William Longenbaugh and Ryan Lesansee will be back for Albuquerque Academy in the fall, and it looks as if the Chargers will be tough to handle once again. Contributed photo.
If you want to know what this fall's cross country campaign will look like, the two best places to look are last year's cross country results and this spring's 3200 rankings. So, we'll do exactly that.
The ordered list of last year's returning finishers (top 50 only) from last year's state meet looks like this (athletes for whom I do not have a grade are marked with a question mark):
3 Nick Hill Los Alamos 16:46.00 2
4 Sean Reardon Los Alamos 16:47.50 3
No matter how you look at the rankings above, you have to come to the conclusion that the advantage belongs to Los Alamos. But, bear in mind that Los Alamos exceeded expectations at the state meet while Albuquerque Academy picked that particular day to struggle in a big way. Although AA and LA figure to be the main players, this one should end up closer on the course than it currently appears on paper.
It's also worth remembering that, two weeks after last fall's state meet, Albuquerque Academy finished well ahead of Los Alamos at Nike Southwest.
While these two teams, both by reputation and by the records of returning runners' performances, figure to lead the 4A pack, there is a cluster of good teams moving up behind them. These teams would include Piedra Vista, Moriarty (a much improved team in track this spring), St. Pius X, and Miyamura. Belen and Gallup register a nod of recognition as well.
As of this moment, the gap between two and three in 4A is huge. Both Los Alamos and Albuquerque Academy figure to return at least five boys who can finish the course in 17:30 or better. For the rest of these teams, simply filling out the roster with boys who can run low 18s or better has to be the matter of first concern.
In any case, today is the day to be training because summer's window of opportunity closes on an unforgiving calendar.