Salpointe Catholic's boys figure to have a leg up on the competition this fall. Diego Veliz and Michael Urbanski are two of a long list of reasons why.
Here we are, midway through August. Even in the heat of the Arizona summer, eyes are turning toward the cross country season ahead. It's the job of this article to help give you a little clearer vision of what awaits us around the bend.
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With that said, let's start with a review of recent history. Last year's dual state champions came from Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson. It's worth noting, however, that the Lancers won last year's titles by a cumulative total of 14 points. In boys, Snowflake and Page were hot on Salpointe's heels. Coconino and Snowflake made things extremely close on the girls side of the ledger.
We'll talk more about the projected strengths of these teams, and several additional teams as well, later in the article, but suffice it to say for now that recent history suggests a possibility of close contests again this fall. And it is more fun that way.
There are several ways of shedding light on the question of what this fall's competition might hold. Before the end of the article, we'll look at several different pictures that figure to shed light on the topic. For now, though, it's going to make life easier if we split down the middle and start looking at the boys' and girls' competitions separately.
For this piece, we'll start with boys: