Sanger Boys
Sometimes you just have to wait your turn when you're a young team, and I think it's Sanger's turn in the Central Section Division 2 race this winter. After missing out on a state meet berth by a scant 17 points last year, the Apaches return their top 6 runners. That includes the junior duo of Emanuel Salas and David Deloera, who both have a chance to improve significantly over their strong 2019 seasons.
Senior Jayden Olea heads the Sanger pack, followed by classmates Adrian Cuellar and Benjamin Awad - they are separated by only 23 seconds by PR's. The runner that intrigues me the most on this team is sophomore Myles Nicacio, who ran top 7 for the Apaches last fall. If he can develop into a top 5 runner (and his age makes that likely), then this team could do more than just make the state meet this winter.
That spells out a strong top 6, which might be enough to succeed this winter, but depth is a serious issue behind that lead group. Sanger needs some 18-minute runners to develop into high-16's runners to reinforce the varsity squad, and that's a tall order for any team. Since my Improvement Rating metric takes finish at the state meet into account, this team doesn't score well - but they have made very consistent progress in their top 5 average over each of the last 3 seasons ( As constructed, the Apaches are a dark horse candidate to be top 10 in Division 2, and with one more strong varsity runner they could be better than that.
