NXN-South Pre-Season Regional Outlook

Boys Region History at NXN (2007-2011) –

Auto-Qualifiers:

2011: 95 Southlake Carroll TX (#2), 430 The Woodlands TX (#21)
2010: 267 Lewisville Marcus TX (#10), 373 Southlake Carroll TX (#17)
2009: 195 Boerne Champion TX (#1), 207 The Woodlands TX (#3)
2008: 197 The Woodlands TX (#4), 223 Cedar Park TX (#8)
2007: 197 The Woodlands TX (#4), 338 Southlake Carroll TX (#15)

At-Large Teams:

2010: 407 The Woodlands TX (#20)
2009: 289 Cedar Park TX (#11)
2007: 360 Rogers AR (#16)

2012 Boys Pre-Season Rankings:

1. Southlake Carroll TX – 2011 NXN Nationals Runner-up, NXN-South Champion and Texas 5A State Champion returns four of seven

2. The Woodlands TX – 2011 NXN Nationals 21^st place squad, NXN-South Runner-up and Texas 5A State fifth place squad returns three of seven

3. Houston Strake Jesuit TX – 2011 NXN-South tenth place and Texas 5A State Runner-up squad returns five of seven

4. Cedar Park TX – 2011 NXN-South fourth place and Texas 4A State Runner-up returns four of seven

5. The Woodlands College Park TX – 2011 NXN-South fifth place and Texas 5A State third place squad returns four of seven

Honorable Mention:  Bentonville AR, El Paso Eastwood TX, Humble Kingwood TX, Lewisville Hebron TX

 

Synopsis: As usual, the traditional powers of The Woodlands and Southlake Carroll sit atop the rankings as potential US Top-10 type teams (and Southlake Carroll as a potential national champion). Chasing those two programs is another pair of recently strong programs in Strake Jesuit (5A state runner-up last year), Cedar Park (4A state runner up last year), and College Park (5A state third place last year). Cedar Park recently qualified for back-to-back trips to Portland, finishing eighth in 2008 and 11^th in 2009.

 

 

Girls Region History at NXN (2007-2011) –

Auto-Qualifiers:

2011: 207 Southlake Carroll TX (#7), 399 Humble Kingwood TX (#17)
2010: 439 The Woodlands TX (#19), 489 Southlake Carroll TX (#22)
2009: 362 Humble Kingwood TX (#16), 467 Southlake Carroll TX (#22)
2008: 301 The Woodlands TX (#13), 454 Cinco Ranch TX (#20)
2007: 344 Southlake Carroll TX (#18), 585 Keller TX (#22)

At-Large Teams:

2008: 421 Vista Ridge TX (#18), 495 Kingwood Park TX (#22)

 2012 Girls Pre-Season Rankings:

1. The Woodlands TX – 2011 NXN-South fourth place and Texas 5A State sixth place squad returns six of seven

2. Southlake Carroll TX – 2011 NXN Nationals seventh place squad, NXN-South Champion and Texas 5A State Champion returns two of seven

3. Lewisville Flower Mound TX – 2011 NXN-South fifth place and Texas 5A State third place squad returns all seven

4. Dallas Highland Park TX – 2011 Texas 4A State Champion returns all seven

5. The Woodlands College Park TX – 2011 NXN-South third place and Texas 5A State fourth place squad returns five of seven

Honorable Mention:  Canyon TX, Cedar Park TX, Houston Cy-Fair TX, Humble Kingwood TX, Justin Northwest TX, Katy TX, Klein TX, Lewisville Hebron TX, Lewisville Marcus TX

 

Synopsis: After a strong spring, The Woodlands looks like they might be the team to beat for the South title, but three-time defending champion Southlake Carroll has been in this situation before and come out on top regardless. Behind those two, Flower Mound and Highland Park both appear to be national quality teams, with College Park nearly there as well. On paper, this looks to be a stronger and deeper field than in the past several years and fortuitously coincides with Texas’ switch from 3200m races to 5000m races in cross country for its 4A and 5A classifications (which includes all of the teams in the pre-season regional rankings). A sincere thank you to the folks in Texas for making that change happen! It is great to see such a strong and important state match the national standard, both as a fan of the sport and an individual that attempts to make sense of it all in the form of rankings.