NXN LIVE

Nico Young is truly incredible. Will give any record over a mile a shot in track season. Would love to see him go after Verzbicas's 2-mile record and Galen's 5K record.

I still think Sprout has some in the tank. I think that being the heir apparent since his sophomore year and then realizing that dudes in his own grade have caught and surpassed him was probably tough to take today. He didn't expect to go backwards after his great track season and last year's great cross season. According to his parents he still only trains about 50mpw and I don't think they do a ton of super difficult workouts so I think he has room to grow. Starting his season in August may have been a bit of a mistake.

I think we could have 5 guys under 8:40 this year, with Young, Strangio, Sprout, Methner, Holland, et al all giving it a go. I am excited to see the speedsters light it up in track as well. I would love to see Daschbach, Culpepper, Sprout, et al give 4:00 a go.

One last takeaway: it's amazing how kids are able to elevate their training and racing over the last few years to challenge the phenoms. Strangio, Sprout, and Allred really set a high bar for sophomores with their runs in track and XC, and I think all the kids in the class realized they would have to run out of their minds if they wanted to win down the road. Nico has put in a ton of work and guys like Daschbach, Schoppe and Methner have as well. Now we have a ton of 8:40 guys, Same happened with girls realizing what they needed to do to catch Tuohy.

Pretty cool to see. I think track season should be pretty fun. There should at least be some challengers for Nico in track, unlike XC this year.

FM goes down again wrote:

FM does not make the podium. Again.

After having at least one team on the podium for the first 14 years of the event, they've now gone 2 years without.

They'll probably have both teams back in Portland next year. Their cupboard is as bare as it's been in a long time on the girls side, but NY isn't as deep behind Saratoga as it used to be.

Creaky Bones wrote:

lol Brosnan is such a douche. Only coach on the stage. Is the one to hold the trophy.

If you know anything about Sean Brosnan, this is not surprising.

A NY Guy wrote:

FM goes down again wrote:

FM does not make the podium. Again.

After having at least one team on the podium for the first 14 years of the event, they've now gone 2 years without.

They'll probably have both teams back in Portland next year. Their cupboard is as bare as it's been in a long time on the girls side, but NY isn't as deep behind Saratoga as it used to be.

Could we be seeing the end of an era? Obviously you don’t win all those championships without great coaching and culture, etc. but with such a small team you also have to get a certain amount of talent tear after year. Is it possible that the talent is starting to just not be AS GOOD as it has been?

Also, it’s time to re-evaluate the regions.

reer wrote:

jed23 wrote:

Watching her post-race interview on runnerspace was super sad.

Yeah it seemed like she was about to burst into tears any second. I don't have anything to base this on, but I almost got the impression that all of the emotion of the race and the pressure leading up to it was still affecting her afterwards. Even though she pulled it off, it was a lot of weight to carry, so that release can be emotional. I wonder if part of her is actually glad it's all done and the book is written on her HS XC career.

I just saw this interview, and I will say that my impressions were the opposite...I was really impressed with her and how she conducted herself. She made it very clear that she was not running well the entire race and thought she was going to lose at 3km. But she kept going. She basically walked up the last hill, and then fought through for the win.

It's too bad that it got to that point, but she was feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, and it was all based on not losing. Anyone who has played a sport has realized the difference between entering a competition with the mentality of 'trying to win' vs the attitude of 'trying not to lose'. Her emotion at the end was relief...not joy.

From that standpoint, her race was 'embarassing' to her because she failed to produce an effort that was worthy of her, and almost fell they way that the haters were all calling for.

I thought she gave a very open and honest interview, moreso than she normally gives.

Hopefully, she is able to look back on this race and realize it was likely the best race of her life.

I think she is an absolute class act.

St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote:

Will someone kindly explain why schools are competing under different names (e.g., Saratoga Springs as "Kinetic" and Great Oak as "Temecula")?

Haha....thanks for this!! I was wondering what the heck was going on when I saw an article on how Saratoga won. And I kept looking for where Great Oak finished as they were rated high, but couldn't find them....

Jedsdead wrote:

St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote:

Will someone kindly explain why schools are competing under different names (e.g., Saratoga Springs as "Kinetic" and Great Oak as "Temecula")?

Haha....thanks for this!! I was wondering what the heck was going on when I saw an article on how Saratoga won. And I kept looking for where Great Oak finished as they were rated high, but couldn't find them....

it is not an event sanctioned by the state associations so they have to run under another name, or something like that

fas wrote:

it is not an event sanctioned by the state associations so they have to run under another name, or something like that

Yeah, it's really something simple like fas says. Really, I don't think there's any arrogance about Nike trying to force some stupid rule on everyone. Mind you, it does leave lots of people scratching their heads wondering why, say, Great Oak isn't running as Great Oak, but it should be no big deal.

And, on the positive side, I now know the relationships between Great Oak and Temecula, Loudoun Valley and Purcellville, etc.

Aris looked old this weekend. Frail old. Manlius as it once was has run its course. Aris will flounder for a couple more years and then retire. The girls don’t listen to him like the past teams did. He doesn’t have that control anymore. Saratoga will now be the dominant team in NY and the country on the girls side.

Fun fact wrote:

https://mobile.twitter.com/MileSplitNY/status/1203810609483145216

Heck... they could have won without their FIRST scorer.

Han Solo wrote:

A NY Guy wrote:

After having at least one team on the podium for the first 14 years of the event, they've now gone 2 years without.

They'll probably have both teams back in Portland next year. Their cupboard is as bare as it's been in a long time on the girls side, but NY isn't as deep behind Saratoga as it used to be.

Could we be seeing the end of an era? Obviously you don’t win all those championships without great coaching and culture, etc. but with such a small team you also have to get a certain amount of talent tear after year. Is it possible that the talent is starting to just not be AS GOOD as it has been?

Also, it’s time to re-evaluate the regions.

If they want better competitive balance, they should split up NY. Put the Hudson Valley (Sections 1, 2, 7, and 9) with the New England states, and the rest of the state with NJ and PA. This would address the pathetically weak NE girls (almost always the worst performing region for teams at Nationals) and eliminate the two automatic bids for NY boys teams. Would also jazz up the Regional meet by making the NY runners race against "unknown" competition - like everybody else at Regionals.

Stone age wrote:

One of these years wrote:

Newbury Park is one of these teams that won the team title without a single person transferring in after 9th grade. When was the last year this happened?

Well, their top girl was a senior year transfer and in an interview earlier this year, the coach talked about a transfer on the boy’s team from NV I think? I remember seeing on a few previous threads they have quite a few transfers from neighboring schools prior to high school (including Nico Young and his brothers). You can split hairs on what you define as transferring, but I think the point is most teams are all-star teams made up from kids originally outside the school.

Newbury Park’s boys top 7 that ran in the NXN championship race this year did not have anyone that transferred in after 9th grade. The guy that moved in from NV is not in their top 7.

Awesome race by Western Albemarle! They went from a team that’s not supposed to be at NXN based on the Great American results to 5th place at NXN! Taking down the defending NXN champions that happen to be in their state!

They beat Loudoun Valley boys for the first time in....how many years?

fas wrote:

Jedsdead wrote:

Haha....thanks for this!! I was wondering what the heck was going on when I saw an article on how Saratoga won. And I kept looking for where Great Oak finished as they were rated high, but couldn't find them....

it is not an event sanctioned by the state associations so they have to run under another name, or something like that

That makes sense, but why does Newbury Park still run as Newbury Park?

exceptions to the rule wrote:

That makes sense, but why does Newbury Park still run as Newbury Park?

When they competed in CA they ran as "Newbury Park High School"

One of these years wrote:

Stone age wrote:

Well, their top girl was a senior year transfer and in an interview earlier this year, the coach talked about a transfer on the boy’s team from NV I think? I remember seeing on a few previous threads they have quite a few transfers from neighboring schools prior to high school (including Nico Young and his brothers). You can split hairs on what you define as transferring, but I think the point is most teams are all-star teams made up from kids originally outside the school.

Newbury Park’s boys top 7 that ran in the NXN championship race this year did not have anyone that transferred in after 9th grade. The guy that moved in from NV is not in their top 7.

It's a bit deceiving to say they didn't have any transfers. It makes it sound like they didn't have any infusion of runners from outside of their school area. Three of their runners that ran in the championship race transferred in, but just happened to do it prior to 9th grade. I'm not sure if the point is that it's hard to win without recruiting or that rarely does a school have enough talent within it's boundaries to compete at the national level.

Hejendo76 wrote:

Yeah Great Oak would’ve won if Chris Verdugo didnt struggle today. Was their last runner

Verdugo and Sawires Yager were their 6th and 7th runners both this year and last year at NXN. Verdugo scored 2 years ago there.

GO had a couple of guys go from never being in their top 7 to being in their top 4.

Joseph was their #1 last year and #5 this year.

What was special about Great Oak this year is that any of their top 7 can be their #2 guy at least.