I haven’t seen a thread for NY yet
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On the boys side, I think that North Rockland can both win Class A and make NXN. They took 4th at Feds last year and 2nd at states, and they bring back 4 of their top 6. They need a 5th runner to step up, but their 5th returner ran a 4:43 1600 and a 17:55 at Feds. They have a strong 1-2 punch in Tuohy and Chery.
Chaminade is looking to get the other NXN spot. Deep team and didn’t lose anyone from last year.
Fairport can also be in the mix, but the last few years they peaked too early in the season.
Corning returns 4 of their top 6, but needs a 5th runner to challenge for an NXN spot. Corning 2022 was the most recent NY boys team that placed highly at NXN.
One darkhorse team that has been on the rise the last few years, and could maybe challenge for an NXN spot, is Ward Melville. They took 7th at Feds last year and only lost 2 seniors.
Monroe Woodbury made NXN the last 2 years but they lost their top 5 guys so they won’t be as much of a factor this year. But still a decent team.
On the girls side, Shenendehowa and Bethlehem are looking to be the top 2 teams in the state. Both of them are in the same section though. But Shen will likely prevail at sections and be the ones competing at states.
Saratoga is the deepest girls team, but they don’t have as much talent up front as Shen and Bethlehem. It will be interesting how Saratoga will do under their new coach.
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Chaminade
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Based on their track times I agree that Corning might be a bigger threat than they appear to be on paper going strictly off last year’s XC times. Also got pretty solid history of developing guys over the last 10 years so I’ve got more confidence in them making a big jump compared to a lot of other teams contending for an NXN spot. Unfortunately it still looks like whoever comes out of NY is going to be struggling to crack top 20 at NXN, and they all pretty senior heavy too so it doesn’t look like 2026 will be much different.
Need to give some love to the smaller classes too though. Manhasset looks like they’re in good shape to repeat, but Burnt Hills will be back in the mix after their streak ended with an unusually bad year last year. On paper they’re somewhat close enough that a big development by Manhasset could turn things into a total blowout again while some young guys developing for Burnt Hills could make for a great showdown at the end of the year.
East Aurora lost their top 3 but they still look really good in class C. They’ve already won 2 class C titles in a row and with the freshman class they had last year I feel like you can already pencil them in for the next 3 titles. It’s really a shame Alden has absolutely no depth because having the Feiders gives them easily the best top 3 in the state. With the lack of depth in NY if they could’ve found just a couple guys even in the 150-160 speed rating range they’d actually be a threat at Feds/Regionals.
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Burnt Hills is in good shape to at least qualify for states. They didn’t lose anyone and have a better returning squad than the teams that they lost to at sections: CBA (Albany) and Queensbury. Both of these teams lost several low sticks.
East Aurora might have the best trio of class of 2028 guys in the state (regardless of class) this year: 9:37, 9:51, 9:58
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Section 2 Fan wrote:
Based on their track times I agree that Corning might be a bigger threat than they appear to be on paper going strictly off last year’s XC times. Also got pretty solid history of developing guys over the last 10 years so I’ve got more confidence in them making a big jump compared to a lot of other teams contending for an NXN spot. Unfortunately it still looks like whoever comes out of NY is going to be struggling to crack top 20 at NXN, and they all pretty senior heavy too so it doesn’t look like 2026 will be much different.
Need to give some love to the smaller classes too though. Manhasset looks like they’re in good shape to repeat, but Burnt Hills will be back in the mix after their streak ended with an unusually bad year last year. On paper they’re somewhat close enough that a big development by Manhasset could turn things into a total blowout again while some young guys developing for Burnt Hills could make for a great showdown at the end of the year.
East Aurora lost their top 3 but they still look really good in class C. They’ve already won 2 class C titles in a row and with the freshman class they had last year I feel like you can already pencil them in for the next 3 titles. It’s really a shame Alden has absolutely no depth because having the Feiders gives them easily the best top 3 in the state. With the lack of depth in NY if they could’ve found just a couple guys even in the 150-160 speed rating range they’d actually be a threat at Feds/Regionals.
I agree with this, the one thing I would say is that this year looks much better than last year did. Last year at this time we had absolutely no idea who the real “top contenders” were because every top preseason team had a knockout 1-2-3 but then no depth behind it. (MW, Ithaca, NR, Toga, Auburn,)
Don’t get me wrong, there is still a depth problem - but it’s much better.
Chaminade has a legit 5 with a ~4:25 mile average. That’s not a depth or talent problem, they just need the mileage and a coach who knows how to develop the aerobic base. (Not saying thier coach doesn’t, I don’t know anything about thier program)
NR has a very good top 4. They seem to do better in cross than track outside Chery, but regardless they just need one guy to step up from a huge school (I think they have a bunch of 4:40 underclass men too)
Corning has a legit top 4 as well with a coach who knows how to develop talent.
Fairport is up in the air right now, but again they have great track times and guys on the roster.
etc etc. I’m not saying that NY has a chance at a podium spot, but last season was probably the worst the NY boys have ever been / will be.
Id also note that this track season, it seemed like for the first time in years we saw teams with some underclassmen depth in the 1 and 2 mile. Those 4:50/10:45 freshmen/Sophs are what eventually become the 4:20/9:30 guys.
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Just wanted to add:
Another sleeper team to look out for is Horace Greeley. I don’t know if they changed coaches recently but they now have one of the fastest boys and girls in the state in thier program.
Obviously thier #1 is the fastest xc returner in the state, but they also have 3 more underclassmen from last year that are all around 4:40 and one more senior this year at 4:45. This is the type of program that can break out after a summer with 4/5 all not even being seniors.
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Speedmatters wrote:
Section 2 Fan wrote:
Based on their track times I agree that Corning might be a bigger threat than they appear to be on paper going strictly off last year’s XC times. Also got pretty solid history of developing guys over the last 10 years so I’ve got more confidence in them making a big jump compared to a lot of other teams contending for an NXN spot. Unfortunately it still looks like whoever comes out of NY is going to be struggling to crack top 20 at NXN, and they all pretty senior heavy too so it doesn’t look like 2026 will be much different.
Need to give some love to the smaller classes too though. Manhasset looks like they’re in good shape to repeat, but Burnt Hills will be back in the mix after their streak ended with an unusually bad year last year. On paper they’re somewhat close enough that a big development by Manhasset could turn things into a total blowout again while some young guys developing for Burnt Hills could make for a great showdown at the end of the year.
East Aurora lost their top 3 but they still look really good in class C. They’ve already won 2 class C titles in a row and with the freshman class they had last year I feel like you can already pencil them in for the next 3 titles. It’s really a shame Alden has absolutely no depth because having the Feiders gives them easily the best top 3 in the state. With the lack of depth in NY if they could’ve found just a couple guys even in the 150-160 speed rating range they’d actually be a threat at Feds/Regionals.
I agree with this, the one thing I would say is that this year looks much better than last year did. Last year at this time we had absolutely no idea who the real “top contenders” were because every top preseason team had a knockout 1-2-3 but then no depth behind it. (MW, Ithaca, NR, Toga, Auburn,)
Don’t get me wrong, there is still a depth problem - but it’s much better.
Chaminade has a legit 5 with a ~4:25 mile average. That’s not a depth or talent problem, they just need the mileage and a coach who knows how to develop the aerobic base. (Not saying thier coach doesn’t, I don’t know anything about thier program)
NR has a very good top 4. They seem to do better in cross than track outside Chery, but regardless they just need one guy to step up from a huge school (I think they have a bunch of 4:40 underclass men too)
Corning has a legit top 4 as well with a coach who knows how to develop talent.
Fairport is up in the air right now, but again they have great track times and guys on the roster.
etc etc. I’m not saying that NY has a chance at a podium spot, but last season was probably the worst the NY boys have ever been / will be.
Id also note that this track season, it seemed like for the first time in years we saw teams with some underclassmen depth in the 1 and 2 mile. Those 4:50/10:45 freshmen/Sophs are what eventually become the 4:20/9:30 guys.
Pretty good analysis… but I think that team-wise at the National level, this year will be even worse than last year. Which is hard to believe.
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Nyseason wrote:
Chaminade
Chaminade top 4 went 9:45, 9:56, 10:06, 10:16. No Loggie
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I was impressed with Chaminade peaking last year at Intersectionals. Their #2 and #5 guys had roughly 40 and 50 second PR's. Neither had broken 14:00 previously.
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XC NY wrote:
Pretty good analysis… but I think that team-wise at the National level, this year will be even worse than last year. Which is hard to believe.
I agree with this. Top 3 teams from Feds are graduating a ton of guys. And there might be a team that didn’t get top 10 at Feds last year but makes NXN this year.
On the boys individuals side, it’s the best NY has been in a long time. Quite a few sub-9 guys coming back, and some more sub-9:10 guys.
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NR has separate coaches for track and Cross country Chiminade can be a very dangerous team but Corning has had the past and is build more to pose a threat as they will race the other top flyers at states a week prior
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Speedmatters wrote:
Section 2 Fan wrote:
Based on their track times I agree that Corning might be a bigger threat than they appear to be on paper going strictly off last year’s XC times. Also got pretty solid history of developing guys over the last 10 years so I’ve got more confidence in them making a big jump compared to a lot of other teams contending for an NXN spot. Unfortunately it still looks like whoever comes out of NY is going to be struggling to crack top 20 at NXN, and they all pretty senior heavy too so it doesn’t look like 2026 will be much different.
Need to give some love to the smaller classes too though. Manhasset looks like they’re in good shape to repeat, but Burnt Hills will be back in the mix after their streak ended with an unusually bad year last year. On paper they’re somewhat close enough that a big development by Manhasset could turn things into a total blowout again while some young guys developing for Burnt Hills could make for a great showdown at the end of the year.
East Aurora lost their top 3 but they still look really good in class C. They’ve already won 2 class C titles in a row and with the freshman class they had last year I feel like you can already pencil them in for the next 3 titles. It’s really a shame Alden has absolutely no depth because having the Feiders gives them easily the best top 3 in the state. With the lack of depth in NY if they could’ve found just a couple guys even in the 150-160 speed rating range they’d actually be a threat at Feds/Regionals.
I agree with this, the one thing I would say is that this year looks much better than last year did. Last year at this time we had absolutely no idea who the real “top contenders” were because every top preseason team had a knockout 1-2-3 but then no depth behind it. (MW, Ithaca, NR, Toga, Auburn,)
Don’t get me wrong, there is still a depth problem - but it’s much better.
Chaminade has a legit 5 with a ~4:25 mile average. That’s not a depth or talent problem, they just need the mileage and a coach who knows how to develop the aerobic base. (Not saying thier coach doesn’t, I don’t know anything about thier program)
NR has a very good top 4. They seem to do better in cross than track outside Chery, but regardless they just need one guy to step up from a huge school (I think they have a bunch of 4:40 underclass men too)
Corning has a legit top 4 as well with a coach who knows how to develop talent.
Fairport is up in the air right now, but again they have great track times and guys on the roster.
etc etc. I’m not saying that NY has a chance at a podium spot, but last season was probably the worst the NY boys have ever been / will be.
Id also note that this track season, it seemed like for the first time in years we saw teams with some underclassmen depth in the 1 and 2 mile. Those 4:50/10:45 freshmen/Sophs are what eventually become the 4:20/9:30 guys.
100% this. NY has a number of programs that develop well and consistently beat pre-season projections, but last year the incoming teams were so horrible even with good development they weren't competitive. Chaminade and NR are both teams that would have been competitive in NY in years past, and in most years past the top 3-4 NY teams were good enough to compete at NXN.
On Corning specifically, their season opener hints they may have found their 5th - junior Ashtyn Stark finished very close to their 2-3 who have run 9:39 and 9:42. Their 4th wasn't there but given that he ran 9:47 last year I'm sure he will factor in as well unless he's injured. The winner Bryce Hammond ran what appears to be a meet record, faster than Ashton Bange in 2022, so they'll have a frontrunner in the 180s most likely. 185-175-175-170-165 is a team that can win in NY and finish decently at NXN. They'll be good.
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I’m sorry but everyone expecting this year’s teams to outperform the 2024 teams really needs to go back and actually looks at times/speed ratings.
Chaminade keeps getting brought up, not trying to rain on their parade, I’m sure they’ll win CHSAA and they look like they’ve got a good shot at qualifying for NXN but any notion they’ll perform better than what we’ve seen from NY the last two years isn’t grounded in fact. Look at these pre-season ratings for Xavier headed into 2024 compared to Chaminade entering this year:
Xavier 2024 top 5:
Highest SR: 173-167-167-162-154
Overall SR: 168-165-163-155-152
Chaminade 2025 top 5:
Highest SR: 172-169-168-161-161
Overall SR: 168-164-164-156-152
I mean come on everyone those numbers are almost identical between the two. Sure I’ll give you that Chaminade’s returning number 5 had one singular race where they popped off more than Xavier’s, but their number 5s still had identical overall ratings and every other runner you compare is literally within 1 point of each other in either direction.
I get everyone is hyping up Chaminade’s track times but please acknowledge that on paper they return a team nearly identical to Xavier 2024 as far as XC performances are concerned, a team that was so bad at NXN that even if all 5 members of their team had run 30 seconds faster they’d still have finished 20th.
Seems like a lot of people (or maybe just a couple) affiliated with Chaminade have been posting here recently so please prove me wrong. I’d love nothing more than to see a big surprise and have NY teams be relevant, but the sad things is I think we’d consider it a “win” if we just had one team finish top 15 or something which would still be objectively the worst finish for the top NY team ever outside of the last 2 years.
Again I’m not trying to be a downer to any team hoping to get one of those NXN spots, but if you’re on one of those teams then please I’m begging you go back and look at the times/ratings of teams in 2023-2024 and understand that simply being the best team in NY doesn’t guarantee you a decent finish at NXN. Please don’t settle for just doing better than we’ve done the last couple years, or trying to be better than your fellow NY teams this year, strive for more than that because NY’s fate as its own region could very well be on the line.
The season has already started but it’s not too late! Go work hard and bring back the prestige NY used to have!
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I think Chaminade will need to step up on difficult 5k courses like Bowdoin or Sunken Meadow. There seems to be a performance gap between their 2.5m and 5k performances the last couple of years. That said, I’m really pulling for them to have a great season and run their best at Bowdoin in November.
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my two pennies wrote:
Speedmatters wrote:
I agree with this, the one thing I would say is that this year looks much better than last year did. Last year at this time we had absolutely no idea who the real “top contenders” were because every top preseason team had a knockout 1-2-3 but then no depth behind it. (MW, Ithaca, NR, Toga, Auburn,)
Don’t get me wrong, there is still a depth problem - but it’s much better.
Chaminade has a legit 5 with a ~4:25 mile average. That’s not a depth or talent problem, they just need the mileage and a coach who knows how to develop the aerobic base. (Not saying thier coach doesn’t, I don’t know anything about thier program)
NR has a very good top 4. They seem to do better in cross than track outside Chery, but regardless they just need one guy to step up from a huge school (I think they have a bunch of 4:40 underclass men too)
Corning has a legit top 4 as well with a coach who knows how to develop talent.
Fairport is up in the air right now, but again they have great track times and guys on the roster.
etc etc. I’m not saying that NY has a chance at a podium spot, but last season was probably the worst the NY boys have ever been / will be.
Id also note that this track season, it seemed like for the first time in years we saw teams with some underclassmen depth in the 1 and 2 mile. Those 4:50/10:45 freshmen/Sophs are what eventually become the 4:20/9:30 guys.
100% this. NY has a number of programs that develop well and consistently beat pre-season projections, but last year the incoming teams were so horrible even with good development they weren't competitive. Chaminade and NR are both teams that would have been competitive in NY in years past, and in most years past the top 3-4 NY teams were good enough to compete at NXN.
On Corning specifically, their season opener hints they may have found their 5th - junior Ashtyn Stark finished very close to their 2-3 who have run 9:39 and 9:42. Their 4th wasn't there but given that he ran 9:47 last year I'm sure he will factor in as well unless he's injured. The winner Bryce Hammond ran what appears to be a meet record, faster than Ashton Bange in 2022, so they'll have a frontrunner in the 180s most likely. 185-175-175-170-165 is a team that can win in NY and finish decently at NXN. They'll be good.
That’s a solid top 5 for Corning. They missed the state meet 2 years in a row, but I think that this year they will be able to get past Ithaca and qualify for states.
Ithaca lost too many top guys, and Corning looked a lot better than them at the first meet.
Someone also mentioned that Ithaca had 3 different coaches over the past 3 years.10 -
BackReturn wrote:
my two pennies wrote:
100% this. NY has a number of programs that develop well and consistently beat pre-season projections, but last year the incoming teams were so horrible even with good development they weren't competitive. Chaminade and NR are both teams that would have been competitive in NY in years past, and in most years past the top 3-4 NY teams were good enough to compete at NXN.
On Corning specifically, their season opener hints they may have found their 5th - junior Ashtyn Stark finished very close to their 2-3 who have run 9:39 and 9:42. Their 4th wasn't there but given that he ran 9:47 last year I'm sure he will factor in as well unless he's injured. The winner Bryce Hammond ran what appears to be a meet record, faster than Ashton Bange in 2022, so they'll have a frontrunner in the 180s most likely. 185-175-175-170-165 is a team that can win in NY and finish decently at NXN. They'll be good.
That’s a solid top 5 for Corning. They missed the state meet 2 years in a row, but I think that this year they will be able to get past Ithaca and qualify for states.
Ithaca lost too many top guys, and Corning looked a lot better than them at the first meet.
Someone also mentioned that Ithaca had 3 different coaches over the past 3 years.Ithaca had really talented teams the previous two years, but both seasons managed to peak for their early October dual meet against Tompkins County Vocational.
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North Rockland
15:48
16:09
16:17
16:22
16:44
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