Folders |
National High School Boys Team Rankings - 12/12 Final RankingsPublished by
Niwot Dethrones Herriman At NXN To Finish No. 1; American Fork Leads Five Utah Teams Into Final Rankings At No. 2 By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor Five days later, it's still fascinating to look at Saturday's Nike Cross Nationals results and ponder how the order of finish came to look like that. Charlie Vause? Perhaps not the most popular pick before the race, but his performance over the course of the season made him a reasonable contender. And he had what it took, a bit of extra strength to deal with the mud and reach the tape first. And Niwot? Well, why not Niwot? The team that came into the season ranked No. 2 due to a complete top-seven returning from a podium finish in 2023 should be right there near the top. Herriman UT, the reigning champion with reinforcements to secure and hold the No. 1 ranking the entire season, had an off day by Tayshaun Ogomo that made repeating too tall an order. And Christian Brothers, which put a string of record-breaking performances together at Holmdel Park and Bowdoin Park, suffered the rare off day by Joe Barrett. If those two run like they had all year, the podium order could have been different. But on Saturday, Niwot was simply too good. A 31.6-second spread on the scoring five (12 seconds on the top four) was a masterful performance of pack running and Colorado won its first boys NXN title. Junior Hunter Robbie, senior Keegan Geldean, sophomore Quinn Sullivan, junior Gabriel Marshall and senior Gavin Engtrakul delivered in a big way. The NXN order of finish set the most of the final Top 30, but there is also some room for teams that didn't advance out of their regional meets despite having fantastic seasons and national-caliber lineups. The eighth-place finish of State College PA, for instance, put a favorable light on Ridgefield CT, which finished 11 points behind in third place at NXR Northeast and wasn't selected. Interesting is that Rockhurst MO and Spring Hill KS, both in the Kansas City suburbs, finished side by side and separated by six points at nationals (335-341). Contrast that with Rockhurst's 51-86 victory over Spring Hill at the K.C. XC Classic on Oct. 5. The schools are located 23 miles apart and come from states that rarely have a presence at NXN. Props to Southlake Carroll TX, making its record-breaking 16th appearance, was also sensational on the way to fourth, led by third-place finisher Caden Leonard, who scored one point. Top 30 Final Rankings |
