Newbury Park Trio Lock Down Top Spots To Close Cross Country Season

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Riley Hough's excellent win at the Eastbay Cross Country Championships helped ensure that Newbury Park's top three of Colin Sahlman, Leo Young and Lex Young would hold onto the top three spots in the final ranking of the 2021 cross country season. 

Hough finished behind the Newbury Park trio and at the Garmin RunningLane Championships and the only way to leap-frog them in San Diego was to run an unbelievable time at Balboa Park. 

The one runner who didn't face Newbury Park this year who could have made a case with an Eastbay win was Gavin Sherry of Conard CT, who broke the Van Cortlandt Park course record at the East regional beford taking third in San Diego. 

San Diego native Kenan Pala moved up to the fifth spot thanks to his second-place finish at Eastbay, and beating Sherry and Zane Bergen of Niwot CO, who edged Hough for fourth at RunningLane.

Sahlman and the Young twins are joined by teammates Aaron Sahlman at No. 8 and Daniel Appleford at No. 79. All of it further cements Newbury Park's status as the greatest high school team of distance runners in U.S. history.

The rest of the list is a folding together of top finishers from the two championship races, plus finding spots for top runners who stopped short of the RunningLane and Eastbay meets. Season-ending injuries or blowups caused a few athletes to be held back but did not disqualify them from making the list if they had other achievements of merit. 

The Top 100

1. Colin Sahlman, senior, Newbury Park CA: RunningLane champion; California D1 champion

2. Leo Young, junior, Newbury Park CA: 2nd at RunningLane

3. Lex Young, junior, Newbury Park CA: 3rd at RunningLane

4. Riley Hough, senior, Hartland MI: Eastbay Nationals champion; Eastbay Midwest champion; Michigan D1 champion

5. Kenan Pala, senior, Francis Parker CA: 2nd at Eastbay Nationals

6. Gavin Sherry, senior, Conard CT: 3rd at Eastbay Nationals; Eastbay Northeast champion; Connecticut Open champion

7. Zane Bergen, senior, Niwot CO: 4th at Eastbay Nationals; 4th at RunningLane

8. Aaron Sahlman, junior, Newbury Park CA: 6th at RunningLane

9. Aidan Cox, junior, Coe-Brown Academy NH: 7th at RunningLane; NXR Northeast champion

10. Jackson Barna, senior, Ridge NJ: 8th at RunningLane

11. Kole Mathison, junior, Carmel IN: 5th at Eastbay Nationals; 9th at RunningLane

12. Tyrone Gorze, junior, Crater OR: 6th at Eastbay Nationals; Eastbay West champion; Oregon 5A champion

13. Isaac Teeples, senior, Kamiakin WA: 10th at RunningLane; Washington 4A champion

14. Gary Martin, senior, Archbishop Wood Catholic PA: 11th at RunningLane; Pennsylvania AA champion

15. Tayson Echohawk, junior, Orem UT: 12th at RunningLane

16. Shane Brosnan, senior, Union Catholic NJ: 7th at Eastbay Nationals; 13th at RunningLane

17. Izaiah Steury, senior, Angola IN: 8th at Eastbay Nationals

18. Marco Langon, senior, Bridgewater-Raritan NJ: 9th at Eastbay Nationals

19. Rendon Kuykendall, junior, Hope Christian NM: 14th at RunningLane

20. Emmanuel Sgouros, senior, St. John's TX: 10th at Eastbay Nationals

21. Kevin Sanchez, junior, Austin Vandergrift TX: 11th at Eastbay Nationals

22. Connor McCormick, senior, Longmont CO: 15th at RunningLane

23. Michael Maiorano, senior, South Medford OR: 12th at Eastbay Nationals

24. Aidan Puffer, senior, Manchester CT: 13th at Eastbay Nationals

25. Peter Baracco, senior, Farmington MI: 14tth at Eastbay Natioanals

26. Charlie North, senior, Franklin OR: 15th at Eastbay Nationals

27. Sahil Dodda, senior, St. Mark's Schol TX: 16th at Eastbay Nationals

28. Getachew Hayes, senior, La Salle Institute NY: 17th at Eastbay Nationals; New York Feds champion

29. Jefferson McMullin, senior, Lehi UT: 18th at Eastbay Nationals; NXR Southwest champion; Utah 5A champion

30. Christopher Caudillo, junior, Clovis CA: NXR California champion

31. Jimmy Wischusen, sophomore, Union Catholic NJ: 16th at RunningLane

32. James Crabtree, senior, Sherwood OR: 17th at RunningLane; Oregon 6A champion

33. William Zegarski, senior, Little Miami OH: 18th at RunningLane; Ohio D1 champion

34. Jacob Nenow, junior, Jesuit OR: 19th at RunningLane

35. Rheinhardt Harrison, senior, Nease FL: Florida 4A champion 

36. Jamar Distel, senior, Riverside WA: Washington 1A champion

37. Sam Rich, senior, Catawba Ridge SC: South Carolina 4A champion

38. Jackson Shorten, senior, Mountain View CO: 20th at RunningLane

39. Nick Falk, senior, Winnetka (New Trier) IL: 19th at Eastbay Nationals

40. Danny Simmons, sophomore, Salmon ID: 21st at RunningLane

41. Abe Eckman, senior, Jasper IN: 22nd at RunningLane

42. Luke Athay, sophomore, Idaho Falls ID: 20th at Eastbay Nationals

43. Ethan Coleman, senior, Olympia WA: NXR Northwest champion 

44. Larry Josh Edwards, senior, University WV: West Virginia champion

45. Knox Exton, senior, Cheyenne Mountain CO: 23rd at RunningLane

46. Andrew Hauser, sophomore, Rock Bridge MO: 25th at RunningLane; NXR Midwest champion; Missouri 5 champion

47. Aiden Smith, senior, Lincoln OR: 26th at RunningLane

48. Zachary Ayers, senior, Davis CA: 21st at Eastbay Nationals

49. Aidan Ross, junior, Uxbridge MA: Massachusetts D3 champion

50. Zack Munson, junior, Sehome WA: 27th at RunningLane

51. Liam Heninger, junior, Mountain View UT: 28th at RunningLane

52. Kaden Levings, junior, Cheyenne Mountain CO: 29th at RunningLane

53. Max Girardet, senior, Central Catholic OR: 30th at RunningLane

54. Alex Mader, senior, Lick Wilmerding CA: 2nd Place California D5

55. Erik Le Roux, senior, Cheyenne Mountain CO: USATF Junior Olympic Champion; 35th at RunningLane

56. Max Sannes, senior, Big Bear CA: 22nd at Eastbay Nationals

57. Ethan Ashley, senior, Denmark GA: 23rd at Eastbay Nationals; Eastbay South champion; Georgia 7A champion

58. Michael Bolke, senior, Newington CT: 24th at Eastbay Nationals

59. Luke Venhuizen, senior, Traverse City Central MI: 25th at Eastbay Nationals

60. Luke Anthony, senior, East Lyme CT: 26th at Eastbay Nationals

61. Myles Hogan, senior, Fordham Prep NY: 27th at Eastbay Nationals

62. Owen McArdle, senior, Yorktown VA: 28th at Eastbay Nationals; Virginia 6A champion

63. Samuel Burgess, junior, Framingham MA: 29th at Eastbay Nationals; Massachusetts D1 champion

64. Michael Toppi, senior, Viera (Melbourne) FL: 30th at Eastbay Nationals

65. Gabe Hinrichs, senior, Elkhorn South NE: 31st at Eastbay Nationals; NXR Heartland champion; Nebraska A champion

66. Byron Grevious, sophomore, Phillips Exeter NH: 32nd at RunningLane

67. Sage Wilde, sophomore, Liberty North MO: 33rd at RunningLane

68. Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, senior, Columbus North IN: 34th at RunningLane; Indiana champion

69. Cooper Quigley, senior, Selah WA: 36th at RunningLane; Washington 2A champion

70. Bryce Reeburgh, senior, Golden CO: 37th at RunningLane 

71. Caleb Jarema, senior, Pinckney MI: 32nd at Eastbay Nationals; Michigan D2 champion

72. Hunter Jones, junior, Benzie Central MI: 33rd at Eastbay Nationals; Michigan D3 champion

73. Ferenc Kovacs, sophomore, Woodberry Forest VA: 34th at Eastbay Nationals; Virginia Independent champion

74. Callum Sherry, senior, Conard CT: 3rd at New Englands

75. Logan Marek, senior, Ironwood Ridge AZ: 38th at RunningLane

76. Damian Frausto, senior, Durango CO: 39th at RunningLane

77. Jayden Fitzgarrald, senior, American Fork UT: 40th at RunningLane

78. Eric Sankey, senior, Fairview CO: 41st at RunningLane

79. Daniel Appleford, senior, Newbury Park CA: 42nd at RunningLane

80. Caden Hildenbrand, senior, Jesuit OR: 43rd at RunningLane

81. Keegan Smith, freshman, Knoxville Catholic TN: 35th at Eastbay Nationals; Tennessee D2 AA champion

82. Edward Blaha, senior, Pace Academy GA: 44th at RunningLane; Georgia 2A champion

83. Mark Trammell, senior, Santa Fe Christian CA: 36th at Eastbay Nationals

84. Patrick Koon, sophomore, Leon FL: 37th at Eastbay Nationals; Florida 3A champion

85. Jack Gregorski, senior, Corning-Painted Post NY: 38th at Eastbay Nationals; New York A champion

86. Michael Julian, senior, The York School CA: 2nd at NXR California

87. Micah Wilson, senior, St. Charles (East) IL: Illinois 3A champion

88. Caden Carney, senior, Tamalpais CA: California D3 champion

89. Nathan Solomon, senior, Shiloh GA: 39th at Eastbay Nationals

90. Caleb Lakeman, senior, Tualatin OR: 40th at Eastbay Nationals

91. Walker St. John, senior, Grapevine TX: Texas 5A champion

92. Alexander Partlow, senior, Carbondale IL: Illinois 2A champion

93. Hudson Heikkinen, senior, Plano West TX: 4th at NXR South

94. Noah Breker, junior, Robbinsdale Armstrong MN: 2nd at NXR Heartland

95. Connor Burns, junior, Southern Boone MO: Missouri 3 champion

96. Wes Shipsey, junior, Central Catholic OR: 2nd Oregon 6A meet

97. Carson Noecker, junior, Hartington-Newcastle NE: Nebraska C champion

98. Grady Mylander, senior, Nampa Christian ID: Idaho 2A champion

99. Logan Seger, senior, St. Thomas Aquinas KS: 3rd at NXR Heartland; Kansas 5A champion

100. Owen Shifflett, junior, Western Albemarle VA: NXR Southeast champion