Niwot freshman rocco culpepper and the class of 2025 boys for Niwot, NXN 2023 favorites?

Wouldn’t say they will be favorites for 2023.

I think some teams that will have a shot at the title in 2023 will be:

Jesuit LA (with Vocke / Sampedro healthy and Monahan stepping up)

Southlake Carroll TX

CBA NJ

Union Catholic NJ (cause they keep on bringing in new transfers. And Jimmy W will be a senior)

Belen Jesuit Prep FL

Wayzata MN

American Fork UT

Ventura CA (no seniors but will need to close the 4-5 gap)

Crater OR (returns everyone except Gorze)

maybe Coeur D’Alene ID (if they find a fifth runner)

maybe Stevens Point WI

BUT……I do think Niwot will win in 2024. Yes they do have a better setup than Valor Christian (and Valor will also have one senior next year, and Niwot will have none)

Seems like Jesuit LA and CBA has a strong group of sophs and under as well.

I have heard from multiple sources that the head coach of Niwot Cross Country, Kelly Christensen could do something similar to what Sean Brosnan, the former Newbury Park XC coach did, and go coach in college-(Sean is now the head xc coach at UCLA) to make 50 times the money he is currently making. Even if they have all of this talent, would they still have what it takes to win a national championship, let alone a state championship without their spectacular coach? Niwot has depth and talent but without someone to encourage and train those athletes properly, they could flounder in the potential spotlight on them. Also, just curious, is rocco privately trained by his parents, or just alan and just races for the team, or does he train with this niwot squad. Looking into his milesplit page he hss little previous race experience, and then an absolutely stellar cross season, and I would assume he got in some private training sessions with his parents-(both former olympians) P.S-Check his profile picture on milesplit for a guaranteed laugh, he is quite the jokester.

Personally you’re sleeping on Ventura’s hidden talent Noah Rowlands (C/O 24’)

personally yall sleeping on foothill technology high school, they have a whopping fast 18:10 freshman😮‍💨

Sad thread

Bruv….American Fork put a frickin clinic on the whole region today

And their 1-5 are all back

Valor Christian and Southlake Carroll and Niwot are looking to be good in 2024 xc ssn. Thompson Vally from Loveland, CO is also looking to be good in 2024, and they have a good coach who brought up a top NCAA runner in Dylan Schubert. Valor fell off hard at NXR this year, not looking good.

Just to give you an insight on how deep this region will be in 2024, or shall I say, how close it will be to an actual NXN.

Other teams from this region that will look good in 2024:

Coronado CO. Has 3 sophs and a freshman all under 16:05 in the 5K. Also another freshman running 16:55.
those guys have better 8th and 9th grade credentials than Cheyenne Mountain Class of 2022 guys + Leavings did.

Mountain Vista CO. They have a very promising sophomore class. In fact, I think next year they will be very young. Has it been mentioned that Dalby is a great coach?

Mountain View UT. 2023 will be a rebuilding year, but they have 3 10th graders on varsity. But I think they will have only 2 seniors next year, and they have some good freshmen right now

Corner Canyon UT. Great program. It’s also very likely that Milne will be the only senior next year

Skyridge UT. Has a solid sophomore in Kjar. And a solid freshmen Greene. And many other sophs that have never done XC before and are already making a name for themselves on JV

2 SW teams that should never be counted out:
Herriman UT. Soles knows how to make his teams reload. Has 3 stud sophomores - Ogomo and the Tang brothers.
Needs to find a 4 and 5, and with the size of the school and the success the team is having right now, I can see the number of guys on the team go up.

American Fork UT. Losing Simmons and some more class of 2024 studs, but they always seem to be in contention to qualify. This year they only returned 2 varsity guys and added Simmons, and still crushed the state meet and NXR, something they didn’t do in a long time.
Has a sophomore stud in Evans, and another on JV with a great background- Moore, who in fact was a top 5 nonsenior/number 1 freshman on the team last year. Some good freshmen on this team too

I think that Niwot will make it to NXN next year, but I agree next year they won't be in contention for a national title. But in 2024 however, 6 of their top 7 will be seniors, very similar to the dominant cheyenne mountain squad from last year, that would have been the best ever had Newbury park not been around. They will have Rocco in his prime, junior year, 100% going to be in the running to be an individual national champion, and with the senior class of 2025 racing at their best, they will make easy work of a national title. Jesuit, and other large schools similar to them will definitely be tough competition, but with the raw talent that Niwot will have I think the difference in attending students by 2,000-4,000-(Niwot has approximately 1,300 students, and 1/13th of the school goes out to run cross country on an annual basis) is made up for in depth of their running program. Even behind their top 7 they have many notable guys that will be very strong-(great problem to have as a program, you just have too many good people) and they will have to send them to Runninglane in Alabama, and I think with their JV squad they would have a good chance to podium as a team against many other teams Varsity rosters. A few notable guys that will not be in their top 7 by their senior/junior year-(according to 5k times run this season, things can change when you have as much depth as they do) are what will be their 8-14 runners. Just a fun fact here, most teams have 1-2 guys under 17 minutes and 3-4 under 18 minutes, and as follows are Niwots 8-14 runners: Sophomore-Sammy Jackman-(16:47.6) Freshman-Gabriel Marshall-(17:00.1) Freshman-Hunter Robbie-(17:25.1) Sophomore-Kye Toothaker-(17:29.5) Freshman-Felipe Mijia Rey-(17:31.8) Sophomore-Lincoln Brewer-(17:32.8) Freshman-Ryder Keeton-(17:49.9). All belonging to the class of 2025 or 2026, every person listed above has potential to run some really fast times, and in 2024, with the stacked varsity that Niwot will have, quite possibly taking home the NXN team title, I think their JV could prevail as the team winner at Runninglane-(if that is where they choose to run their JV guys) It blows my mind that running under 18 minutes-(extremely respectable for a freshman or sophomore) wouldn't even land you a spot on the junior varsity squad in this program. That Ladies and Gentleman is the definition of depth, and some of the most impressive stats I have seen in an xc program as small as Niwot is, let alone ANY program with a school of any size.

1600 nonsenior pr’s for Niwot
Culpepper - 9 - 4:26
Engtrakul - 10 - 4:42
Jackman- 10 - 4:44
Kear - 10 - 4:44
Lennert - 10 - 4:49

They ran under REAL Training during this meet, but they all still attend Niwot High School, there are only a few affiliated with REAL that do not attend niwot. They also ran at the "Let's Get REAL Invitational" With the following performances from their underclassman

1600

(10) Gavin Engtrakul-4:46

(10) Sammy Jackman-4:47

(9) Ryder Keeton-4:49

(10) Kye Toothaker-4:54

(10) Keegan Geldean-4:58

(9) Hunter Robbie-4:59

800

(10) Evan Kear-2:07

(10) Kye Toothaker-2:07

(10) Gavin Engtrakul-2:08

(9) Ryder Keeton-2:09

(10) Keegan Geldean-2:13

(10) Sammy Jackman-2:13

(10) Zach Hlavacek-2:15

(10) Lincoln Brewer-2:15

Overall a very solid distance showing for their underclassman, and only their second race of this track season. They will be racing this friday, March 10th at the St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet 2023, at Mead High School, which upon further research is an outdoor track, so I am anticipating some very fast times from these niwot underclassman.

^The Links to these results/meets

Let's Get REAL invitational-

co.milesplit.com

Let's Get REAL Invitational Championship 2023 - Results

MileSplits official Results formatted results for the 2023 Let's Get REAL Invitational Championship, hosted by REAL Training in Colorado Springs CO.

Link:co.milesplit.com/meets/509586-lets-get...

St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet 2023-

co.milesplit.com

St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet 2023 - Meet Information

MileSplits official meet page for the 2023 St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet, hosted by Longmont High School in Longmont CO. Starting Friday, March 10th.

Link:co.milesplit.com/meets/509465-st-vrain...

For comparison I merged all the results from NXR-SW, cut the seniors, cut teams down to 7, and limited it to 33 teams.

AF 43

Lone Peak 173

Riverton 212

Herriman 229

Valor Christian 242

Niwot 245

Vista Nation 262

Skyridge 289

St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet 2023 - March 10

3200

Keegan Geldean - 10 - 10:08

Evan Kear - 10 - 10:08

Ryder Keeton - 9 - 10:08

William Lennert - 10 - 10:20

1600

Gavin Engtrakul - 10 - 4:35

Sammy Jackman - 10 - 4:42

800

Kye Toothaker - 10 - 2:05

James Antony - 10 - 2:07

co.milesplit.com

Niwot High School Results at St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet

MileSplits official Niwot High School results for the 2023 St. Vrain RE-1J District Meet, hosted by Longmont High School in Longmont CO.

Link:co.milesplit.com/meets/509465-st-vrain...

Murray Kula Invitational 2023

1600

Rocco Culpepper - 10 - 4:31

3200

Gavin Engtrakul - 10 - 9:57

Sammy Jackman - 10 - 9:57

co.milesplit.com

Niwot High School Results at Murray Kula Invitational

MileSplits official Niwot High School results for the 2023 Murray Kula Invitational, hosted by Windsor High School in Windsor CO.

Link:co.milesplit.com/meets/505951-murray-k...

Rocco Culpepper - 9* - 4:31

There is also a sophomore Christopher Wood who scored for Niwot at NXR and ran a 16:05 there. No track results from him at all

Gavin Engtrakul - 10 - 9:34 3200

Yesterday, April 1st at the NoCo Series #1 meet there were some extremely impressive performances from the freshman/sophomore distance crew at Niwot HS.

These times, ranging from the 800 to the 3200, are all PR's for these young athletes, and we are only at the beginning of the season, so I think this squad is going to run some astoundingly fast times by the end of this track season.

800

Freshman, Rocco Culpepper-1:58.72

Sophmore, James Anthony-2:05.26

Sophmore, Kye Toothaker-2:06.35

Sophmore, Sammy Jackman-2:08.02

Freshman, Duncan Atherton-2:09.02

1600

Sophomore, Gavin Engtrakul-4:25.48

Freshman, Hunter Robbie-4:48.05

Freshman, Gabriel Marshall-4:56.75

3200
Freshman, Ryder Keeton-9:48.90

Sophmore, Evan Kear-9:59.86

Sophmore, William Lennert-10:11.82

This squad amazes with every meet they compete at, and it seems that a new and unfamiliar name pops up with an incredible performance at every opportunity, which really showcases their depth as a program. These guys can really run!