Southlake Carroll boys step up in team battle
My most shocking performance of NXN 2016 goes to the boys squad from Southlake Carroll. The only time that Southlake made the nation's top-25 team rankings was during the preseason and the September 9th update. When looking at their resume for the season compared to other nationally ranked teams, it isn't very impressive.
They went to Woodbridge in September and finished back in 6th place of the sweepstakes race, getting beaten by a mix of powerhouse programs and relatively unheard of teams from a national standpoint. They ran at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival on October 1st and just barely won over the Lafayette team from Missouri who would go on to finish 12th at the Midwest regional. Besides that, they raced the Woodlands at the Texas state meet and the South regional. I ignore the South results because the Woodlands ran without Hunsdale and their whole team had an off day. At the state meet, Woodlands won by a significant 70 point margin over Southlake in a field that wasn't too strong.
Based on objective speed ratings, they were projected to place 18th at NXN. Edina was the only team that Southlake beat that had a worse projected finish.
All of these things point to a team that will no doubt get an All-American finish from their lead man, but struggle against the NXN field as a team.
The 11th place finish from the unranked Texas team is even more impressive when you look at the teams they beat.
12 - Downers Grove North (US #12)
13 - St. Xavier (US #9)
14 - Dana Hills (US #16)
15 - Springville (US #14)
16 - Cathedral Catholic (2nd in CA State Merge behind Great Oak)
17 - Mahomet Seymour (US #13)
18 - Edina (US #17)
Reed Brown turned on the jets to move from somewhere around 12-15 at the top of the finish straight to 6th place at the line. His team executed a solid race plan and held on to their positions in the tough conditions on Saturday. They were 10th at the mile mark and 11th at the two mile.
Southlake's gap behind the Woodlands at NXN was 61 points. This is an important indicator because NXN is obviously a much better race than the Texas state championships, but Southlake managed to close the gap to their Texas counterparts.
They were just 17 points behind the tenth place group from Wayzata (US #6). I personally would never have picked Southlake to be anywhere near that close to the top 10 going into the meet, and that's why they are my biggest surprise of NXN 2016.
Pre-meet interview with Southlake Carroll:
