State Season Helps Solidify The Week 8 Speed Rating National Merge


State meet season is already underway, and the national rankings are starting to solidify. We've merged the best performances of the current season to see where all the big names are. These are purely reflective of what has already happened. We'll be doing a top 22 for the teams (the size of the field at NXN), and a top 25 for individuals (over half the field at Foot Locker, to account for NXN Individuals). They will be updated every Thursday as more and more team performances continue to improve.

Girls Top Individuals - Click Here

Girls Top Teams - Click Here

Boys Top Individuals - Click Here

Boys Top Teams - Click Here


Addendum
The Merge is starting to take shape. Around this time of year, there are some complications that arise. Sometimes, the rankings do not reflect the actuality of results. The biggest reason for this is missing runners. These usually fall into two categories: injured athletes, and teams sitting out key members. We continue to include them in our merge because we only care about the best potential outcome possible, meaning we assume everyone is in. That's how we predicted Bozeman boys to win NXN last year, in mid-October. One of their top three was injured, missed most of state season, and came back to be a key factor at NXN. Therefore, we have not made any additions or subtractions to the best possible outcome.

What Is The Speed Rating National Merge?

MileSplit NY has partnered with TullyRunners to provide a running merge of the nation's top performances. In short, a speed rating is a number attributed to an XC performance, roughly one point per three seconds, adjusted for overall race quality and depth. Using these numbers, we can compare performances on an apples to apples basis -- in terms of XC times and teams. It provides an answer to the hypothetical question, "What would happen if the best teams in the nation all raced at once?" However, these do not predict the outcome of NXN.

A speed rating is a number attributed to an XC performance, roughly one point per three seconds, adjusted for overall race quality and depth. 

The merge predicts the outcome assuming every athlete had the best race of the season. NXN has many variables that will impact that outcome. More can be read about the calculation of speed ratings by clicking here.