By Michael Newman

TFX National Director

[email protected]

Notes – So why Great Oak CA at the top spot in this week’s list?

Boise ID surprised many of us winning on their home turf last Saturday at the Bob Firman Invitational ahead of Great Oak. Maggie Liebich led her team with a third-place finish. The Braves had a 59 second split on their top five good enough to finish 10 points ahead of Great Oak. Boise moves from #11 to #3. Boise gets another test this Friday at the Nike Desert Twilight XC Festival outside of Phoenix.

It would have been easy to move Great Oak off the top national spot. We need to look at the big picture. The Wolfpack were led by a 1-2 finish from Tori Gaitan and Arianna Griffiths with their top four runners in the top 22.

Their fifth runner lost her shoe at the beginning of the race according to Coach Doug Soles. That’s not the reason why the Wolfpack stay on top. Their performance at Dana Hills did have a say as junior Aubrey Nex led the team to a win with a sixth-place finish. Her speed rating, along with the top six team runners in that race from Great Oak, demonstrated the team’s depth that they could have all run in the fifth spot. Their depth is impressive. We should get a demonstration of that in future races.

The Saturday Night Lights Meet in Centerville, Ohio gave us another shake-up in the top 35 list as Beavercreek OH edged host Centerville by one point for the team championship. Beavercreek looked strong through four runners led by the individual win from All-American Taylor Ewert. The split from the fourth to the fifth runner in that race was 66 seconds. That could cause problems when we get to the post season in November. Centerville put all of their scorers in the top 50 led by Emma Bucher’s second-place finish nine seconds behind Ewert.

The big race to watch this weekend will be the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis as Illinois schools Naperville North, Yorkville, and Downers Grove South face off against Minnesota power Wayzata.