This Weekend in Cross Country - November 11-12
California
California high schools begin their qualifying meets to make it to Fresno for the California State Meet which will be held of November 26. Of the ten California sections, four sections will have CIF section finals and teams qualifying for State this weekend. The Northern CIF section has their finals for state on Thursday, November 10 at West Valley High School in Cottonwood, Ca near Redding. San Diego CIF section final will be Saturday on the famed Morley Field course used for Footlocker (now Champs Sports Cross Country). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section is on Saturday at Willow Hill Reservoir in Folsom, Ca. CIF Central Coast will also have their final on Saturday at another famed cross country course - Crystal Springs in Belmont, Ca.
NXR Boise - November 12
Eagle Island State Park - Eagle, ID
For the first time since 2019, athletes will race to qualify for NXN which will be held in Portland on December 3. It is possible in the girl's race that Oregon may take the two automatic qualifying spots. Jesuit and Summit won their respective 6A and 5A team championships last Saturday. DyeStat released their team rankings November 10 and Jesuit is ranked #11 and Summit at #20 and no other Northwest teams are ranked in the top 30. Still, the course at Eagle Island is a rugged and anything can happen. Other team contenders include Lincoln of Oregon, Washington teams of Central Kitsap, Tahoma and Issaquah, plus Idaho schools Boise and Rocky Mountain. West Coast individuals to watch include Washington state meet champions Anna Callahan of Skyline, Reese Morkert of Gig Harbor and Logan Hofstee of East Valley. Oregon state champions in the mix are Ana Peters of Lake Oswego and Emily Wisniewski of Crescent Valley. Maura O'Scannlain of Jesuit, Ella Thorsett and Barrett Justema are individual stars. Other West Coast athletes of note include Ella McGillis of Central Catholic (OR), Keira Saavedra of Lincoln (OR), Clare Herring of Central Kitsap (WA), Eliza White of Curtis (WA) and Jessica Frydenlund of Anacortes (WA).
The boy's team race is deep this year with DyeStat's new rankings of #3 Jesuit, #5 Crater and #7 Rocky Mountain of Idaho. Other teams that can threaten in the race is #21 Lincoln (OR) and #28 West Salem. With three teams in the top 10, it would look like an at-large bid to NXN is coming to the Northwest. It is possible for another bid if Lincoln and West Salem or a Washington school can race close on Saturday. West Coast athletes to watch are Jacob Nenow and Gus Clevenger of Jesuit and Tyrone Gorze of Crater. Other athletes from Oregon and Washington are Samy Anderson of Lincoln (OR), Jack Meier of West Salem, Logan Law of Milwaukie, Alexander Garcia-Silver of Marshfield, Wes Shipsey of Central Catholic, Zack Munson of Sehome, Cruize Corvin of Lakes, Conner Wirth of Emerald Ridge, Ethan Pedersen of Eastlake and Isaac Briggs of Rogers (Puyallup).
Please look for a photo gallery of the meet!
NCAA West Regional - November 11
Chambers Creek Regional Park, University Place, WA
Division 1 schools from Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California race near Tacoma, Washington on Friday. The top two teams in each gender make it automatically to the NCAA championship held the following weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma. There are 13 at-large teams that are picked throughout the country. Teams ranked in the top 30 have a chance if they do not make the top two cut. Ranked teams in the women's side include #10 Oregon, #11 Stanford, and #16 Washington. Other strong teams that will be under consideration include Oregon State and Boise State. Top individuals include Kaylee Mitchell of Oregon State, Izzy Thornton-Bott of Oregon and Zofia Dudek of Stanford.
The ranked men's schools entering Friday's meet are #1 Stanford, #14 Washington, #18 Oregon, #24 Portland, #25 CBU and #26 Gonzaga. Top individuals to watch on Friday include Charles Hicks, Cole Sprout and Ky Robinson of Stanford and Vincent Mauri of Arizona State.
Please look for a photo gallery of the meet!