Saturday, November 19, 2016

North Coast Section final today at Hayward HS

All Results: http://www.rtspt.com/events/cif/ncsxc16/mp/

Finish line videos are posted at https://www.instagram.com/milesplitca/?hl=en (Feel free to hashtag runners from each race).

I will post photos of the winning teams in a moment. In the meantime, who was the most impressive teams today? Biggest surprise? Best race? Most impressive individuals? 

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are the mats in front of the finish line? And the post down the middle of the chute is just odd.

Nils said...

Excellent work SJND, women and men! Lick Wilmerding is definitely a power in D5 now, too!

Jackson8or said...

Can anyone there post some updates???!!!?!? The "live" results seem to be about two and a half hours behind.

Anonymous said...

The mat is usually 10 to 20 yards ahead so the announcer can call their name as they approach the finish line.

Anonymous said...

Why no May at the finish line for official times? Where's the official finish line. NCAA women's team race was decided by 0.1 today. Might be important to know where the finish line is.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to the SJND runners for a job well done! The girls won the D5 race and Kiera Marshall and Emily Perez placed 1st and 3rd, respectively; the boys placed 2nd and Cooper Teare and Willie Mein placed 1st and 4th, respectively.

Teare posted the fastest and the only sub 15 time across all divisions and Kiera Marshall made history by posting the best time in D5 record books, formerly held by Julia Maxwell, with her time of 17:08.4. Emily Perez also broke into the top 10 D5 record with her 17:42.5.

Anonymous said...

Weather got a bit gnarly and a lot of races seemed to be more tactical by the looks of things. Slower times than I'd hoped for as a fan.

Anonymous said...

Campolindo needs to race in an open division. People complain about Bellarmine? Campo dominates. How are they so good?

Albert Caruana said...

Campolindo won two hard fought victories over Redwood. I have said it before but the biggest difference at consistently good programs is the coaching.

Steve Palladino said...

I understand that it would be a wild guess, but any opinions on the new course versus the old course in terms of conversion factor?

Albert Caruana said...

Tough to tell but best guess is that it may have been slightly faster but not by much. Only one runner (Cooper Teare) broke 15 minutes today which is what usually happens each year. Perhaps it was the cold/windy and slightly rainy conditions but I expected faster times today.

Anonymous said...

I believe because the grass was high and that likely slowed things down. Who knows the actual measurement. No offense to the hard working volunteers but this was not a championship caliber run race. the split clocks were not at the mile. In fact, no one knew exactly where the mile and 2 mile marks were. The finish line was ambiguous. Luckily nothing likely changed the outcome like it had in several track meets last year. There should be an oversight committee and these races could be done right and first class. There are first class coaches in the NCS that know how to make sure a XC race or track meet gets done right.

Albert Caruana said...

I know the course was wheeled many times and it was 3.0 miles. The mile and 2 mile marks were clearly marked on the course map but the mats could not be placed at those two locations, especially the 2 mile mark.

There is a post season NCS meeting and if you have any issues that should be address, feel free to email the meet director which is noted on the meet bulletin.

Anonymous said...

Then maybe those first class coaches you speak of should get to work and help put the meet on!

Anonymous said...

Great day of racing. Weather was no doubt a small factor. Could the course have been set up a little better, who knows really, maybe I guess, but not anything to the extreme that someone is firing shots at people over. Keep focused on the athletes and teams. Miramonte girls were best female team today, Dublin boys were best men's team. I say that based on their team finish AND the competiton they had to run against to win. Not solely on team point total, that's a bad theory to go by. Most exciting race was the D2 girls, mainly due to the Granada/Monte Vista battle that went down to the final finishing sprints to settle. BEST race was D2 boys. Loads of talent, highly anticipated, great individual and team efforts. DeLeon was most impressive runner of the day, and he was in the D2 race, winning it. Easy to say Teare was most impressive runner, but he is in a class by himself, so give it to someone else. D2 boys had 19 sub 16:00 finishers, more than any other boys race, and it was great to see that the numbers played out so that all the quality individual runners got state invites (DeLeon, Mazzanti, White, and Charvett). Good luck in Fresno runners and teams.

Coach Ozzie said...

I commend the coaches who do volunteer to help with the meet. I know that I wouldn't want to take time away from my team during our most important meet to try to administer the meet. In what other sport would that happen and in what other sport would we complain that the coach, whose first responsibility is his or her own team, didn't do a good enough job?

As far as the timing mats, I don't think they were ever intended to be at the mile marks. There was actually only one timing mat on the course. It was right before the hill, aside from at the finish line. People ran across that same mat three times. That's why the splits aren't marked as miles, but simply, "split 1", "split 2", and "split 3". The placement of those mats has nothing to do with the volunteer coaches either. That is arranged by the timing company that is contracted by NCS. It is the same timing company that NCS has used for years and has always done a good job delivering timely results. Being able to see results in real time is still something that's pretty new to cross country. Hopefully NCS will get there, but it's not there yet.

As for the marking of the course, I would have liked to see a mile and 2 mile mark as well, but otherwise, I think the course was marked very well. My understanding is that the slower times today were more due to the fact that the course was not marked correctly during earlier season invitationals, leading to the course being a little bit short. Those corrections were made today. Our team was not at any of the races run earlier this year, but there were specific corrections made for today's races which brought the course to its intended 3 mile length and the subsequent slow down from the times run earlier this year.

So...I say thank you to all of the people who organized and administered the NCS meet.

Anonymous said...

I know we love to compare times and those are important when it comes to noting an athlete's improvement but the most important number is always place. Whether a course is 2.97 or 3.03 (a notable 80 meter difference) everyone at least runs the same course. As for the slow down there are tons of factors: length of grass, weather, nerves, pacing, school & family stress. I think it is pretty common (in general) to see times slow a bit. Even from league to CCS (run on the same course that doesn't change) you will often see a slow down. The race starts fast and kids fade the last mile. I am sure XC stats has the exact numbers. You do see some improvements but that's racing.

As for coaches managing the course it seems like this sport lends itself to that kind of thinking. As coaches we have allowed it. We have to run our own meets in track and cross country. It is a shame though, in no other sport is the coach expected to run the event and leave the kids to fend for themselves.

I am curious what NCS coaches think of the new arrangement of divisions. Did any teams get left out that would have made it in previous seasons? Did this help the top teams over-all advance? I guess time will tell if it makes a difference at the state level in terms of being awarded extra team spots.

Anonymous said...

Here's my 2 cents: With only 7 teams competing D1 boys and 6 for girls looks like NCS will lose a team qualifier as you must have 8 teams to get the 2 auto spots for teams. Probably should have put a few more teams in D1. But on another not 6 teams for D1 is a joke.

Albert Caruana said...

It's not about how many teams compete at your section final, it's how many schools are in the division. NCS has 8 schools in Division I which means they will have 2 auto entries guaranteed each season.

Albert Caruana said...

The mats are past the finish line. The announcer (Keith Conning) calls out the finishers with the help from a spotter.

Anonymous said...

Let's cut to the chase now that the section finals are concluded, which Nor Cal section is better this year? NCS? CCS? SJ?

Albert Caruana said...

The three best runners are Cooper Teare (NCS), Luis Grijalva (SJS) and Michael Vernau (SJS). The best boys team is Bellarmine (CCS). Best girls team is Davis (SJS). Best girls NorCal runner? May be tough to say which section is best.

Anonymous assistant said...

Personally, I'm getting real sick of all this arguing about which division was hardest, and whether or not the course was too fast. If you use a playoff system, every year you are going to have a situation in which quality teams/athletes are left home. It's worth noting that just a season ago, D1 was that situation (DLS, Monte Vista, Liberty) while D4 was the easy ride to Fresno. This year, D2 was the "death group" and D1 teams had an admittedly much clearer path to state. You have all been told time and time again why this was done. You should all understand that change is innitiative + time. Give James Logan, Dougherty Valley, Berkeley, and Castro Valley a chance to establish a winning tradition which they have been previously denied by the 2 bid system. Give D2 time to earn a couple more state bids for themselves and for the section. Before these changes were implemented, it seemed to me that the section was getting better and better with no tangible improvement at the next level. Maybe now we'll start to see some of that, slowly but surely. I'm not saying this was the perfect solution (I think all divisions should have at least 10 teams personally), and there were certainly negative side effects, but it's more than I can say I've done to change things. We coach and compete in a quality section of one of the nation's most athletically competitive states. It is important to have a little perspective.

Anonymous said...

Where do you think these extra bids are going to come from? CCS is solid with two teams in the top 10. SS isn't giving up any. So where are these extra bids going to come from?

Anonymous assistant said...

November 20, 2016 9:42 PM

I fully expect that Dublin will knock off a few of those SS teams soon, if not very soon.

Mattern said...

I would also like to than the people administering the meet. Well done. (Good post from Coach Ozzie - go read it.)

For 9:32 - DI number should start at 2500...but that would not significantly change the current divisions.
For 9:42 - DII extra bids are in San Diego.

Anonymous said...

Biggest meet of XC season in a few days and this place is deaaaaaad.

Anonymous said...

Using 5k times, because that's what they run at State and because the 3 mile times are skewed toward SS teams, Mile Split is predicting 2 NorCal podium spots for each DI, DII, and DIII? Is this doable?

Anonymous said...

@12:15, This is probably because the season is over for 90% of the target audience. Only those going to the state meet and a few die hards are left.

Anonymous said...

D2 Boys was certainly the Death Group. No system is perfect but something sure seems out of whack when DLS is staying home from State when they would have won D1, and Dougherty goes to State they would have been 7th in D2.

I get the desire to have even sized schools at State - but some deserving D2 teams ended up staying home.

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