It's time to get fired up for cross country! Our traditional XC countdown is back, although it may look a little different this time around - our longtime data analyst Jeff George has moved on, leaving this energizing project to the MileSplit team in CA. Our collective goal is to briefly highlight 30 boys and 30 girls teams that we think will have an impact this fall. We will spotlight one team per gender per day over a 30-day period. Similar to past countdowns, we will provide a cross-sampling of teams from all 10 sections without regard to statewide or even division ranking (those will come later, as will articles previewing each section, and returning athletes to watch). As always, if you catch an error or have updated information for us, email CA state editor Jeffrey Parenti (jeffrey.parenti@flosports.tv) and we'll make the corrections.
Grossmont (SD/Division II)
The search is on for a No. 5 runner but the Foothillers have one of the San Diego Section's top 1-2 punches with Ian Rosen and Russell Blakely. Rosen (15:37.2 in the SDS final), who made the victory stand at State with his seventh-place finish (15:37.2), leads the way and except at State, Blakely (15:43.4 in sectionals) was right there with him as they went 2-4 in the SDS championships, separated by seven seconds.
Rosen went on to run a 1:55.12 for 800m and 4:24.03 for 1600m while Blakely went 4:25.67 for 1600 and 9:24.08 for 3200m.
Behind them, Joshua Edwards was eighth in the section at 15:56.6 with Mason Coyle in the top 15 at 16:16.2. Senior Miles Ramey and sophomore Brian Stevens also return and the Foothillers are hoping others step up or maybe some help from last year's JV team emerge.
Those gaps were on display at State where Grossmont finished ninth overall.
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2021 Returning times on 3-mile courses
| Grossmont (SD) | ||||
| 1) Russell Blakely | 14:35.00 | 11 | ||
| 2) Ian Rosen | 14:35.00 | 12 | ||
| 3) Joshua Edwards | 14:54.00 | 28 | ||
| 4) Mason Coyle | 15:49.00 | 184 | ||
| 5) Miles Ramey | 16:35.00 | 461 | ||
| Average Time: 15:17.60 Total Time: 1:16:28.00 1-5 Split: 2:00.00 | ||||
| 6) Jonah Edwards | 17:34.00 | 842 | ||
Scoring is against all returning boys in CA.
Steve Brand is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to MileSplit.
Photos by Angel Pena