Tuesday, December 15, 2009

All NorCal XC Team Selection

Keep the comments coming about who you feel belong on the All NorCal XC Teams. You can also email me at albertjcaruana@gmail.com with your choices. Include their first and last names as well as their school, section and accomplishments from this past season.



Would love to hear your input on what runners belong on the All NorCal XC Team. Hank Lawson of www.lynbrooksports.com is once again compiling a list of the following. Feel free to include a list of the runners that you feel belong on the team (boys and girls).

Your top 7 choices are 1st team
Next 7, second team
Last 7, third team
Followed by 20 for Honorable Mention

So that is rankings of 1-41 for all of your TEAM choices

We also pick a ALL-FROSH TEAM which consists of ten athletes so pick those folks as well.
Please also identify the Frosh, Soph, Junior & Senior RUNNERS OF THE YEAR and your OVERALL Runner Of The Year.

Thanks for helping.

So what say you?

76 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Garrett Rowe
2. Erik Olson
3. Heath Reedy
4. Ian Myjer
5. Kurt Ruegg
6. Chris Kigar
7. Reesey Byers

close call between Rowe and Olson, but Rowe beat Olson head to head at Nike by more than Olson beat Rowe at state not racing head to head, plus Rowe is All-American and Olson is not. Ruegg makes list despite so-so at state due to qualifying for FLN at very tough FLW.

Runner of the year: Garrett Rowe
Senior of the year: Garrett Rowe
Junior of the year: Chris Kigar
Sophomore of the year: Luis Luna
Freshman of the year: Richard Ho (should also be freshman of the year for California)

Anonymous said...

It's hard to Jacque Taylor, Theresa Devine, Julie Nacouzi and even Karlie Garcia.... Taylor had a poor race at FLN but a better race at state...

Anonymous said...

richard ho is fast as a fresh. but idk wats up with fast fresh asian kids, they either do too much mileage too early and burn out. just watch when he gets to his jr. and senior year he going stagnate hard and not get that much faster or he quits due to burnout. seems to happen a lot( especially for the asian kids). take a look at some monta vista kids, same thing happens.

Albert Caruana said...

Let's focus on who belongs on the All NorCal XC Team.

Girls' freshman of the year is an easy slam dunk. Same for freshmen boys.

Very tough senior group of boys this year. Should make for an exciting track season.

Any more thoughts?

Anonymous said...

2009 XC was great. Teams and individuals...
I like:
Rowe, Olson, Myjer, Kigar, Reedy, Byers, MacQuitty
Then:
Summers, Ruegg, Luna, Dowdy, Schuh, Zellman, Bickert
(Taylor and Nacouzi had great year!)

Anonymous said...

Karlie Garcia is the second best freshman in the nation!!!! Got to give major props to her for that...

This is really hard to chose runner of the year... I'm leaning to Nacouzi because of how well she did at state and how well she has done year around, even though Garcia did beat her at FLN.

Albert Caruana said...

Heath Reedy is a Buchanan HS runner. Not considered NorCal.

Garcia and Ho are clearly the top freshmen.

Who else belongs on the freshmen list besides those two for boys and girls?

The one's I am fairly sure of are the following:
Nacouzi is the best junior girl. Taylor is the best senior girl.
Luna is the best sophomore boy.

The others are more debatable. Do you look at the whole season or how they mostly did in the post season?

Keep the comments coming.

Anonymous said...

"richard ho is fast as a fresh. but idk wats up with fast fresh asian kids, they either do too much mileage too early and burn out. just watch when he gets to his jr. and senior year he going stagnate hard and not get that much faster or he quits due to burnout. seems to happen a lot( especially for the asian kids). take a look at some monta vista kids, same thing happens."


I know somebody who trained with Richard ho during the summer. I don't think he is not running too much mileage or overtraining at all...he is just a great talent who is very focused and determined. And which monta vista are you referring to?

Anyway, here are my picks. First team: Rowe, Olson, Summers, Myjer, Ruegg, Macquitty, Byers. Second team: W. Strum, Kigar, Signore, Luna, Schuh, Dowdy, Moriarty.

Anonymous said...

Rowe deserves #1 but I can't see Summers in the first group. He was only #15 Norcal runner at state. 15th place at Footlocker west doesn't make up for such a poor state showing. Also, I have Strum ahead of MacQuitty. Faster at CCS, state and FLW.

St3phan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Albert Caruana said...

Not sure who you are talking about. Summers is in CCS and 2 weeks before the state meet ran 14:41 at the Crystal Springs course to win the Division II race.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure Stephan is thinking of Alex Summers from Granada

Albert Caruana said...

That would make sense. Thanks for clarifying.

Anonymous said...

Umm I have to disagree, Paul Summers definitely deserves first team. Although he had a bad race at state (probably early peak),he had an outstanding season otherwise, and his race at CCS finals was out of this world. #8 ALL TIME on a course with so much history. oyu really have to think how amazing that is. i think that race speaks for itself. And as for FLW, he had a respectable performance there.15th place, only missing a FLN spot by a few seconds, in what was BY FAR the toughest region. This was also about 3 weeks after CCS (which im assuming he peaked for).

Anonymous said...

I agree it's not fair to rank Summers first team when so many NCS and SJS, not to mention CCS, runners beat him at state. second team sounds right.

Anonymous said...

Okay, so will we then count all those same runners who he BEAT at FLW and throughout the rest of the season by considerable margins? He had a bad race at state. The rest of his season was incredible.

Anonymous said...

Summers from Gunn from CCS ran really hard at CCS and probably was stilled tired from that race, so he didnt have a great state race. Other than that he had a great season and should be on the first team.

Jason J said...

Personally I feel like the determining factor should be State Meet performance. No excuses for not racing well there. It's the BIG MEET. Don't have time to look back but I would just take the top 7-14-21 from that list and there you go. Under very extreme circumstances would I consider putting somebody first team if they weren't in the top 7 at state (the only kids this could have happened to would be like if someone like Olson had a bay day at state).

Anonymous said...

1 Rowe
2 Olson
3 Myjer
4 Ruegg
5 Kigar
6 Byers
7 Strum

Runner of year Rowe
Sr of year Rowe
Jr of year Kigar
Soph of year Luna
Frosh of year Ho

Rowe is runner of year for coming back from injury and leading his team to state championship, plus he was #1 NorCal runner in either national championship. Cross country is a team and individual sport and Rowe led in both

Anonymous said...

JRJ said...

"Personally I feel like the determining factor should be State Meet performance. No excuses for not racing well there. It's the BIG MEET. Don't have time to look back but I would just take the top 7-14-21 from that list and there you go. Under very extreme circumstances would I consider putting somebody first team if they weren't in the top 7 at state (the only kids this could have happened to would be like if someone like Olson had a bay day at state)."


Look, you just totally contradicted yourself and shot yourself in the foot. You stated that you would still put Olson on the first team if he had a bad race at state and did not finish in the top 7. This is because the rest of his season was outstanding, and he could back it up with other races, correct? Well, the same applies to Summers. Although he probably wasn't quite up there with Olson, he was most definitely one of NorCal's (and possibly even state's) big names through out the season. He definitely has the credentials to back it up. Therefor you fail, please think next time before stating a point.

Anyway, I think Gunn stayed pretty low-key through the season and didn't go to too many big invites; however, here are some of Summers' outstanding times which he ran this season.

Stanford- 15:30
Crystal Springs Center Meet- 15:01, battle with Signore
DAL Finals, Crystal Springs- 15:09 in the heat.
CCS Finals- 14:41 at Crystal, arguably the best run by a CCS runner in recent years.
FLW- 15:57, solid 15th place finish.

So, with the exception of state, you have to admit he had an amazing season.

Anonymous said...

there's a big Paul Summers booster out there. unfortunately section meets don't mean much when you're comparing boys over roughly half the state. i'm with the others that you need to finish better than 15th NorCal at state to deserve first team. you could overcome such a poor showing by making it to FLN like Ruegg did, but 15th at FLW just isn't that impressive

jkrunner1 said...

1. Julie Nacouzi
2. Karlie Garcia
3. Jacque Taylor
4. Theresa Devine
5. Marissa Ferrante
6. Colleen Lillig
7. Jessie Petersen

It was really hard to rank between Garcia and Taylor. Taylor had a superior state performance but a poor FLN performance while Garcia did very well at FLN (2nd freshman in the country!). So it depends, are we giving more weight to the state meet or to post season?

Runner of the year is also tough. Again, weight to state meet or post season (Nacouzi vs. Garcia)? Also, I would not say senior of the year is so clear cut, because Theresa Devine had a very good race at Footlocker.

Senior of the year: Jacque Taylor... or Theresa Devine
Junior of the year: Julie Nacouzi
Sophomore of the year: Carrie Verdon
Freshman of the year: SUPERFROSH Karlie Garcia

Jason J said...

Oh geeze, Mr/Ms Anonymous. I was merely setting up a parameter for judging all state teams. I didn't follow Summers, truthfully don't care about Summers. I said someone "like" Olson. That doesn't mean in my personal opinion Olson would have gotten the nod if he was off at state.

I will repeat that I think the Top 7-14-21 runners from State should be considered. First Team honors should go to the Top 7. If a runner is not in the Top 7, it's kind of tough luck. Under extreme circumstances, should they be moved ahead of a runner who ran their best race at State - THE most important meet of the year for Californians.

Anonymous said...

What about runners who did well at state but worse at FLN? Who ranks above who? Example, Karlie Garcia vs. Jacque Taylor vs. Theresa Devine...

Albert Caruana said...

That's a great question.

I think you have to look at the entire season as a whole with more of an emphasis on the post season meets.

Thankfully there is more than one person voting for these teams.

Anonymous said...

Rowe
Olson
Myjer
Kigar
Byers
Strum
MacQuitty

Anonymous said...

State and national championships mean everything when you are comparing the very best runners or teams in the state or the country. The meets leading up to the championships are warm ups and mean nothing once state, NXN, FLN are competed. The best athletes deliver on the biggest stage and drive their teammates to higher levels. The runners and teams who fell short talk about how well they ran at leagues or sectionals or Stanford. Anybody remember Michael Jordan?

When you're talking about the best of the best in Norcal (Rowe and Olson), they both had great seasons but Rowe was better at the national championship and also led his injured team to a dominant state win. Summers didn't delievr at state and ran just OK at Footlocker West.

Anonymous said...

I think that it should be Jacque Taylor. Just look at how well she has done ALL four years. I love to watch her run and shes very fun person to be around. I know that she didn't have a very good race at FL, but nobody is perfect. She went to state all four years and her times drop each time. To me, she is the obvious pick, and I know that she is going to do great things at UNC and beyond. Congrats!!

-John

Anonymous said...

It should rightfully go to the senior/D2 State Champion: Jacque Taylor.

Oliver said...

From Oliver in WCAL:
Here are some more candidates for top freshmen. By the way, I agree that the state meet should be looked at with more weight than other races, but come on. It's the runners of the year award, not the runners of the state meet award, that's too easy. It should be who you want on your team throughout the entire season. If it were me I would want summers on my first team. But, I want to hear more about third team guys, make a case for somebody from your league. The most dominant runner in my league was Kyle Rae from Bellarmine. He ran 15:48 at state and is a junior. I think that deserves a look for tier three, but prove me wrong.
Now to Freshmen:
CCS Ciaran Murphy FR St. Ignatius 16:22 at State
NCS Kevin Poteracke FR Petaluma 16:22 at state
NCS Ryan Douglas FR Petaluma 16:33 at state

Ciaran Murphy was an amazing product of the WCAL this year. Over his last four races, a span of a little more than a month he improved his overall race pace by 1:10 per mile. He was running 6:25 pace and ended up running 5:15 pace at state. His improvements were as steady as possible, improving his pace by just about 17 seconds per mile per race. This kid is an amazing raw product coming out of S.F. He is a tough, thickly built, kid on a program that is known for developing great runners,Greg Innes ran 15:15 (15:35 at state) at Crystal Springs on two failing kidneys and he only ran 17:00 there as a frosh. Ciaran ran 16:03. SI generally makes leaps and bounds with there runners during their junior and senior years, so hopefully this young lad has some fantastic years ahead of him. SI has a gem on their hands and I can see this guy tearing up the WCAL and NorCal in a year or two. They also had a young man run a respectable 17:30ish for them at state as a freshman.
As far as Petaluma goes I cannot speak for the development of their two outstanding freshman. Hopefully someone else can enlighten us. The future looks more than bright for the men in purple. Thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Foot Locker and Nike are opitional races for the post season... in other words, it is not required that athletes compete in either of these events.

Competion at State is the opitmal goal for all the runners in Northern California...that is what they train for all season and that alone should be the main focus of evaluating individuals and class runners of the year.

Again, the season ends at State. The post-season should not even be in the picture. US Nationals are also post season...will they be considered? There has to be a cut-off.

Anonymous said...

"I think you have to look at the entire season as a whole with more of an emphasis on the post season meets."

Trivia question: Who is the only runner to win State but dnf at league championship?

Still, he deserves the first team.

Anonymous said...

I think that all the races should be looked at INCLUDING post State meets. Maybe most (average - good) runners train for State, but the elite runners (the ones we are considering for these awards) train with the goal of making it (and peaking) at Nike, FLN, etc. We should be looking at the whole season, putting the most emphasis on the bigger races - since peaking, when it counts most, is part of being an excellent runner.

The other thing that should be considered is age/year. For example in the J. Taylor & K. Garcia debate. Taylor ran faster at State, but just OK at FL Regionals and didn't run well at FL Finals. Even though Garcia didn't beat Taylor at State, she still had a great race, and then went on to run an amazing race at FL Regionals and an even more amazing race at FL Finals! If you still aren't convinced, account that Garcia is just a Freshman and Taylor is a Senior! That makes Garcia's performances (even at State) way more of a "standout performance" than Taylor's.

Garcia definitely deserves NorCal Runner of the year.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line Jacque Taylor won a state title and had a great day when she needed to be her best. She has been a tough division race for all four years and medaled every year which is a very short list.

Anonymous said...

I am a coach and was a spectator at FL Nationals. Everybody had a great race, but Jacque may have had the best race of her life and it will definatly change her. She could have quit with a mile to go, but she didn't and I respect that. When I saw her run past me on the way to the finish, she had a look in her eyes that I will never forget. She finished that race with her head high and walked to the tent. Suzi Favor-Hamilton hugged her for 15 minutes as she was crying. From that moment on I could tell that she was going to excell at everything that she does. She is a beautiful person inside and out. Jacque had the best race out there whether you know it or not...

Anonymous said...

I am not putting down Taylor. I think she is an amazing runner, but if we are talking "runner of the year" (not "runner of the past 4 years" and not "runner of the state meet"), then Garcia is the winner. Garcia had an amazing race for any age, every time, and the fact that she is a Freshman and performed the way she did makes it even more amazing.

I do not know either girl, in fact I am in a completely different league. They are both GREAT runners and seem like great girls. There is no reason to take this my opinion so personally - the site asked for our opinion and I gave mine just like everyone else did. Taylor did not have a good FL Finals and Garcia did. It's a fact, not a slam to Taylor. Garcia had great races during all 3 of the final races that matter (including State) in comparison to Taylor. Taylor got her State medal/kudos for that amazing race (and it was amazing for her)...but now we are talking "runner of the year" - Garcia's performance all season long was stronger and more amazing.

Obviously both these girls had great years, or we wouldn't be debating who should get runner of the year! Cuddos to them both. But again, Garcia did it as a FRESHMAN - and beat Taylor head-to-head in the final two races of the season.

coach Jim said...

Rowe was the man in NorCal this year. The D2 race, with the best front runners of the day went out tactically, 15 sec slower than D3 and 10 sec slower than D1 through a mile. It finished in a huge fury the last mile, but of course the times suffered since Gedyon-McElroy-Rowe-Woof spent the first half of the race sizing each other up.

Rowe finished state with two medals around his neck, leading his team to a state title. Then he beat Olson head to head by six places at the Nike national championship in a race that was anything but tactical. Rowe is an all-american.

For the same reasons, D2 Summers belongs on the first team.

Jim Taylor said...

From a Fathers point of view it has been hard not to respond to this strand, but I feel the need to put my two cents in...

FL was Jacque's best performance, you have to look beyond time and place and evaluate the performance as a whole... she did not drop out of the race and she remain tough. She showed what a champion is all about. There are no excuses here...but,like Babcock in the Southern Section a few years back... Jacque should have taken her lead and not compete in the post-season.

But she did and I am very proud of her and all her accomplishments throughout the season! After all, she is a State Champion.

BRAVO JACQUE

The bottom line,there is no such thing as a bad race... each race has VALUE and a true champion unerstands that. I can sure you, Jacque has found the value.

Vote however you want to... it changes nothing.

Jim Taylor

jj7 said...

agree with the above sentiment. hard to compare races at state when one was tactical and the other run for speed. rowe beat olson head to head at nike which is a tougher and more elite race than state, plus lead his team to a title

Anonymous said...

I do not understand how Paul Summers can be be left off anyone's top 7 list. His time at the CCS Division II Championships should put him in the conversation for Runner of the Year. An adult, hopefully his coach, made the decision when he was to run fast. Maybe the Gunn coaching staff thought the CCS was their best shot at Mountain View. I can only assume that when his coaches asked him to get after it, Paul Summers ran the fastest time at Crystal Springs in the last 20 years. His performance came on a course that is raced on more often than any other in Northern California (Invites, league championships, CCS finals...) Are you kidding me, the #8 time ever!

Summers led his team all season. Gunn was competitive in every meet they entered; again a coaches choice I'm assuming. Some of the other athletes you are mentioning did not race early (by choice or because of injury). Some were on teams that were not competitive so their coaches trained and raced with a single athlete's season in mind. It makes a huge difference if you are asked to run for your team every week. From what I can tell, Summer's raced hard the four weeks leading up to State. He broke the course record at the Palo Alto District race (the Palo Alto schools seem to take this race serious), he raced hard the following week against Mountain View and PALY at league, and then again at CCS. You can't "ding" an athlete for leading his team and racing hard when he is asked to. The State Championships might have been one to many races at the end of the year. Also, a lot of coaches do not train their athletes with the made for TV races in mind. The California state cross country season is too long as it is. By giving these "post season" meets so much weight you de-emphasize the team aspect of the sport and over race athletes. Even an elite athlete is not going to be able to race in December if his/her season starts the first week of September. If you're ranking the best club runners or the athlete who's only goal is the "post season" then maybe you give those meets more weight.

Anonymous said...

Woah, woah, woah... are you all forgetting Julie Nacouzi??

Let's look at all of their state performances vs. FL:

Karlie Garcia - pretty good at state, very good at FL
Julie Nacouzi - very good at state, pretty good at FL
Jacque Taylor - very good at state, not so good at FL

So by that logic, shouldn't Nacouzi be the Norcal runner of the year?

Anonymous said...

So when comparing Nacouzi to Garcia, as you did above. The tie breaker is that Garcia peaked race after race through a packed end-of-season (she got 2nd in JOs the day after State too!) and, if that isn't enough, let's mention again - she is a FRESHMAN. Making her accomplishments stand out more than the others.

Taylor had a GREAT season through State. However, runners shouldn't get awards for staying in a race just because it is tough. A pat on the back - sure; a proud parent/coach - absolutely; a wonderful life lesson - great; but a "runner of the year" award - I don't think so. I have seen MANY racers tough it out in a race: crawling on their hands and knees to finish, being taken off in an ambulance, and finish in last place - strong and proud. If they gave out awards for that, at least 50% of the XC runners would be up for an award because there is a lot of heart out there, including Taylor's.

You are right that a "bad race" can provide a lot of value to a runner's future in terms of a learning experience and helping them grow as a person. But when it comes to time/place - a bad race is a bad race, no matter what you learn from it. "Bad race" = bad time/place for that specific runner, not always a bad experience, nor does it mean the runner isn't any less of a great runner. Just maybe not deserving of the "pie in the sky" award at the end of the season.

Anonymous said...

So when comparing Nacouzi to Garcia, as you did above. The tie breaker is that Garcia peaked race after race through a packed end-of-season (she got 2nd in JOs the day after State too!) and, if that isn't enough, let's mention again - she is a FRESHMAN. Making her accomplishments stand out more than the others.

Taylor had a GREAT season through State. However, runners shouldn't get awards for staying in a race just because it is tough. A pat on the back - sure; a proud parent/coach - absolutely; a wonderful life lesson - great; but a "runner of the year" award - I don't think so. I have seen MANY racers tough it out in a race: crawling on their hands and knees to finish, being taken off in an ambulance, and finish in last place - strong and proud. If they gave out awards for that, at least 50% of the XC runners would be up for an award because there is a lot of heart out there, including Taylor's.

You are right that a "bad race" can provide a lot of value to a runner's future in terms of a learning experience and helping them grow as a person. But when it comes to time/place - a bad race is a bad race, no matter what you learn from it. "Bad race" = bad time/place for that specific runner, not always a bad experience, nor does it mean the runner isn't any less of a great runner. Just maybe not deserving of the "pie in the sky" award at the end of the season.

too much for frosh! said...

Garcia ran JOs the day after state? Can you say "burn out"?

Albert Caruana said...

I was surprised the JO's are the day after the state meet. Why do they have to be on that date? It's not like the date of the CA state meet should be a surprise for anybody.

Anonymous said...

I think the big weights of the season should be given to the state meet and Footlocker. Based off of this, you have to weigh... Karlie Garcia took All-American at the NATIONAL MEET, 10 spots ahead of Nacouzi. Nacouzi on the other hand at the state meet was one of the top runners in the state (4th best, right behind Taylor) while Garcia was farther on back. So which one gets more weight? If we go by the whole season, I would give the edge to Nacouzi, or even Taylor who has run well the whole season.

This is a pretty hard choice.

Anonymous said...

Taylor vs. Nacouzi is a no-brainer. They went head to head 4 times at the end of the season. Nacouzi won NCS by 16 secs. Taylor won State by one step. Nacouzi won regional by 5 sec, FLN by over 1 minute. Nacouzi had huge wins earlier in the season at Ed Sias, Stanford (45 sec faster than JT) and Clovis. Yes, Jacque has had a great 4 years, and maybe learned something by not taking a DNF at FLN, but Nacouzi has been the Nor Cal story this year.

USATF said...

Albert-I'm pretty sure JO qualifiers in CA have always been the day after the state meet. Isn't CA one of the last states to hold their final meet? California runners have the smallest window of anywhere in the US to end their HS season and still run JO's. In the past, JO Qualifiers were held at Woodward the day after state, making it a lot easier for the high schoolers to double back. As it was, after Fresno, many of us had to drive up to Reno for the quals, and then head right back up for Nationals in 2 weeks...with a quick trip to Mt Sac for FLW tossed in between...

c_fgw said...

I coach a men's D1 program and ran in SJS in the early 90's. It's unfortunate to post a poularity poll with parstisan posts which may influence and important award. As i write this, Hugh Dowdy has 10% of the votes for Nor Cal Runner of the Year which speaks for itself. Are CA awards based on popularity or achievement?

Partsian posts aside, there are two national championships where the best high school runners in the US test themselves vs one another on the same day in the same race. Contrary to opinion on this blog, the elite HS runners I speak with point their season toward FL or Nike or both in addition to their state meets. And as with NCAA finals, if one runner beats another runner head to head at a national championship it's a hollow argument that the vanquished runner had a superior season. When you're weighing the best of the best, this is how it works. If someone argues Stanford men had a better year than OSU men, then he knows little about championship running. I apologize I don't follow the girls being a men's coach, but Garrett Rowe beat Erik Olson by six places at Nike Nationals. I wantched the race which was all out from the gun with the majority of the top boys in the country, all racing head to head. Rowe and Olson did not race haed to head at CA state and the D2 race was tactical, with the deep field weighing each other for two miles and kicking in a tremendouse last mile. Comparing times between D2 and D3 races is apples and oranges. I admire both runners, but Rowe beat Olson decisively head to head at the national championship earning the only All-American award by any boy from Northern California. And it's a fallacious argument to state either of these boys don't focus on national level racing based on history.

I cannot imagine hearing " Congratulations Mr Rowe on being the only All-American from Northern California. Oh, and further congrats on being voted runner-up for Nor Cal runner of the Year!" It defies logic and I hope such an award is handed out by people who understand and honor the sport and not some partisan opinion poll.

Anonymous said...

Dear Coach who-ever-you-are: This blog has always had much more of an NCS bias and followers which may explain the voting. The fact is there are two All-Americans, Rowe and Garcia. The choice would seem plain and simple to a D1 college coach but this is CA running!

It will be a farce if these two are not selected as Runners of the Year but there is a very good chance it will happen as stuff like this appears political with no guideline. They may give it to Taylor because she had a good career and is tall and pretty or maybe give it to Olson because Rowe got it last year. Like pee wee baseball where everyone gets a trophy

college xc dude said...

"They may give it to Taylor because she had a good career and is tall and pretty or maybe give it to Olson because Rowe got it last year. Like pee wee baseball where everyone gets a trophy" Ha ha SO TRUE!!

why is there even debate on this?

Anonymous said...

Why not Nacouzi for Norcal runner of the year? Has performed well all season...

Anonymous said...

Nike Nationals, Footlocker/Kinney or Junior Olympics are not the NCAA (though they want you to think they are). The University/College teams that compete at NCAA's are affiliated with the NCAA. No California High School has any affiliation with Nike, Footlocker or JO's. The California State meet should carry more weight. The NCAA does not pick their All-Americans by weighing results from the Boulder/Boulder. I will applaud the high school coach how tells Nike no thanks, our season is long enough and we just ran our best race at the California State championships. It is a better meet anyway.

Anonymous said...

1 Rowe
2 Olson
3 Myjer
4 Ruegg
5 Kigar
6 Byers
7 Summers

Rowe is the obvious runner of the year not sure about the class awards

Anonymous said...

I TOTALLY agree with the D1 Coach - this discussion should NOT be open up to all the runners, parents, grandparents, etc out there. The coaches, or some sort of official group or committee, should be the ones to vote - without listening to what all US (yes I am a parent saying this) say.

Albert Caruana said...

In regards to who gets to vote on the All NorCal XC team, there will be coaches that will represent all sections that are part of Northern California.

I asked for everybody's opinion before I make my own votes for the team. Why shouldn't athletes, parents, coaches or whoever wants to chime in on this subject have a say in this forum?

I think it's been very informative to hear so many different opinions on who belongs on the team.

I look forward to more discussion on this topic.

Anonymous said...

Is Nacouzi Hispanic? Hispanic runners rising up...

Anonymous said...

It might be better, next time, to not put the vote tool up, since some people may think the award is based on who wins that vote - or at least let people know you are just asking for their opinion and the coaches are the ones who actually vote on it.

Then it also might be nice, next time, to let everyone know what criteria the award is based on - since a lot of the back and forth is about what the criteria should be, like what race is deemed the most important, etc, etc.

Just some thoughts. I too find it interesting to see what people have to say.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, guys like MacQuitty, Moriarty, and Summers really ate it at state but I think that at least Summers and Moriarty should get consideration for first team. Summers ran the amazing 14:41 at CCS and Moriarty had a sub-15 at CCS too ( about 14:59.1) but unfortunantly ran in the D3 race where it got taken out in 4:35. Watch them during track, I think sub 9 for each. By the way.. whoever thinks Heath Reedy is norcal is way off.

Anonymous said...

Jordan Hasay is norcal

Albert Caruana said...

For the All-NorCal Teams, we include the following sections:

Northern Section
Sac-Joaquin Section
North Coast Section
Central Coast Section
Oakland
San Francisco

Jordan Hasay is actually in Oregon.

Anonymous said...

hahaha OWNED!

Anonymous said...

Actually Jordan Hasay is back in San Luis Obispo for winter break.

And anything Santa Barbara and above is typically considered Norcal because of the mountain range that is there. This is generally thought to be the boundary between Norcal and Socal. Sure, Norcal may have more land, but the population events out.

Anonymous said...

So, we have determined that the Central Section will be counted as NorCal? I thought earlier it was stated that it wasn't? Hmm..okay, that changes things.

Anonymous said...

CS is definitely not norcal. Can't say I ever saw schwartz or hasay or De La Salle or Mariner or Artichoke. I could list a few more, but my point is that to be in norcal, you have to run in norcal.

Jason J said...

Boys
First Team
Olson -
Rowe - SrOY
Myjer
Kigar - JOY
Byers
Summers
Ruegg

Second
Dowdy
McQuitty
W Strum
L Signore (Lynbrook)
J Bickert (CP)
Halsted (Davis)
Milechman

Third
Luna (Piner) - So.OY
Rosas (Grace Davis)
Zellman (Ukiah)
C Perkins (Alameda)
Moriarty
Schuh
N Strum

R Ho FrOY

Anonymous said...

It a done deal... Garcia wins the popularity vote! In the past three hours she get more than 50 votes!!!

I taking a wild quess... but, I beleive a globel e-mail was sent to family and friends? Where are these votes coming from... I'm now questioning the sportmentship of Garcia.

Albert, next year use a different format...

Julie N. from Santa Rosa should be Runner of the year anyway!!!

Bad form all around.

Albert Caruana said...

If somebody wants to go through the trouble of voting 50 times...more power to them.

Unfortunately the blogger poll allows for that to happen.

It's not going to sway my vote.

Anonymous said...

This discussion is interesting. So far we have people saying:

If Garcia doesn't win Norcal runner of the year it's a farce

If Nacouzi doesn't win Norcal runner of the year it's a joke

If Taylor doesn't win Norcal runner of the year it's a stupid mistake

So who's right?

Albert Caruana said...

Those are the three candidates and I think you can make a case for each of those girls as the NorCal runner of the year.

For the boys, it's between Olson and Rowe.

Anonymous said...

the stand out comment i read was from a college coach a few days ago. we're talking about the best runners in Nor Cal / Cal, national caliber runners all. the national championships, Footlocker and Nike is where every viable Nor Cal candidate (2 boys and three girls) went head to head in the toughest race of the season.

i agree with the coach and other sentiments that these are the determining races and anything else is just a tie breaker, like one candidate ran FL and the other ran Nike and had comparable performances so you need to look backward. Didn't happen this year.

Anonymous said...

We haven't had many athlete interviews lately. It would be nice to have some interviews with some of norcal's top cc runners (like all those interviews after track season). Just a suggestion.

Albert Caruana said...

Working on it. I have some time off now that school is on break. Some of the athletes that have been mentioned have already been interviewed. You can go back and see those interviews at the following link:
http://albertcaruana.blogspot.com/search/label/Athlete%20Interviews

If you have an athlete that you would like to see interviewed, let me know.

Thanks.

NORCAL bystander said...

Not that this should matter, but i heard that Olson was racing on a screwed up ankle at Nationals...possibly factors into the not so great race. Rowe still ran fantastic though and whoever wins runner of the year deserves it, i just thought that i would mention being injured for nats had to have sucked but still, both Rowe and Olson had amazing years representing NORCAL!!!

Anonymous said...

I heard the same thing, Olsen turned his ankle jumping over one of the bales of hay. One of the kids in my car was texting him
on our way back from footlocker. Bales of hay? Mt Sac is a real cross country course.

Anonymous said...

How about Theresa Devine? After all, she did finish right behind Julie Nacouzi and ahead of Jacque Taylor at Footlocker... not saying Norcal runner of the year, but she definitely deserves some mention.

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