two are really good but not great and as the meets get deeper, they will be farther and farther.back in the pack. I'd be surprised if either of them were on the podium at the state meet. They may not even qualify as a team to state based on the depth of the Central region. They didnt qualify last year.

Gabelman was 27th last year at XC state and ran 4:12 in the spring to place 4th. As a soph. You're crazy to think he's not podium material.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Gabelman was on the podium, but he isn’t a lock at all. There’s definitely at least 10 guys that could beat him and it wouldn’t be surprising.

You do realize the podium is top 20, right? And top 30 are all-Ohio, to be fair.

Ben is the #7 returning underclassmen finisher from last year's state meet, and the #2 returning 1600 guy behind Ackley.

Of course there are 10 guys would COULD beat him. You can say that about anyone other than Ackley and Rice. Take a stand already. "Definitely could" is so soft.

So yeah, go ahead and list the names you're thinking of and show me how Gabelman is off the podium.

C'mon... I'll help.

1. Ackley

2. Rice

3. Ricchuitti

4. Trapp

5. Copley

6. Smith

You take it from there....

I’m not sure why I had it in my head that Podium was top 10, I think someone earlier in might have mentioned something about him being top 10. Either way you’re right he might as well be a lock for the podium at this point, given he doesn’t blow up at the state meet like we saw with Ricchuiti last year. To add to your list I would throw Saketh Rudraraju, Steven Miller, and both Coffman kids just from central Ohio, as well as Ethan Cope, Connor Reed, Gianni Allwein, and Theo Papas. Don’t get me wrong Gabelman had a phenomenal Track season, but XC is a different beast and I just don’t think it’s impossible for him to finish a little deeper than we might expect. Take Shaughnessy, who Gabelman hammered in the mile this last spring. He finished 30 secs ahead of Gabelman at states.