Let's talk Ohio HS XC

Yeah If we're being honest, all the guys we've listed so far are podium candidates, it just comes down to the order. As far as central Ohio goes, I would bet that Smith beats Gabelman based on what he did do him at Westerville North. The others guys like Shaughnessy, Miller, and Rudraraju we'll have to wait and see what they look like in a month or so. I'm keeping a steady eye on Allwein as well, he hasn't looked great so far, but he was 4th amongst returners at states, not gonna forget that

It looks like Mason will be at Trinity too so that will be a good measuring stick. Doesn't look like there's a lot of other big matchups on the calendar this weekend.

It should be a great battle between Mason, St. Xavier of Cincinnati, and St. Xavier of Louisville. That’s a great and fast course as well, this could be epic.

Can Trapp beat the Mason kid who won last week?

Solon’s number 5 finished farther back than expected. Otherwise they would have finished 3rd

Well, that is why use race results instead of rankings or projections. You do need to perform. That's like saying "Well, we expected him to hit that winning shot, so really we're better".

I think your analytics are off anyway. Kasper (Solon #5 at Tiffin) finished right with Reash from DeSales, a kid who beat him by 20 seconds at OHSAA. Also... Kasper finished only 30 seconds behind Kilbourne's #3 runner (Hawkins), a guy who was nearly 50 seconds ahead of Kasper at OHSAA.

Based on these comps, you could argue that Kasper ran better than expected.

So it could be that Solon just, you know, got beat.

And... Kilbourne was 3rd with 197. Solon was 45pts back, finishing 8th with 242.

For Solon to move up to 3rd, their 5th runner - who finished 54th - would've had to finish in the top 9. Is that what you were expecting? Should he have broken 16 and beaten their #1, Howell?

Hm.

Casper was Solons 4th runner at Tiffin. He’s normally their 5th runner but Fitzgerald ran slower than normal and finished deep. Either way I still think it’s unfair to say that Solon should have beaten Kilbourne just because someone ran bad. Kilbourne still ran well

here are the rankings

Looks like the new rankings come out every Thursday.

These are your top 30 returners from last years D1 boys state meet. Will it play out the same?

1. Connor Ackley - Hilliard Davidson (2)

2. Liam Shaughnessy - Dublin Coffman (5)

3. Gianni Allwein - Walnut Hills (9)

4. Tommy Rice - Glen Oak (11)

5. Saketh Rudraraju - Olentangy Orange (16)

6. Theo Pappas - Green (22)

7. Ben Gabelman - Westerville North (26)

8. Connor Reed - Masillon Perry (27)

9. Steven Miller - Worthington Kilbourne (29)

10. Evan Trapp - St. Xavier (31)

11. Dillon Wooten - Fairmont (33)

12. Elliott Zuckett - Masillon Jackson (34)

13. Tesfaye Young - Glen Oak (36)

14. Will McGraw - Dublin Coffman (37)

15. Keith Nueburger - Mason (41)

16. Elijah Hadler - Medina Highland (42)

17. Kaiden Lanoy - Lancaster (43)

18. Jerry Xu - Mason (44)

19. Sam Ricchuitti - Dublin Jerome (45)

20. Trevor Lanoy - Lancaster (46)

21. Colin Sams - St. Xavier (47)

22. Spiro Pappas - Green (48)

23. Ryan Smith - Worthington Kilbourne (49)

24. Michael Petrovic - Mentor (50)

25. Brody Boyd - Hilliard Davidson (53)

26. Ethan Cope - Toledo S. Francis (54)

27. Luka Bork - Lakewood (55)

28. Max Liao - Mason (56)

29. Ryan Winkler - Toledo S. Francis (57)

30. Aidan Markich -Mason (62)

Ackley 13th

I do not see anyone else in Ohio really competing with him this year. Has he committed to a college yet?

no

Westerville South talking trash when their only runner who could break 17 just graduated lol

TikTok bad.

Too early to tell for a lot of these runners, right now I would say my top 5 would be

1. Ackley

2. Rice

3. Ricchuiti

4. Smith

5. Trapp

It’s so hard though, a lot of the guys on that list could have a good race and jump up. Just have to wait and see