Official Idaho HS XC 2024 Thread

Sheesley went 3-1 against Lucas, has a 9:03 PR, and was a Footlocker finalist. He went 1-1 against Max. He has as good or better of an argument to be the winner than those two.

Yeah, pending any surprising state track results, the pre-season rankings seem to me like:

Stadtlander

Sheesley

Max

Lucas

Zack

It also wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Carr or some other as yet underdeveloped underclassman step up and finish top 3.

Who would you say makes a big jump as an underclassmen? Potential Candidates?

Gabe Heule (freshman now) from CDA will likely make a big jump. He was on JV last fall, but this spring he ran a 9:54 3200. He will probably close the gap on CDA’s 4th man (Rietze)

Look at the top 9th graders right now. If we are talking just 5A:

Heule, Bruce, McGee, Anderson, Culpepper, Davis, Clements, Smith of Highland, Reade, Evans, Porter of Rigby. Lots of those guys were solid in cross.

Otherwise, look for freshman boys that have run in the 4:50 and 10:30 range that were around 18:00 in cross. Daniel Mattox at Centennial is an example of that. Cole Morris from Highland was an 18:15-18:45 boy all fall and has run 10:24.

Freshman boys are hard to project because some just matured way earlier than others but one of the easier ways to find them is who wasn't that fast as an 8th grader or in cross that is now.

I think Bruce takes a step back and Davis, Culpepper, and Mcgee take big jumps all three of them and Bruce have a decent shot at sub 16 all of them have had great two mile performances this season.

Boise has a really good freshman duo with Bruce 4:40/10:01 and Miles McGee 4:47/10:08.

Add in their returners as well as maybe 1-2 new talents and they are a legit team with a podium chance at state.

Also Rocky's Freshman have already seen immense improvement from XC to track:

Davis and Loscher's 5k PR's are at Firman with speed ratings of 140 and 136 respectively.

During track, Davis has gone 4:47/10:14 for 151/153 speed ratings.

Loscher has gone 4:50/10:39 for 148/139.5 speed ratings.

Top freshman duos in the state right now, counting only those that have actually run cross country:
CDA: Carr and Heule (4:19/9:18, 4:34/9:54)
Boise: Bruce and McGee (4:40/10:01, 4:47/10:08)
Eagle: Anderson and Culpepper (4:45/10:04, 5:00/10:14)
Century: Hansen and Bitton (4:38/10:04, 4:51/10:18)
Skyline: Roberts and McCombs (4:45/9:57, 4:49/10:30)
Highland: Smith and Morris (4:43/10:14, 4:54/10:24)
Rocky: Davis and Loscher (4:47/10:14, 4:50/10:39)
Mountain View: Evans and Manning (4:47, 4:51- they don't really run the 3200m much)

Not in any sort of order. But there's a lot of teams that have solid duos right now. A few of those guys didn't break 18 last cross country season.

and Majors (4:36) if he does XC

Majors seems to me like the kind of guy who will probably end up like Cole Reed, really solid at anything under 1600, but just another one of Rocky's dozens of 16/17 minute XC guys

Any varsity predictions for the SIC Teams this year? I think Rocky and Boise will be interesting to keep an eye on.

I'll do mine for Boise and Rocky I'm going to do top 10 instead of 7
Rocky Varsity my prediction
1. Cody Lucas
2. Thomas Kurtz
3. Parker Goggins
4. Hyrum Tuft
5. Jacob Thomas
6. Jaymon Clark
7. Up in the air between Maxim Beeler, Hudson Godfrey and Jack Davis and maybe Jaron Allen
Boise Varsity
1. Jack Sheeshly
2. Lucas Roberts
3. Jens Knutsen
4. Jack Elliott
5. Luke Bruce
6. Jacob Fornander
7. Miles Mcgee
8. Gaven Shepard
9. Henry Beebe
10. Ben Hugaboom

That 7th spot for Rocky is going to probably shift a lot i am assuming Maxim Beeler is injured since he hasn't ran anything this track season I'm not sure if he will do XC

Sophomore Beck Miller is another candidate for the 7th spot. He ran a 10:04 in the 3200

Last year someone said on the Idaho thread that Maxim did Hockey. I wonder if he quit running for that, since scholarships might be less competitive

Big jump, if you had to say who got it who would you predict because I just dont know enough but I think it will be very close

Will CDA have any impact freshmen coming in?

Jens Knutsen had a great district meet. Luke Bruce and Miles McGee both ran significantly faster than Jack Elliott. I would guess Sheesley, Knutsen, Roberts, McGee, Bruce, Fornander, Hugaboom in that order.