If Riverton repeats their performance from NXR, Utah could go 1-2-3 at NXN. Their performance is way underrated in those rankings. Course conditions were brutal with the mud. Riverton's 5-man average was faster than Herriman!
Utah teams going 1-2-3 at NXN? That will be hard to do. Don’t forget that Southlake Carroll put 5 guys under 15:22 at NXR. CBA and Belen Jesuit Prep are other teams to not count out.
Having better footwear would be an argument against teams being better now, not for. Better footwear increases performance, it doesn't make the athlete better.
To be completely honest here, If I could have it my way, the Northeast should get 3 bids and california 1. These other regions dont know what true cross-country is. The northeast is home to some of the toughest courses in the world and best high school runners of all time. Comparing speed ratings and conditions is perfectly fine, but those won't mean anything once the real racing starts.
Vestavia average like 15:55 in nxr. In their state meet their second runner has a bad day and ran like 16:26 and he is a 15:30 guy. If he had a good day, Vestavia would have averaged like 15:40s.
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If Plainsfield South gets in, that is a huge mistake, but I could see it happening too.
This is one thing that makes me wish that Carmel auto-qualified for NXN. I wonder what happened to them; they were second at the 3k in this race. They dominated at Niketown.
If Carmel took second, an at-large in this region would not have been considered, because until NXR, no Illinois team beat Carmel
I think that the Plainfield team who missed out on qualifying by 2 points might have a greater chance of making it than most people think. Didn’t they beat the second place team a few times during the regular season?
Plainfield South beat Plainfield North this year at:
I think that the Plainfield team who missed out on qualifying by 2 points might have a greater chance of making it than most people think. Didn’t they beat the second place team a few times during the regular season?
Plainfield South beat Plainfield North this year at:
Plainfield XC City Championship
Palatine Meet of Champions Invitational
Southwest Prairie Conference Championships
Lavern Gibson Course
Nike Town Twilight: Carmel 15:37, Plainsfield South 15:40, Jesuit La averaged 15:42
NXR Midwest 2023: Downers Grove North 15:35, Plainsfield North 15:42, Plainsfield South 15:40, Carmel 15:48
NXR Midwest 2022: Hindsdale 15:24 (8th nxn), Plainsfield South 15:34 (13th nxn), Downers Grove North 15:38 (11th nxn).
Summary: Plainsfield South 2022 averaged 15:34 at Lavern Gibson and placed 13th at nxn. Plainsfield South 2023 averaged 15:40, 6 seconds slower than 2022.
NXR South Course 2023
Carroll 15:10, Bentonville 15:33, Vandegrift 15:37, Jesuit La 15:59
I did some cross checking from last year. NXN course last year was around 15 seconds slower than Bowdoin Park. The data sets don't look very good for Belen Jesuit / CBA come NXN. If conditions are anything like last year, there will be a few teams averaging under 15:35 average this year at Glendoveer Golf Course. That is absolutely crazy. Newbury Park averaged 15:21. That is a 15:50 average at Bowdoin Park. 15:02 average at Woodward Park, 14:37 average at Huntsville Park Herriman, American Fork, Riverton, Southlake Carroll and Dana Hills are the teams to watch out for come NXN.
I did some cross checking from last year. NXN course last year was around 15 seconds slower than Bowdoin Park. The data sets don't look very good for Belen Jesuit / CBA come NXN. If conditions are anything like last year, there will be a few teams averaging under 15:35 average this year at Glendoveer Golf Course. That is absolutely crazy. Newbury Park averaged 15:21. That is a 15:50 average at Bowdoin Park. 15:08 average at Woodward Park, 14:43 average at Huntsville Park Herriman, American Fork, Riverton, Southlake Carroll and Dana Hills are the teams to watch out for come NXN.
NP averaged 15:21. The next set of best teams were 15:47, 15:48, 15:48. The course was dry and fast. Looks like it could be wet again this year.
cba and Belen are absolutely in the mix still. If 15:21 at nxn is a 15:50 at bowdoin, cba averaged a 16:07 in September at bowdoin which puts them right around that 15:35 or so based on that.
15:35 at nxn would be crazy fast as you said, but depends on the conditions and the day. Most teams don’t have their best day. I still think comparing teams to what NP did is a mistake…
Good thing nxn is right around the corner to sort this all out
1. American Fork UT 2. Southlake Carroll TX 3. Christian Brothers Academy NJ 4. Herriman UT 5. Belen Jesuit FL 6. Coeur d'Alene ID 7. Crater OR 8. San Clemente CA 9. Riverton UT 10. Westfield NJ 11. Dana Hills CA 12. Downers Grove North IL
At-large 1. Riverton, 2. Franklin 3. Brookline 4. Ridgefield
first one out Niwot, Plainfield south, Great Oak, Austin Vandegrift.
CDA is a team that will mix it up with those schools.
Lachlan May was in the top 10 at NXR with 800 to go and faded to 141st, losing almost 1:20 in time. With him doing his normal thing, CDA would have beaten Crater somewhere around 86-122.
They beat Rocky and Boise at the Idaho state meet 45-60-63 despite having to travel 8 hours vs 3.5 hours to the state meet. The average times were closer than it indicates. CDA's 2-5 averaged 15:59, Rocky's averaged 16:07. Landon Heemeyer ran 20 seconds faster than CDA's top guy, but the point spread was only 3 points, so it pushed averages way down. Boise averaged 16:04, but Boise was also extremely top heavy.
To give you an idea of what the Idaho State meet course was this year, it's at 4700', it was 26 at race time with 10 mph winds with gusts up to 18 mph, it has 180' of elevation gain mostly in two sections. Nathan Green ran 15:26.6 here in similar conditions. In good conditions, he ran 15:14.0, and he was 11th at NXN that year. Course record is 15:05 by Luke Athay as part of an epic duel with Danny Simmons where Simmons was dropped on the final climb. That race was in early October at the Bob Conley Invite
Top performers all time on the course are: Luke Athay- 15:05- 2021 (20th at Footlocker that year) Nate Stadtlander- 15:12.9- 2023 (remember this name!!!) Nathan Green- 15:14.0- 2019 (State meet, 11th at NXN that year, great conditions) Daniel Simmons- 15:16.3- 2021 (Bob Conley, great conditions) Landon Heemeyer- 15:16.9- 2023 (State meet, 9th at Champs last year, NXR NW runner up) Andrew Ringert- 15:21.5- 2023 (State meet, 8th place NXR NW, 9:08 3200m boy) Kaden Helder- 15:21.9- 2023 (State meet, 1:53 guy that ran sub 9:30 last year in his rare 3200m appearance) Zac Bright- 15:23.2- 2019 (ran 1:53.03/4:17 that next spring) Russell Richardson- 15:25.9- 2019 (lost his senior year to COVID, ran 4:17 as a junior) Cody Lucas- 15:29.0- 2023 (@ Bob Conley, in great conditions, 9:12.50 last year as a sophomore, 13th @ NXR NW)
CDA is a team that will mix it up with those schools.
Lachlan May was in the top 10 at NXR with 800 to go and faded to 141st, losing almost 1:20 in time. With him doing his normal thing, CDA would have beaten Crater somewhere around 86-122.
They beat Rocky and Boise at the Idaho state meet 45-60-63 despite having to travel 8 hours vs 3.5 hours to the state meet. The average times were closer than it indicates. CDA's 2-5 averaged 15:59, Rocky's averaged 16:07. Landon Heemeyer ran 20 seconds faster than CDA's top guy, but the point spread was only 3 points, so it pushed averages way down. Boise averaged 16:04, but Boise was also extremely top heavy.
To give you an idea of what the Idaho State meet course was this year, it's at 4700', it was 26 at race time with 10 mph winds with gusts up to 18 mph, it has 180' of elevation gain mostly in two sections. Nathan Green ran 15:26.6 here in similar conditions. In good conditions, he ran 15:14.0, and he was 11th at NXN that year. Course record is 15:05 by Luke Athay as part of an epic duel with Danny Simmons where Simmons was dropped on the final climb. That race was in early October at the Bob Conley Invite
Top performers all time on the course are: Luke Athay- 15:05- 2021 (20th at Footlocker that year) Nate Stadtlander- 15:12.9- 2023 (remember this name!!!) Nathan Green- 15:14.0- 2019 (State meet, 11th at NXN that year, great conditions) Daniel Simmons- 15:16.3- 2021 (Bob Conley, great conditions) Landon Heemeyer- 15:16.9- 2023 (State meet, 9th at Champs last year, NXR NW runner up) Andrew Ringert- 15:21.5- 2023 (State meet, 8th place NXR NW, 9:08 3200m boy) Kaden Helder- 15:21.9- 2023 (State meet, 1:53 guy that ran sub 9:30 last year in his rare 3200m appearance) Zac Bright- 15:23.2- 2019 (ran 1:53.03/4:17 that next spring) Russell Richardson- 15:25.9- 2019 (lost his senior year to COVID, ran 4:17 as a junior) Cody Lucas- 15:29.0- 2023 (@ Bob Conley, in great conditions, 9:12.50 last year as a sophomore, 13th @ NXR NW)
Just like last year, people are going to underestimate the NW. Both CDA and Crater will almost certainly be in the top 10, as long as nothing catastrophic happens to them. Franklin 100% deserves at large over any team except Riverton.
SW should get two spots before Franklin. Valor crushed Franklin at Nike Portland XC. Niwot crushed Valor at St. Vrain Invite, Colorado Powermerge and NXR SW.
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