New York State XC Rankings
Following Week of Saturday, September 20
This is the first State rankings of the season for MileSplit, as we have finally reached the part of the season where all but a few team stragglers have run in a speed-rated meet. At this early stage the status of NY's teams are still very much in transition and there are many issues to wrangle through. Some teams have not yet competed, some have used partial squads or only competed in a quasi-meaningful leg-stretcher meet early in the month, and some teams have run full out and put up some spectacular early season results.
It is hard to be fair to all teams in these different situations. Basically if a team hasn't run yet it is on the “Watching for ...” next-in-line list unless it is a perennial power or finished in the top 10 of its class last year with a strong squad known to be back. There are a number of teams whose top runner(s) from last season have not yet made appearances yet and may quickly shoot their teams up the rankings when they do, but until they are seen running, they are not counted here. We are also not going to assign some “default” back-of-the-pack runners to fill in holes for a squad that is fueled by one or two top runners. Also, with few of the closely ranked teams having faced each other yet, we are letting the team speed ratings be the primary sorting order, with some adjustments for meet head-to-heads or hugely skewed line-ups. The use of (Sat-13) following a meet listing indicates that a team's last meet was two weekends ago.
Finally, the best part about the early rankings is getting the chance to welcome back a runner in top form after she was forced by ailments to sit out an XC season. So Lauren Reyda, good to see you flying again, and good luck to your Fredonia teammates. Cheers to all.