Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Top 10 NorCal performances by coach Jason Oswalt of Amador Valley HS

As posted below by Jason in the previous article's comment section:

1) Ashton Purvis dominates 11.17 100 and 22.90 in 200 at state to win both.
2) Jesuit Team state champs in track.
3) Campo girls state champs in cross country.
4) RJ Frazier of Jesuit runs 36.90 to win 300h and and 10.52w for 5th in 100 at state meet.
5) Julie Nacouzi from the North Bay takes 3rd at Footlocker Nationals.
6) Trinity Wilson runs 13.35 in the 100 hurdles for 2nd at state finals.
7) Ciarra Brewer triple jumped 41'4.5" into a -1.4 wind to win NCS MOC's.
8) Erik Olson runs 4:12 to win MOC finals, running the last 1200 in like 3:02 or something like that.
9) Chris Mamon from Benicia runs13.86w in the 110 hurdles for 2nd at state finals.
10) Chioma Amaechi of Lincoln (SF) takes 2nd at state in women's shot


Pretty good list to get things started.  Any other additions?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mt. Eden wins their first HAAL League title since 1963, then go on to state.

Anonymous said...

How are none of German Fernandez's senior year performances on this list ??

Albert Caruana said...

We are looking for performances from Track 2010 and XC 2010. German was long gone by 2010.

Anonymous said...

WHAT???
Julie Nacouzi runs four maybe five times in 2010 all year and makes the list??? One GREAT performace does not do it for me.

Not deserving to be on it at all!!!

Jason Oswalt said...

The question was about the top 10 single performances. I would not have put her on a list for the top 10 seasons, but her run at nationals was one of the top 10 performances in my opinion.

Doug Griffith said...

Great list by Coach Jason. I would add a few more for consideration:

1) Thandi Stewart
300M Hurdles NCS Champion & 2nd at State Meet
400M NCS MOC 2nd

2) SRV Boys 4x400M team
(Dan Davis, Kevin Griffith, Ian Padilla-Jong, Garrett Storms)
NCS MOC Champions 3:16.04
6th at State Meet 3:16.8 - Top Finish by NorCal team
EBAL Champions
1st at SAC MOC, West Coast Relays, and Arcadia Invitational Seeded Race

3) Chizoba Okodogbe
NCS MOC Champion 400M & 2nd at State Meet
Anchored Deer Valley 4x400M team - NCS MOC Champions & 4th at State Meet

Marv said...

Concur on Nacouzi.She is like the spoiled tennis brat that is too good for her HS team and only competes at tournaments of her choosing.She was ineligible to compete for her her HS team the second half of the season and should be deemed unworthy of selection to any "All-Star Team" or list.

Anonymous said...

Julie Nacouzi should be there. This is about the "top 10 individual/event performance" not about her personality. People who diss her performance are plain jealous and wish they did something to get on the list.

bawabawabawabawabawa!

Anonymous said...

If all it takes is one good performance in a year to get on this list... then Nacouzi belongs on the list.

I wounder however, how the rest of the individuals listed whould have performed if all they did was to train for just one great performance ina year?

John said...

Nice list. Here is what I would amend/add:

- Campo girls D3 XC state champs + Carrie Verdon's individual title with 2nd fastest time of the day
- Olson's 1600/3200 double at MOC
- The Strum twin's performances in the 800 and 3200 at State should be on the list
- FWIW, I would put SRV's Griffith's state 800 before their team's 4x400 performance

Albert Caruana said...

Nacouzi finishing 3rd at the Footlocker national meet is a great performance no matter how you spin it.

Anonymous said...

It is, but this is a HS running site...not just a Nor Cal anybody running site.

The tag line of your site says " Home of Northern California HS Cross Country and Track & Field"

Doug Griffith said...

I highlighted the SRV Boys 4x400 team for their body of work during the 2010 track season. No other Boys 4x400 relay team North of LA was as dominating as they were in 2010. Singularly, the races at the NCS MOC (3:16.04) and the Arcadia Invitational Seeded Race were signature victories over great competition. These four seniors were remarkable young men and responded under pressure every time.

I do agree with Nacouzi's Footlocker performance nomination. A great accomplishment.

John said...

Doug,

Nothing against the SRV 4x4. They had a great season. But in terms of top performance, Griffith's 800 was 22nd in the nation (Strum was 10) while the 4x4 time from NCS is 33rd.

Anonymous said...

Did Nacouzi graduate early? If not, she is STILL in high school so the tag line of XC Express is still accurate.

hank

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just think coaches are not always correct in how they train a xc team. When there is a team with one or two outstanding kids they always try to bring the others up and not focus on the improvement of the already outstanding kids. Look at Julie, she was injured and instead of the team embracing her need to X train to get back they just dumped her. It is very difficult for an outstanding runner to just cross train alone on a bike or in the pool. Some Crazy coaches actually make the injured kid watch the team practice to be apart of it and then the injured kid has to go off alone and x-train. No time to study. Also the coach doesn't have the necessary knowlege to X-train the kid based on their injury and they ususally make their own decisions. A top runner who brings themselves back is usually doing it alone and that shows why they were top to begin with. She obviously showed them with a 3rd at Footlocker. The team can take a leap.

Jason Oswalt said...

Just to respond to a couple of people here who have valid points. First of all, this list was just my opinion and not one that I spent a whole lot of time on. It just seemed like a fun thing to take a stab at. If I took a bit more time, I would have to agree with John that Verdon's individual state title should be a part of this list. I would probably edit her in at about #6 behind Nacouzi's run at nationals. Does that mean that Amaechi should not make the list? I don't know. I think it's hard to exclude her, but she was at #10 before and I put someone else in between, so I guess.

Obviously the hot-button issue for people is Nacouzi's run. First of all, remember that whatever the final list turns out to be, it is just one man's opinion (Albert's). For my part, it was not stated specifically that Julie was ineligible, so I judged it based on that single performance and that's it. I am not passing judgement on a situation that I am not that familiar with, outside of the stupidity that has been tossed around on this board. She ran a good race at nationals, that's it.

To Doug Griffith, I thought about all of the people you mentioned. Stewart was my #11 and it was a close call. Okodogbe was probably undone in her mind by expectations. She finished 2nd at state with a good time, but was the favorite going in. I couldn't in good conscience call her race one of the top 10 moments in NorCal this year, when it was an underperformance on the individual level. That might not be fair, but it's how I was thinking about it. As for the SRV 4x400, but I would agree with John that Kevin's individual performance was better. Taken as a full season, SRV was indeed the best boys 4x400 in the state and at the very least on par with Deer Valley on the girls' side. At the same time, I tried to look at only single performances (or at least performances occurring on the same day) and in my mind, those did not measure up to the 10 performances that I selected. Again, just my opinion and clearly my method isn't the one that you would employ.

To John, I did not think about lumping the Strums' performances together as 1 performance. Individually, I looked at both and decided that their state meet was not enough, but as a collective performance, I'd have to look again. Looking at Olson's inclusion, that might only be there because I am a fan of distance running. I highlighted his mile and not his double because of the way he ran it. A 4:12 1600 or a 9:05 3200 would not be up to par with the other performances on this list. It was how he ran 4:12 that made it a top performance in my mind. I left Edwards stadium thinking that Erik had a chance to win the 1600 at state. The 3200, not so much. It didn't play out well for Erik and we'll never know, but I don't think many people could have run the race that Erik did at MOC finals. Lots of people could have run the 3200 that he ran.

Ok, I'm done here. Albert, I'll be seeing you soon. Doug, track season comes up soon and I'll see you there. Everyone else, happy training.

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