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National High School Boys Team Rankings - 12/8 FinalPublished by
Newbury Park Completes Four-Year Stretch As Nation's Top High School Cross Country Team By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor Even on a weekend when things went a little bit haywire for Newbury Park, the firm of Sahlman, Youngs & Co. showed the tremendous margin for error that it maintains over the field at Nike Cross Nationals. Newbury Park, on a better day, could have gone 1-2-3. It didn't, and Aaron Sahlman got his first win in a high school cross country race as the Panthers broke the meet record with 66 points. Challenging days for Leo Young and Lex Young, and an illness for fifth man Dev Doshi, was not enough to derail the team. Not even close. As a result, Newbury Park is an easy, proven, pick for No. 1 to close the 2022 high school cross country season. The rest of the Top 30 adheres pretty closely to the results of Nike Cross Nationals and also takes some consideration for the results of the Garming RunningLane Championships in Alabama. NXN did not validate some of the outstanding seasons that were turned in by teams like Christian Brothers of New Jersey or Southlake Carroll of Texas. Illness and injury caught up to them at the wrong time. Oregon became the seventh state in the NTN/NXN era to place two teams in the top four of the championship race. It's actually happened 10 times, and Oregon is one of the smallest by population to do it (Jesuit finished second, Crater was fourth). Utah accomplished the feat in 2016 and New Mexico landed two in the top three 2007. The top seven teams at NXN came from three states -- California, Oregon and Utah. A trio from Illinois finished eighth (Hinsdale Central), 11th (Downers Grove North) and 14th (Plainfield South). Two teams that ascended higher than anyone would have predicted a month ago were Herriman of Utah, coached by Doug Soles, and Great Oak of California, the program Soles left after leading the Wolfpack to six combined boys and girls podium finishes. Great Oak had fallen out of the Top 30 due to tepid early season performances. And Herriman, which won Sept. 16 at the 41st Woodbridge Cross Country Classic before dipping to fourth at the Utah 6A state meet, closed with a flourish to almost catch Jesuit for second at NXN. Noah Jenkins and William Horne ran brilliantly to earn All-America honors and capture the fifth and sixth points in the team scoring. One team that was left out of NXN that seemed to belong there was Rocky Mountain, which turned in the greatest season ever by an Idaho team. Rocky Mountain was a top-10 program that took third at the NXR Northwest Regional behind Jesuit and Crater. Based on the team's proximity to those two teams alone, Rocky Mountain fits at 10. The team's top runner, Landon Heemeyer, will race at the Champs Sports Cross Country Championships on Dec. 10 in San Diego. A couple of other teams that were overlooked for the NXN field, McCallie School of Tennessee, Dowling Catholic of Iowa and Rock Bridge of Missouri, are also deserving of spots in the final rankings. Riverton of Utah, fifth at the NXR Southwest meet, ran considerably better to win the gold race Dec. 3 at RunningLane, one of four teams in that meet to make it inside the Top 30. Jesuit of New Orleans, ranked as high as No. 2 after its impressive win at the Nike XC Town Twilight in Indiana, and a record-breaking 15-point performance at the Louisiana State Meet, took a tumble with its fourth-place finish in Alabama. As with a couple of other teams that landed with a thud on the final day, Jesuit's final ranking feels a bit unfortunate. The team's No. 1 runner, Jack Des Roches, did not finish the race in Alabama.
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