Do you have any cross country teams in your your state that absolutely dominate

In WA, there hasn't been a super dominate team over the last 10 years (with the exception of North Central in 3A), but I would say Mead back in the 90's and early 2000's.

North Central only dominant in 3A?? There was a period where they won NXN NW for consecutive years, maybe 5-7? Maybe more? Sure they havent made NXN in 2-4 years now but it's not like that was ancient history like Mead. Shoot, the just lost their first state title in 11-years!

During those 5-6 years NC could have won state in any classification, not just 3A.

That being said, there isn't one dominant team in WA, but you can pretty much count on one team from Spokane being dominant, Ferris, Mead, NC, LC or CV. When was the last time a Spokane team didnt win at least one of the state classification races?

Improvement wrote:

run_wilson_js wrote:

I live in VA ... with LV. They are an excellent team but sometimes it gets old when they win literally everything and set point records at every meet they go to.

What’s impressive is how much Loudoun Valley improved over the years. Before the Hunters started coaching, Loudoun Valley finished in the bottom half as a team in many races.

I live in Virginia as well and have seen the recent dominance of LV. I think this is just another case of genetics being the reason. This program is no different than any other high school program, the school has just gotten genetically lucky recently. The cycle will play out again and LV will be back in mid-pack soon. You don't get good runners from training/coaching, it is all a result of genetics.

Wayzata is legit wrote:

Wayzata boys won a majority of the Minnesota state meets since 2007.

They also have the best JV team in MN just about every year.

For many years, a team of #8-14 Wayzata runners would have been ranked in the top 10 in Minnesota when comparing it against all of the Varsity teams at other schools.

I believe I counted 28 boys under 17:30 5K XC for Wayzata last season. Too much! School should be broken in half. EPO in city drinking water?

Too much! wrote:

Wayzata is legit wrote:

Wayzata boys won a majority of the Minnesota state meets since 2007.

They also have the best JV team in MN just about every year.

For many years, a team of #8-14 Wayzata runners would have been ranked in the top 10 in Minnesota when comparing it against all of the Varsity teams at other schools.

I believe I counted 28 boys under 17:30 5K XC for Wayzata last season. Too much! School should be broken in half. EPO in city drinking water?

And 7 under 16 the last 2 XC seasons

River Hill in MD and Hereford tends to put up good times as well (women's side particularly)

Too much! wrote:

I believe I counted 28 boys under 17:30 5K XC for Wayzata last season. Too much! School should be broken in half. EPO in city drinking water?

CBA had 29 under 17:30 last season

run_wilson_js wrote:

I live in VA ... with LV. They are an excellent team but sometimes it gets old when they win literally everything and set point records at every meet they go to.

In our culture, being dominant comes at a price - nothing LV can't handle. In the case of LV, it's jealousy , frustration, and even boredom at seeing the same ol' yellow and green running gear taking top positions and excelling in team competition. Those results are signs of success, of course - the rewards for all LV's hard work and talent (by athletes and coaches) meeting and exceeding expectations.

I think of Tiger Woods in his prime, winning so often. He was magnificent, and though he psyched out his opponents readily just by being there, and some fans of the sport saw his domination as a negative, it is obvious that when he fell from the top, television ratings dropped precipitously. People wanted to see him in a tournament. Look at the Tiger Woods hype in the Masters, the US Open, and now the British Open this year, when Tiger is just a good, not great, professional golfer. STILL the media hypes him, and it is a bit unfair to better golfers, but it's what the fans seem to want.

LV's success, run_wilson_js, is probably somewhat similar. Though there is negativity that follows such success, there is also undeniable fascination and thrill for followers of the sport.

nys of mind wrote:

Hmm...f-m girls do okay.

He said "state", though...not entire country. lol

at rhs the fast ppl get private coaches, we don't run 50 mpw, and the success of the girls team is built off fast little kids before they develop

GoatKing wrote:

the thing with Virginia is that there are 6 divions instead of 3 as there were when I went to highs school there

so it is easier to dominate in the divisions.

since going to 6A you had some dominating performances by Lake Braddock, Chantilly and James Madison, Midlothian in whatever division they are in, LV of course and Maggie walker has been dominating in the lower division

if it were back in 3A LV still would have dominated this past year but there would have been competition in other years and in the future

I'm from Virginia. I'm glad for the 6 divisions. It attempts--not very successful though--to create a level playing field for school size. Wait until 2019-2020 when the NEW VHSL Alignment happens though. There's some shake-up happening with schools bumping up or down. Should be exciting to see.

Every state has a few teams that dominate. For the large schools, it is usually schools from wealthier suburbs while the inner city schools barely field a team. For the smaller schools, it usually is one with a good coach who had some fast children of his/her own on the team that got the winning tradition going.

Somalian refugees

Hartland Arrowhead

Spokane Rift Valley wrote:

North Central only dominant in 3A?? There was a period where they won NXN NW for consecutive years, maybe 5-7? Maybe more? Sure they havent made NXN in 2-4 years now but it's not like that was ancient history like Mead. Shoot, the just lost their first state title in 11-years!

During those 5-6 years NC could have won state in any classification, not just 3A.

That being said, there isn't one dominant team in WA, but you can pretty much count on one team from Spokane being dominant, Ferris, Mead, NC, LC or CV. When was the last time a Spokane team didnt win at least one of the state classification races?

And then North Central got busted for recuiting and haven't been dominant ever since.

CV looks to take the mantle.

Jruns wrote:

There is a team in my state and in my class/division. Riverside High School in South Carolina. The have about 120 - 140 runners. And they basically dominate every meet. Most of their top female runners are in top 10 of every meet

...

This is random but coaches... what do you do to get the best out of tour athletes

I know it is boring, but what they are doing is getting 120-140 runners out for the team.

In high school it is a numbers game. If you have that many kids come out you will find 5 kids that can run at the state level. That is the secret sauce that no one will tell you about because they want you to believe all runners are equal and that if you just put in the work you can be the best.

VHSL Got It Right! Maybe? wrote:

GoatKing wrote:

the thing with Virginia is that there are 6 divions instead of 3 as there were when I went to highs school there

so it is easier to dominate in the divisions.

since going to 6A you had some dominating performances by Lake Braddock, Chantilly and James Madison, Midlothian in whatever division they are in, LV of course and Maggie walker has been dominating in the lower division

if it were back in 3A LV still would have dominated this past year but there would have been competition in other years and in the future

I'm from Virginia. I'm glad for the 6 divisions. It attempts--not very successful though--to create a level playing field for school size. Wait until 2019-2020 when the NEW VHSL Alignment happens though. There's some shake-up happening with schools bumping up or down. Should be exciting to see.

VHSL has realigned several times over past decade and none of them have been to exciting

Mississippi the future wrote:

Ocean Springs in Mississippi

In the last 3 years, you’ve finished behind Pearl at state twice, and your one win was 60-63 (compared to a loss that was 23-100+).

But you guys are good at hyping yourselves on letsrun, so you have that!

Great Oak is having a pretty good string of dominance here in CA on both the boys and girls side. State is pretty deep, so it's hard to be up there every year.

As an example of the depth (albeit a different event) in the state finals 4x4 this year, not one team returned from the finals the previous year.