NXN teams and their school population

Hopefully you're smart enough to realize that a larger school has a larger pool of kids to draw from.

One year my school (600 grades 1-12) beat a local school (1800 grades 10-12). That team has qualified for NXN a couple times.

My kids realized that if we were 3 times bigger, theoretically, we could have had 3 of our #1 and 3 of our #2. Our #3 could have been running JV.

Yes- size matters.

His lack of intelligence makes it hard to take him seriously, too.

needs to be broken up yesterday like Fishers/HSE was. i'm from hamilton county originally and even back in my day it was too big and too dominant at 4k

Newbury Park - about 2300

Jesuit OR - about 1300

San Clemente CA - about 2900

Hinsdale Central - about 2600

Farragut - about 2000

DGN - about 2200

Corning - about 1400

Plainfield South - about 2500

Stevens Point - about 1500

Granada - about 2400

Mountain View- about 2000

Grapevine - about 1900

Episcopal Academy - about 1200

St Anthony’s- about 2400

This population and 28 boys on the team this year. 24 last year. Thoughts?

My aforementioned school of 750 (9-12) had from 25-60 boys year after year (typically, 40-50). 10-20 girls.

No way Belen will win NXN next year.
It will be American Fork’s year to win it. They finished 5th at NXN this year and they lose only one person. So that’s even fewer guys than Belen. And Belen got 14th.
Mostert also knows how to have his teams peak at NXN. I do however think that Belen will NXR next year which they didn’t do this year.

Not sure about 2026 either. We will see. Doug Soles mentioned in an interview about a good freshman class going to Herriman next year. the younger brothers of the people on the team

But based on this thread, chances do look good for Belen to podium at NXN in 2026 or maybe even win

Championship/small

Colorado girls crushed it this year. 5 in the top 20, 7 in the top 40 and 10 in the top 60.

Not an NXN but here are the populations of some Jesuit schools
Jesuit LA (males only) - about 1,300
Jesuit CA - about 1000
Brebeuf Jesuit Prep - about 800
Houston Strake Jesuit - about 1,200 - males only

Size isn't the only factor. In NY, Brentwood has about twice as many students as the next-largest school in the state, and has never done anything in XC.

If they are like Jesuit in Portland, just list the school size as anyone within an hour’s drive since as a private school they can and do recruit. No idea of course if they recruit runners, but my HS is SW Washington used to always lose its top football player in each class to Jesuit.

Belen may possibly win NXN in 2024. They return 5 guys under 16:15 in the 5K for 2024. The third fastest group. Carroll TX and Valor Christian CO returns a better group but Texas teams run on very fast courses and Valor might not be the best team in Colorado that year. It may be Niwot (who will also has a chance to win that year).

Belen also seems to have guys come out of absolutely nowhere. Like going from midpack JV to scoring on varsity

fl.milesplit.com

Florida's Fastest Boys Middle School XC Teams For 2022

Brandon Miles

Check out the fastest middle school boys teams in the state of Florida from this past 2022 season.

Link:fl.milesplit.com/articles/325601/flori...

3k times (all are in grades 7 or 8, no Marcelo included)

1) Armando Cruz
9:37.70
1
2) Davi Bodoh
10:01.70
8
3) Nicholas Veloso
10:08.00
11
4) Octavio Blandon
10:19.10
18
5) Jack Michalak
10:34.60
34
Average Time: 10:08.22
Total Time: 50:41.10
1-5 Split: 56.90
6) Benjamin Cirillo
10:35.10
35
7) Sebastian Fernandez
10:50.50
71

You must be new. Look in their history and they've had faster middle school teams and 80% of them don't turn into much in high school but the 20% are really great. They are the same program they have always been, Top 25 in country, but won't get near the podium as they have proven historically.

I beg to differ about Brentwood... although quite large, it is NOT even the largest school in NYS.. Brooklyn Tech is with over 5900 kids.. B'wood is about twice as large as the next targets school on LI, though.

Toga and FM are not large by most standards.

"hopefully you're smart enough..." is always gonna come back and bite you.

what your kids "realized" is actually wrong.

Yes, private schools in a large population area should have a higher classification. Even if they don't actively recruit, good athletes will tend to migrate to schools with good programs and they will have much better teams.