As great as the CPS as a group has been there is still much MUCH more room to grow.
Just in the last two years we've seen a CPS team or individual win state in the 4x800 (Lane Tech), win state as a team in XC (Jones), place in state in the 1600 (Jamison Dale), advance to state 2 years in a row for class 3A cross country (Lane Tech), break the all time 1600 meter record (Dale), place 2nd in state in 800 (Malik Lee of Brooks). All of those results were seemingly impossible just a few years ago (see 2009 vs 2013).
As great as those accomplishments are, I feel the CPS still has much more potential to grow in the distance arena.
What's next?
Whitney Young, as good as they are already will be much better with their young runners. Whitney Young looked really good at the frosh-soph level last season as the Dolphins placed all 7 of their runners in the top 17 of the CPS Sophomore Cross Country meet. That's more than even Lane and surprisingly Jones. AS long as those and some other other runners continue to develop, the should be challenging for a class 3A state berth in the near future.
Payton has a good batch of distance runners. Payton had 4 sophomores run 5:02 or better in the 1600 meters in track. I see a day as early as next season where they have 5 runners running 3 miles in the 16's.
Hubbard and Curie have improved their distance programs the past few years. They went from being practically no where in distance a few years ago to at least being a factor. With a good summer program and continued building of frosh-soph programs, they could both take it to next level. Some school in the southwest side of Chicago could take that next step. Next season we'll see if these southwest side schools (and Kennedy) will go in that direction.
Kennedy and Foreman had some great teams in the past - early 2000's. The talent is at those schools. Could their coaching take them at least a step closer to past glory? Kennedy has Bryan Quinonez(jr) returning. He placed 27th at the CPS cross country meet with a great time of 16:14. Will Kennedy surround Quinonez with enough to make Kennedy competitive?
What about Von Steuben, Lincoln Park, Taft? Three northside schools with so much distance potential. All are located in nice neighborhoods with great areas for distance running. All have good coaches. I feel the ingredients are there. All three have some good distance runners, they just need more of them. Of the three schools, I feel that Taft will open eyes the most this coming cross country season. They are already doing it on the girls side with two top 11 all-city cross country runners returning. The girls have given Taft belief. As long as they train over the summer and get their returning distance guys from track to run cross country, you'll see a much better showing from Taft than having their 5th man running 19:10.
What about the south side? Kenwood, Calumet, Englewood, Phillips, CVS have all had some cross country in decades past. When will a coach come in there and revive them.
The next frontier in the CPS distance running evolution could be in the smaller schools. Jones showed that a small school situated in the south loop not near parks can make a program. The CPS has so many small schools particularly in the charters schools that with a right coach could make some strides. Charter Schools like UIC, Bulls, Johnson College Prep, Ford, and North Lawndale have shown progress in track, can they do something in cross country?
Heck, even Lane Tech and Jones can improve in the distance arena. Lane's frosh soph guys looked surprisingly not as deep at last fall's CPS cross country meet. I saw some improvement in the depth arena for Lane in track, but even with a school as big as Lane, recruiting and developing young talent is still a challenge and requires lot's of constant attention and hard work.
Jones can't rest in it's laurels. Jones has one of the best current sophomore distance group I've seen ever for a CPS team. They have 5 sophomores that have run sub 4:40 miles. That is incredible and those 5 will form a solid nucleus that should keep Jones high up there in the state level next season despite graduating Kirby, Dale, and O'Connor. But what about their freshman class? We did not hear too much about them in track. Maybe because their talented sophomore class took all the laurels. Believe me, they have freshman they are seriously working on and you will see at the medal stands at every sophomore level meet this fall in cross country. But to get there, there is still lots of work to be done.
As great as Jones and Lane have been to lead this distance renaissance, the CPS has so much untapped potential that it could evolve into something greater.
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