2024 California HS XC CIF

If W Brown comes back at full health, I’d say that at this rate, Great Oak will be the favorite to be #1 in the merge at CIF. They return their #2-4 after being #3 last year.

Second place in the merge is looking to be up for grabs. Some candidates include but not limited to Jesuit, Buchanan, and ML King

For NorCal, I think next season most of the highlight will be on D2, and it will be a much closer contest between the same 3 teams competing last year: Granada, De La Salle, and College Park.

Granada has the deepest JV bench, and are a distance-runner machine. They return only their #2, but I bet they will reload and probably still win it. Their girls team will probably win NCS as well.

De La Salle returns all 5 scorers, led by Trey Caldwell (#1 NCS). But they don't have a very deep bench. They have a good history and a promising team, that might fade in 2025. But this might be their year in the sun.

College Park returns 4 of their scorers, led by Jack Rattary (#2 NCS). They have a decent history and good coaches, but again, very light JV team.

Tamalpais and Redwood lose only couple of scorers each, but the returners haven't shown much promise yet.

The best of the 3 candidates above will probably podium in D2, but money is on Jesuit to win D2... so have to wait and see.

Track results this spring will shed some light. I think Granada still reloads and get a podium in D2 state, but I don't think any of these teams will ramp up quickly enough to go to NxN. Not with programs like Dana Hills, Great Oak, Trabucco Hills in other divisions.

Dana Hills was only 5-deep last year and only return 2 of their varsity guys (both scorers). They need 3 guys to step up for this team to make NXN. Not saying it’s impossible, but this seems like a lot to ask.

Trabuco Hills will have a very strong top 3 but will need to find 2 more guys to be close to that level. They lose 4 seniors from their varsity team.

Individuals that I think will qualify for NXN:
Boys:
Evan Noonan
Broen Holman
Eli Fitchen-Young
Aydon Stefanopoulos
Eyan Turk

Girls:
Sadie Engelhardt
Holly Barker
Chiara Dailey
Hanne Thomsen
Sydney Rubio
Rylee Blade will be up there too but I think she will make it with her team.

My Predictions (they’re the most accurate)

Boys:

Bryan Dameworth

Jay Marden

Ammar Moussa

Thom Hunt

Louie Quintana

Girls:

Sara Bei

Amber Trotter

Christine Babcock

Sarah Baxter

Julia Stamps

Boys team:

Trabuco Hills

Lompoc

Arcadia

Girls Teams:

Saugus

Corona Del Mar

Simi Valley

Another girl to watch: Jaelyn Williams. Top California girl at NXN. Ran a 10:11 3200 at the CIF State Meet last year.

On the girls side, Buchanan and JSerra will autoqualify.

After that it will look to be like this in the merge:
3- Santiago Corona
4- Trabuco Hills (if they find a 5th runner, they can sneak into the top 3)

Definitely. She was only 5 seconds behind Rubio at CIF

On the boys side, there will likely be no at-large teams.
There could be one on the girls side though

I think that Sadie Engelhardt will qualify for NXN but she'll turn down the invite.

One year of cold wet weather at NXN was enough for her to realize she doesn't like running in those conditions. Sadie will be back at Foot Locker for her senior year.

If her team qualifies, it wouldn’t be surprising if she runs at NXN.

If Ventura finds a 5th runner, maybe they will have a chance to qualify, but this program started to fall apart after Cruz left.

Fall apart? They won State. The previous year they were 5th, 17th the year before that and hadn’t even made it to the state meet since 2017. I’m sure most teams would love to fall apart like they did.

Looking back through previous CIF results, their best finish since 2010 was 6th and they didn’t even qualify for the state meet in several of the years. By all indication, Ventura is on the rise. The new coach wins state in his first year and somehow you think the old coach leaving caused them to fall apart? Falling apart from an average team to winning a state championship? What am I missing?

I don't know how long this Cruz was coaching at Ventura, but they haven't been good for a looooong time. The past decade has been mid at best. They get a new coach, win state and somehow things fell apart?

One boys team to watch out for is Bellarmine. They return most of their varsity team, and the 5th fastest group of 5k PR’s in California.

They also likely would have made NXN in 2020 if it happened

Don’t be surprised if there is a random team that adds a valued transfer and comes out on top

Arnold O. Beckman 1600 nonsenior times at the Canyon vs Beckman meet yesterday
Nguyen - 10 - 4:28
Weber - 10 - 4:31
Feaster - 11 - 4:35
Barrera - 11 - 4:39
Barris - 9 - 4:39
Top 4 in this list were in their top 7 last XC season and it appears they may have found a 5th man.

ca.milesplit.com

Arnold O. Beckman (SS) Results at Canyon HS v Beckman HS

MileSplits official Arnold O. Beckman (SS) results for the 2024 Canyon HS v Beckman HS in Anaheim CA.

Link:ca.milesplit.com/meets/588016-canyon-h...

Don't forget Landon Pretre, ran low 14:50 at Clovis then got injured.