Loudoun Valley, Great Oak, F-M Go Into NXN As Top Three

By Paul Schmitz of DyeStat

There are familiar names in the top three of the final national rankings before NXN. Loudoun Valley VA starts and finishes the year ranked No. 1 and perennial national powers Great Oak CA and Fayetteville-Manlius NY round out the top three. 

NXR South turned out to be insanely tight as advertised. Class 5A Texas state champions El Paso Eastwood overwhelmed the top 6A schools at the finish line with an amazing 11-second 1-5 spread and earned a first trip to NXN. Eastwood actually had the fourth-fastest 1-5 runner average but the compact pack made up the difference. Class 6A powerhouses Southlake Carroll (56-second spread), Flower Mound (93-second spread) and The Woodlands (73-second spread) all had faster 1-5 averages than Eastwood, but had too many points piled onto their Nos. 4 and 5 runners. Southlake Carroll earned its ninth straight trip to NXN with a second-place finish. Flower Mound and The Woodlands are likely on the outside looking in when at-large bids are announced in two weeks.  

As close as the South was, the Midwest was equally tight. Hersey IL finished three points ahead of Illinois 3A state champion Wheaton Warrenville South, 10 points ahead of York IL and 16 points ahead of Neuqua Valley IL. Both Hersey and Wheaton Warrenville South earned first bids to NXN. It will be interesting to see how the at-large committee views York. The Dukes did not have a great regular season resume, but they peaked at the end of the season. An at-large bid would be the 10th trip to Portland for the storied program. 

The big two of Dakota Ridge CO, Austin Vancil and Connor Ohlson knocked off the big three of American Fork UT -- Luke Grundvig, Carson Clinger and Dalton Brems -- at NXR Southwest as the Colorado state champions earned their first trip to NXN. American Fork held on to second place and will make a ninth trip to Portland. Mountain Vista CO has a great chance of securing one of the four at-large NXN bids with a third-place finish running close to the two high nationally ranked teams, bolstered by the varsity debut of Easton Allred, who placed second overall.

Boys Top 30

1. Loudoun Valley VA

2. Great Oak CA

3. Fayetteville-Manlius NY

4. Dakota Ridge CO

5. Newbury Park CA

6. Christian Brothers Academy NJ

7. American Fork UT

8. Hersey IL

9. La Salle Academy RI

10. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake NY

11. The Bolles School FL

12. Wheaton Warrenville South IL

13. Kamiakin WA

14. Mountain Vista CO

15. Dana Hills CA

16. Bishop Hendricken RI

17. Mounds View MN

18. York IL

19. Central Valley WA

20. Dublin CA

21. Weddington NC

22. Haddonfield Memorial NJ

23. El Paso Eastwood TX

24. Middleton WI

25. La Costa Canyon CA

26. Lewis and Clark WA

27. Edina MN

28. Claremont CA

29. Southlake Carroll TX

30. Neuqua Valley IL