Above: Roshan Tinoco-Miranda (Rio Rico), Xander Black (Brophy), Randy Espinoza (Deer Valley)
Fantastic Firsts - Boys' Fastest First Runners in 2020
This afternoon we look at our fastest returning boy runners in the one position for their respective teams in the state of Arizona.
Some caveats on how we come up with these rankings; obviously, incoming freshmen can throw a wrench into these rankings, but we don't have high school times for these teens yet, so they are left out. Two, these rankings are based on these athletes' best cross country 5K times in 2019. We understand that different courses lend themselves to faster times than other courses, but this is just to give us a rough estimate of how the team's runners 1-7 rank against other teams' 1-7. The key here is we are talking about returning runners and not who was your first runner in 2019. After we account for seniors graduating, we are making an educated guess who will be your number 1-7 runners in 2020. So your expected number first runner in 2020 may have been your number 2, 3, or 4 runner in 2019, depending on how many athletes you graduated.
Today we are focusing on the boys' first-man returning runners. We had 215 teams who have at least one runner who was a junior or younger last year. Teams without at least one returning runner who was a junior or younger last year did not make this list.
We are going to focus on the returning second runners who ran a PR of sub-15:40 for their teams in 2019.
Roshan Tinoco-Miranda (Rio Rico): Roshan had a break out year in 2019. Winning five races including the D3 State Championship (15:53). While Roshan was a very good runner in 2018 as a sophomore (15:44 at Nike, 1st at Sectionals and 30th at State), he obliterated most of his competition in 2019. He ran sub-16 in five of his eight 5K cross country courses in 2019. His PR came at Nike Twilight (15:15), where he took 12th overall in the prestigious Sweepstakes race. Rio Rico was a relatively young team in 2019, with only Roshan and number-five runner (Hector Leon) being the two upper-classmen in their top-seven. We will see what time drops Roshan can have after a long lay-off from competitive running, which many athletes have had to face due to the global pandemic. But when it comes to distance running, sometimes having more time to train leads to some serious improvements for athletes - in the next few months we will find out for sure.
Xander Black (Brophy): Xander Black has been a fierce competitor since club cross country (runner-up in The 2014 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships) and now going into his senior year he will be one of the top runners of the State for sure. Five of Xander's seven races last year were in the 15-minute range. He was the runner-up to running phenom, Leo Daschbach, in the D1 State championships, so the door might be open for him to capture the crown in 2020. He ran a 15:19 at Nike Twilight (16th in the Sweepstakes race), but an even more impressive 15:15 at the Foot Locker West Regional race in early December (20th overall). Brophy did lose a couple of good seniors, but the Broncos are usually ready for the competition come race time. It will be fun to see if any of these top boys can dip under 15 minutes in 2020 - Black is one to keep your eye on in this regard.
Randy Espinoza (Deer Valley): Espinoza has been a standout in Arizona high school running since he entered high school. He was outkicked at the D2 State Meet by Campo Verde's Kenny Edwards for the individual victory, but Edwards was a senior last year so Espinoza will have his eyes on the prize this November. Espinoza won the Championship race a Nike Twilight in 2019 (15:36), but bettered that time at the Rose Mofford Sectionals, which he won as well in 15:28. In 2018, Espinoza had zero races below 16 minutes but in 2019 he had four of his six races below that time. Keep your eyes on Espinoza this fall because he has good speed and has had extra time to put in the miles, so who knows what his time drop could be in 2020.
Max Davis (Flagstaff): Max had a great junior season. Moving up to 3rd place at the 2019 D2 State Championship compared to 10th in 2018. He ran 15:30 at Nike Twilight and broke 16 minutes two other times last fall. Flagstaff won the D2 State team title and even though they do lose a couple of seniors from last year's squad, the boys up north will be ready to defend their title once again. Davis is on the trajectory to being one of the top runners in the state - no matter what division. And like many, this extra time foisted upon them because of COVID-19 may actually be a good thing for Max and the Eagles as they get more of that high altitude training that may lead to huge PRs once they step upon the cross country courses in September.
One other runner who broke 15:50 was Jonathon Lane (Walden Grove) who placed second to Tinoco-Miranda at the D3 State Meet in 2019 and ran a PR of 15:39 at Nike Twilight and will be looking to see if he can knock off Roshan from the top spot in 2020.