Lancermania
Lancers lead the way!
Believe it or not, I put St. Xavier's team in the DII race at state, and they both score 51 points. St. Xavier would have gone 2-4-12-14-19 while Woodridge would have gone 5-6-7-16-17. Amazing!
St. Xavier vs. Woodridge - Who is better?
- Thread starter Lancermania
- Start date
Newton's Third
Well-known member
And I took where Woodridge times would have fallen in D1 without adjusting other placings, so not exact, and they would have finished 3rd. The depth of finishers in D1 prior to Woodrigde's 5th makes quite a difference. If those two teams run about the same at NXR I assume depth of finishers around 16:00-16:20 will hurt them again.
This makes sense but putting runners into a hypothetical and trying to see there they place based on times is speculative at best. I would believe that being in a field in which the runners are a bit faster would more than likely pull runners along and mean that their placing might be a little higher.
Lancermania
Lancers lead the way!
I screwed up. I actually used Mason's times and not St. Xavier's in the DII race, That's what I get for working on several projects at the same time. So the bottom line here is that Mason would have tied W at 51, not X
Newton's Third
Well-known member
I agree with you. I also believe being toward the front of a race is motivating compared to being back with throngs of runners but every case is unique so like you said it is speculative at best and just wrong at worst.
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
True but on the flip side having more runners around mean having to weave in and out of them and possibly having to go a little wider on turns all of which would increase their race time because of having to run a little extra. These are things a virtual meet can't take into account.
I guess that I should have clarified my statement a little better. I was actually thinking about if Woodridge ran I the OHSAA D1 race and Lancermania's original post. The D1 & D2 fields should have been about the same size, right.
I can see how you may have thought that I was referring to NXR.
Mr. Slippery
Well-known member
CC Track Fan has a point.
Race sizes would be similar at state, but positioning of runners would be different. DI races tend to go out very hard. There likely would have been more bodies to fight through at the front of the DI field (e.g. runners who were under 5:00 at the 1 mile mark). I'm too lazy to go back and see what the runners' splits were at the mile mark to see if Woodridge's positioning in the DI field would've put them well behind X. and Mason early in the race.
They're all going to race each other this weekend though, right? We'll get a definitive answer to the question posed in the thread title.
Runningfast
Active member
Mason's Johan Meyer is listed as a competitor at the Mideast Meet of Champions Saturday, so he won't be lining up with this teammates at NXR (unless he has a teleportation device to get to Terre Haute quick, fast, and in a hurry). That will significantly change Mason's chances.
Lancermania
Lancers lead the way!
I just don't think the NXR means a whole lot to Mason, but does to St. Xavier. They qualified to Portland for two straight years when Mike Dehring was head coach.
ccrunner609
Active member
agreed....first half of the course is down hill.
Newton's Third
Well-known member
I know I am stating the obvious to those on this site who know the sport but comparisons at this level are difficult at best. Many high school kids are shooting for the state meet all summer and season. Some coaches try to put NXR or NB in track in the equation but every team and individual handles it differently in addition to the two extra weeks of practice and focus which is monumental for some. It seems more common than not that one or more team members have a big let down at NXR or NB after a successful state meet. The truly outstanding individuals usually fare the best possibly because they can win state without a major focus or effort compared to NXR. Maybe the other states just have better teams this year but they might have been aiming for this ahead of state, approached it differently, or just had a better day. Next year might be very different.