jesus_short wrote:
Please wait until after next Saturday to spew this annual Calicentric bs. The same was said last year, and your almighty Great Oak team finished 6th. At 2nd and 11th, NY showed that it was the superior state-only region, besting the 6th and 9th of Ca. While the averages and depth of the Ca state meet are certainly impressive on paper, that does not translate to success in Portland.
First off all, whoever said previously that CA usually gets 4 teams to NXN is definitely not using the right sort of drugs. Cannabis is legal now so you should really consider putting the crackpipe out of commission.
As to the person I'm responding to, of course a team from Southern California won't generally translate to the success they "should" in Portland. There's a little something called homeostasis that is heavily in favor of the NY teams racing in Portland.
Look at the average temperature range of Portland for November and December versus the places where the teams are coming from.
City - Nov Hi/Lo - Dec Hi/Lo
Portland, OR - 52/41 - 45/36
Manlius, NY (FM) - 48/33 - 36/23
Temecula, CA (GO) - 73/44 - 65/38
I'm not trying to make excuses for teams like Great Oak or others like them that live in a vastly different climate, nor am I trying to take away from the incredible success that many teams have had that live in climates very similar to Portland. However, homeostasis is a very real thing and the body will tend to be in sync with what it has been subjected to the previous month. Look at the typical temperatures experienced in Portland in December. When the races go off at NXN it's generally within 3-4 degrees of 42F. Look at the temperature range FM will see during November versus that which GO will be adapted to in November.
Now imagine that NXN was held at Balboa Park and California teams were allowed to have middle schoolers on their teams while those from NY could only have those from 9th-12th grade. Then what would happen? Sure Tuohy would still dominate, but FM's incredible title run would never have happened. They probably would have still won a couple titles because they are definitely an amazing team, but things would be drastically different.
As it is, I think they should keep NXN in Portland otherwise a state like CA with such a large population has too big of an advantage. Weather is a great equalizer. Maybe CA has more than 4 teams that could sometimes be in the top-22 and maybe NY or another region does too, but a national championship should do its best to represent the entire nation the best it possibly can so long as there are no teams attending that get absolutely embarrassed.