Palo Verde (Nevada) freshman Katie Gorczyca dominated the Nevada state meet in a way we haven't seen since the sisters Lawrence. Photo contributed by Phil Lawton.
Last week, I left it that I wouldn't be doing another NXN-SW review this week, but cross country fever took over. Three state meets give us a few observations to make.
Starting with Nevada, they had the meet in the southern tip of the state and the southern teams responded with a little domination of the festivities. Centennial, led by Nick Hartle's razor-thin individual win over Bryan Jordan, easily handled the boys from Galena for the 4A state title. Palo Verde freshman Katie Gorczyca won big on the way to leading her team to a state title as well. Damonte Ranch was a slightly surprising (to me, anyway) second, and Carson third.
Decisions await, but it would be nice to see Centennial and Palo Verde, along with the top individual entries, at the NXN-SW regional.
In Arizona, things played out according to form under the desert sun.
The Xavier girls, running the full varsity lineup, went mostly unchallenged for the Division 1 state title. Desert Vista was a distant second, followed by Mesa Mountain View. Sarah Fakler of Xavier won the individual title in 18:26.
The boys' Division 1 race turned out to be a little more interesting. Alhambra won, as expected, but Mesa Mountain View and Desert Vista made it more interesting than a lot of people were anticipating. Bernie Montoya of Cibola backed up his win last week with a state title, completing the course in 15:38, more the 16 seconds ahead of second.
Catalina Foothills won the Division 2 boys title, but seems to be running a bit in arrears of the Division 1 powers. Part of the gap between the Catalina Foothills results and the Division 1 results, however, can be accounted for by the fact that their usual #2 runner, Dylan Sousa, was just coming off of appendix surgery and scored #5 for them at the state meet.
Nogales came out on top in Division 2 girls, but was clearly a couple of steps behind the top Division 1 teams.
Two individuals concluded outstanding AIA seasons in the Division 3 races. Billy Orman had the best boys' time of the day at 15:03. That mark is also best ever for this course, taking down Brian Shrader's old course record of 15:15. Rolonda Jumbo won the girls' race in 18:34.
Arizona Home Page - Includes Links to State Meet Results
And, New Mexico had their state championship meet this weekend as well. Girls' titles were won by Eldorado (5A) and Los Alamos (4A). Let's just say both were convincing shows of force, as was Julia Foster's top time of the day.
Albuquerque Academy finished their demolition tour of the state on Saturday. Next stop on the tour is in Gilbert. Although there was some speculation during the week regarding whether or not AA could pull off a perfect score, the Chargers didn't really come all that close this time, scoring 37. That was still 22 points better than second (Los Alamos), however. In 5A, La Cueva undercut Rio Rancho by 57 points, 53 - 110. Larry Rubalcaba was back in uniform for Rio Rancho, but it wasn't nearly enough. Based on comparative times, it appears AA would have easily won 5A. Merged scoring puts them easily on top.
Utah ran a Pre-Foot Locker Invite on the grass at American Fork HS. The race serves mostly as an ongoing maintenance acitivity for teams looking to bridge the gap between state and the post-season races. Suffice it to say that nothing of great interest emerged from the meet. American Fork retains the full appearance of dominance, but teams such as Mountain View, Davis, and Ogden were not in attendance.
In Colorado, the weekend was silent but for a USATF Junior Olympic meet mostly unattended by athletes with NXN-SW intentions.
And, now, the waiting for bids to the championship race begins. I will announce the list of teams receiving bids as that is made available for publication.
Palo Verde (Nevada) freshman Katie Gorczyca dominated the Nevada state meet in a way we haven't seen since the sisters Lawrence. Photo contributed by Phil Lawton.