This week, we're taking a closer look at one of California's most notorious courses: Frogtown in Angel's Camp, the site of the CIF Sac Joaquin Sub-Sectionals this Saturday. Tucked away in the foothills of the Stanislaus National Forest, the course is already a strange choice for a championship qualifying meet if you just consider travel time for most SJS schools. If you also factor in the difficulty of the course, it becomes even more unusual. Frogtown essentially serves to weed out teams prior to the SJS finals - it's arguably the toughest championship course in the state (although I still think back-to-back weekends at Mt. SAC take a bigger toll on Southern Section teams than the one weekend at Frogtown does for the SJS).
So, exactly how slow is the Frogtown course? According to the Lynbrook course converter tool, it's 30 seconds slower than Crystal Springs and Mt. SAC for a 15:00 runner (35 seconds slower for an 18:00 athlete). The XC Stats course converter is even more extreme: it says that a 16:00 run at Frogtown is equivalent to clocking 14:15 at Woodward Park, which seems a little extreme.
Let's dig a little deeper into this unusual course, using a few statistical tools at our disposal.