Maybe no state conference will be able to boast the the 1st and 4th best teams in the nation ever again, and the fact that Fayettevile-Manlius and Liverpool live in the same local league makes last year's performance at Nationals all the more stupendous. Expanding the Class A of the NYSPHSAA state championship group to the wider state rankings for the large Class A schools that include CHSAA powers such as 2014 national 8th place team St. Anthony's and you get just an incredible wealth of talent at the top of NY scholastic running in 2014.

But that was then and this is now, and the reality of 2015 has set in following the big graduation losses for many of last year's top teams. This could mean a big drop for the high flyers of 2014 except that they have proven themselves to annual development machines that create smooth running products by the end of the year. So though the top two teams are not perched on quite as high a branch to start the year in 2015, we can expect Fayetteville-Manluis and Liverpool to be living at the top of the rankings throughout the season, though this year the challenges from other top 10 teams are likely to be felt much more strongly.

Liverpool last won a sectional title in 2007, and since then FM has rolled to 7 straight Section 3-A titles, but this year both teams have a lot of work to do to get back up among the top 10 or 20 teams in the nation with squads whose top 6 both average a youngish 11.17 grade level. Peter Ryan for FM and Ben Petrella for Liverpool will be the senior anchors for the two powerhouses from last year who will be looking for major leaps from the runners behind them, only three of whom were also at Nationals, Joe Walters of FM and Ty Brownlow and Ryan Comstock of Liverpool.

Section 2 appears to be the hotbed of running activity that is most likely to challenge the recent dominance of Section 3's two powerhouses, and that's to be expected since S2 teams have won the three state championships from 2008 through 2014 that were not won by FM. With Guilderland led by Noah Carey and Noah Tindale, Shenendehowa headed by seniors Mitch Halpern and Tyler Schmidt, and Saratoga helmed by Aidan Tooker and Ethan North all challenging for the top of S2-A, there is a strong likelihood that at least one of the teams will push themselves to a level that will break into the S3-A monopoly. Arlington with some runners that were not at Sectionals last year now on the lead, Corning with seniors Peter Kane and Brian Bates on the lead and a Matt Adolph led Warwick Valley team that will be running on home sectional turf at States are also teams to watch.

The last four state individual champions (Bryce Millar x 2, Nick Ryan x 2) in Class A were rated among the top 3 returning runners, so that puts the spotlight on Liverpool's Ben Petrella, Fayetteville-Manlius's Peter Ryan and Saratoga's Aidan Tooker to shine in that mid November race at Monroe-Woodbury. But of course both Millar and Ryan won at States in their junior years, and Guilderland's Noah Carey is close enough to the top that a junior push could get him to the head of the line.

The times may be A-changing, but one thing that isn't changing is that the action will be blazing hot from early September until early December.

Fayetteville-Manlius's Bryce Millar leads the way through the mud at States with Saratoga's Aidan Tooker and Ithaca's Dan Dracup.