Rocha 2nd at FL west regional...tamagno 24th at NXN. Safe to say Hunter is on top?

West regional results

http://parser.dyestat.com/meetresults.jsp?meetID=88533#.VmNkGJe37tQ

Utah had 3 of the top 10 in both the girl's and boy's races.

The girl's top 10 were within 16.5 seconds, compared to a 30.5 second spread for the boys.

4 of the girls and 1 of the boys are in only 10th grade.

chipotle is good wrote:

I guess footlocker is gonna be a walk in the park for Hunter.. unless anyone has any BOLD predictions!!!

FL West is only a qualifier my friend, not a must win!

Hunter hasn't raced anybody in the top 20, so I'm not sure who he's on top of?

What a flop by Tamagno. That was unexpected.

Hunter basically got 2nd last year.

He will win by 5+ seconds.

J.R. wrote:

West regional results

http://parser.dyestat.com/meetresults.jsp?meetID=88533#.VmNkGJe37tQ

Utah had 3 of the top 10 in both the girl's and boy's races.

The girl's top 10 were within 16.5 seconds, compared to a 30.5 second spread for the boys.

4 of the girls and 1 of the boys are in only 10th grade.

i'm really confused what this has to do with anything

chipotle is good wrote:

I guess footlocker is gonna be a walk in the park for Hunter.. unless anyone has any BOLD predictions!!!

To be honest, I thought FL was going to be a walk in the park for Hunter regardless. Grant Fisher was one of the greatest HS runners of all-time, a sub-4:00 miler and Hunter beat him on the track TWICE at the end of last season.

Hunter was 4th at FL last year, has run 8:42 for the full 2 mile and has been murdering the competition all fall. Tamagno losing NXN was a surprise but not a massive surprise. To me, Hunter losing FL would be a bigger upset even considering how well Rocha has run this fall.

If he is the clear favorite, Hunter should go for one of the top all time runs.

CLO wrote:

Hunter basically got 2nd last year.

He will win by 5+ seconds.

How does "basically getting 2nd" differ from actual 2nd place? A couple spots, maybe?

Tamagno's performance was obviously very subpar compared to when he crushed the Mt Sac "record" (great but Nelson's performance being clearly superior). So, that doesn't mean anything about Phillip Rocha and this was just a qualifier and hasn't been great for predicting results. I do think that Hunter's on another level than everyone else this year.

Rocha couldn't go with Bielaczyc otherwise he would have. You could see Rocha let off when he knew he couldn't match Bielaczyc's kick. I doubt Bielaczyc will have the same performance level next wee, but even if he did Hunter should still be 10 seconds clear of second place, whoever that may be.

For all we know Rocha had it in him to win, if he had really wanted to. I'd say give the man a break. Look at his racing schedule over the last five straight weeks:

Nov 5: Pacific League Finals

Nov 14: CIF South Section XC Prelims

Nov 21: CIF South Section Finals

Nov 28: CIF State Meet

Dec 5: Foot Locker West.

FIVE races in five weeks & two days! The tough Mt SAC course two weeks in a row, too. And he has the biggest of all next Saturday -- another challenging course, with even tougher competition. All he had to do was qualify top-10 yesterday, and it's really easy to understand that he knew there were smarter things to do than to go-for-broke to the finish line yesterday.

Give him credit for backing off, with his eye on the real prize: a national championship next weekend, not a more taxing regional win.

Lundy for the win

Lundy and those NY scrubs won't even be in the top 3, Hunter will dominate the last mile, while Rocha will be runner up.

Videos of Footlocker Regionals

https://www.youtube.com/user/footlockerxc/videos

The guy that came in 11th in the West WENT HOME DEVASTATED

Olin Hacker placed 10th last year at Midwest region, went on to take 2nd at finals. And beat Hunter too. Regionals means you qualify or you don't. You don't play for the marbles until finals, and you should know that a new day means a new race and it's anyone's brass ring to grab. I will hope for a wildly competitive race that is won by an underdog. Nice job stirring the pot though.....

Regionals means what? wrote:

Olin Hacker placed 10th last year at Midwest region, went on to take 2nd at finals. And beat Hunter too. Regionals means you qualify or you don't. You don't play for the marbles until finals, and you should know that a new day means a new race and it's anyone's brass ring to grab. I will hope for a wildly competitive race that is won by an underdog. Nice job stirring the pot though.....

While I'm as much a Hunter fanboy as anyone, I mostly have to agree. In the West race, Bielaczyc (spelling?) clearly kicked hard while Rocha did not, at least in the last 150 meters. That said, something like two FLN winners have ever not won their region. That means something. Bielaczyc, Hunter, Davis, or Affolder, according to history, are the group that is 95% likely to win the race. Now, according to the posters here, Hunter is 95% likely to win the race, so that does mean Rocha could beat him, but it's not likely to happen. Saturday should be exciting.