Girls Summary
The girls teams generally start off the year in a much less developed state than the boys teams, but they also tend to see much larger advances at all levels. There is not a huge difference between the large and small classes in average gain, probably because the much higher ceiling for a Class A team cancels out the the much deeper hole that the small teams often find themselves in at the beginning of a season. The average gains across the board seem to be anywhere from 45 to 60 seconds. And if anyone thinks that there are a few individual runners who are outside the bounds of the pogo stick boost, Katelyn Tuohy has already had a jump of 56 points this year between her Red Raider leg stretcher and bust-out Ocean State race, and even last year after a shattering of the Bear Mountain course record in her starter race she still saw a rise of 14 points (42 seconds) in her TR topper at NXN Nationals.
Girls' teams tend to be like Thursday's child at the beginning of the season, with a journey that has far to go. For that reason, however, the races for state championships outside of Class A have tended to be much more full of suspense and twists and turns than the guys' battles. This year should be more of the same.