Richard Spring thoughts:
Nalley at 14:00 is amazing to see - still a month and a half until state. If weather permits, he will break the course record. Hopefully he’s able to remain in this shape through to NXR and NXN, excited to see what he can do on a national scale.
OPRF showed out, insane PRs from their top guys, should be in trophy contention territory now. Hersey and O’Fallon performed as expected. Close race from 5-9, all are teams that should challenge for the top 10. Hinsdale Central is improving, question is how quickly will it be? Somewhat disappointing performance from Palatine, need Hayes and Hansen closer to Krieg (who performed excellent - 14:32 as a sophomore is amazing, very soon he will be a title contender). Their pack is also just too far back. York will make state due to no longer being in the sectional of death (and the sectionals just seem a bit more balanced this year), and should improve from now until then, but I wouldn’t expect anything too stellar from them.
Super fast individual race - Ybarra is clearly a 3A championship contender, as is Bregenzer (who will be one to look out for next year especially). Low placement for Bandukwala but still a PR for him, he can likely run faster than this but I’m thinking his championship shots may be better in a slower race with worse weather conditions like last fall, he’s a similar runner to Watcke, who only placed 14th in the fast paced 2021 state race and placed 3rd in the slower 2022, despite being a very similar caliber of runner both years. I could also be completely off. Very impressive individual performances for the Hersey guys, Frayder/Naughton/Donner could all be all staters.
Great race on the girls side as well, just 3 points separating the top 3 teams. DGN #1 without their top runner Lily Eddington is super impressive, and shows that they are the team to chase now. How many times does a school win a title on both the boys and girls sides? Prospect probably needs to get their 4/5 up closer to their top 3. Any of DGN/York/Prospect can win in November though, and all 3 should do impressive things at NXN.
