NXR Northwest 2026

Anyone watch the Forest Park coach (Dettman) interview pre NXN? Dettman’s shoulders are constantly tweaking and twitching. What’s up there? Guy is strange.

I think that CDA boys will win the region.
Second spot will likely be Lincoln again, but don’t count out Crater.

Jesuit won’t make it this year, but will have an insane trio of nonseniors (Lavier, Lukasiewicz, Keating), which bodes very well for 2027.

For girls teams, Sehome and Rocky Mountain will go 1-2 again

Mead missed NXN by 1 point last year so they could probably use some revenge and try to qualify this year. But the sad part is, last year they were 5-deep and are losing 3 of their scorers. They might not even be #1 in Washington. Kamiakin returns 5 of their top 6 from the state meet

People recently mentioned in a couple of threads that Howard will no longer be coaching Rocky Mountain. Cheyenne Central WY and Gallatin MT could challenge them for an NXN spot. They took 4th and 5th respectively at NXR and return 4 of their top 5.

Summit OR boys team have a shot at NXN too. They took 5th at NXR and return their entire team

CDA will graduate I think one senior scorer next year so they do have a chance

They also will bring in some talented freshmen. One of them is a younger brother of W Morgenstern who has been one of their top guys the last 2 years

To save everyone time, refer back to this in the fall. These are the Idaho teams that could realistically compete for a top 10 spot:

Boys:
CDA, Boise, Eagle, Rigby, and maybe Rocky. They will be less relevant if Kent Bailey doesn't stick around. Only CDA has a shot of actually going. Boise could be top 5 as they do have a very nice top 3, but then drop off to boys that ran 16:21, 16:48, and 16:55 on courses other than the very fast Idaho state meet course. Eagle, Rigby and Rocky could maybe sneak into the top 10.

Girls:
Really likely to just be Rocky, but Boise does always seem to just reload so I would say they have an outside shot. Timberline will likely drop off pretty badly, Eagle is going to be really bad next year, and I don't think anyone is really getting any impact freshmen other than Rocky and Mountain View, but Mountain View doesn't have the pieces for it to matter on the NW stage.

Barring any impact transfers, anyone that tells you differently is wrong. Let's not get into the same thing where we hyped Idaho up all fall last year for them to look flat as hell at NXR.

Eagle is getting at least 2 talented freshmen next year and is adding girls from other sports that were good runners at middle school but didn't come out their freshman or sophomore years. They'll have a good shot of being top 10 despite graduating 5 of their top 7.

Boise and Eagle will all be better in 2026 than they were in 2025. I suspect Rigby will be as well. Boise is losing one of their top 3, but the other two return as well as their 4. I think they will have 3 returners under 9:30 this spring, maybe even 3 under 9:20 if they can get into a sea level race. Eagle is losing one of their top 2, and their 3 and 4, but returns their 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12. They have a good shot to have 7 returners go under 10 for 3200m as well as an 8th grader coming in that might also break 10. I think they will also have 3 coming back under 9:30 and potentially 5 under 9:40.

Also gotta remember that CDA was a much better team than they performed at NXR. They beat Jesuit earlier in the season. According to the most recent “CDA Distance” video, they had some of their guys sick at NXR

Just looking at state 3000/3200 track rankings for non-seniors

From Idaho:

CDA returns 8:57, 9:01, 9:26, 9:30, 9:33

No one else is remotely close

From Oregon (using names to help me track because they race 32s and 3ks)

Summit returns Jero (8:49), Blankenship (8:51), English (8:50 3k), Boaz (8:51 3k), Stoller (8:58 3k)

Lincoln returns James (8:22 3k), Dimoff (9:13), Kugel (8:40 3k), Tachouet (8:52 3k), Denton (8:56 3k)

Those two have 5 viable scorers but the following or only a runner or two from potentially mixing it up:

Crater returns Faught (8:51), White (8:37 3k), Goode (8:54 3k)

Jesuit returns Lukasiewicz (9:06), Fletcher (9:24), Lavier (9:28), Keatin (8:55 3k)

From Washington:

Mead returns 9:02, 9:48, 9:50, 10:05, 10:10 and a slew of people right after that fifth runner

No other teams seem remotely viable.

CDA is probably the favorite, again, though they need to pull it together on race day this time. Summit (should have two incredibly low sticks), Lincoln, and Jesuit are likely battling for the second auto spot.

For individuals, Shibata and Faught qualified last year and return. Carr, Jero, and Blankenship are on teams listed above and are possibly individual qualifiers if their teams don't make it. Quenton Lanese is probably leading the list of other individual qualifiers by a significant margin.

Keating is graduating

I mean, Fletcher is graduating, not Keating

Sehome is the heavy favorite in the NW on the girls side, what other teams are in the mix? Will Rocky Mountain still be a factor despite the coaching change?

I agree that Sehome will be the favorite.

I will give Rocky Mountain the benefit of doubt by predicting that they will take second. But there are 2 teams that can challenge them:

- Cheyenne Central (WY). 4th at NXR and returning their 2-6.

- Gallatin (MT). 5th at NXR and returning everyone except for their #2 and #6 from NXR

Gotta remember some teams don’t race down in Portland every week. Context of where kids ran their times matter.

Boise has 9:08 at sea level, 9:18 in Boise, 4:21 in Boise and a sub 10 freshman.

Eagle has 9:22, 9:41, 9:45 (freshman), 9:47, 9:58, all in Boise.

I know you’re talking about 3200 / 3k but they also return:

Miracle: 4:11 for 1600, 15:36 at NXR

R Hvall: 3:57 for 1500, 15:51 for XC

This is a great top 5. Maybe they will need a 6th or a 7th in case any of their top 5 has an off race