Following Week of Saturday, October 8
The fourth week of the rankings revolves almost entirely around the big day at the Manhattan Ivitational, though the Penfield-Irondequoit, Rome Coughlin, Byram Hills, Cato-Meridian, and Tartan meets also had a bit of a say in how everything turned out. The Salmon River mud run also gets a shout out for leaving its mark on a few runners.The seven varsity races at Manhattan though really set the tables for the final weeks heading into the postseason, and early November promises to be very exciting for many reasons.
Fayetteville-Manlius established itself still more firmly as the top team in the nation with its powerful showing at Manhattan, and Shoreham-Wading River pushed further out in front in Class B. Elsewhere though, there is still a very fuzzy picture, and not being a meet that is heavily attended by small teams, the Manhattan left Class C and D as much in the dark as the back hills during the girls' F race there at dusk.
The Manhattan merge reults were used as a baseline to set the rankings for this week after making some allowances for resting runners, and the merge place is noted in brackets after a Manhattan place in the Last Week's Action column. We have tried to balance the performances of the two big meets on following weekends at McQuaid and Manhhattan. We also note that a pair of Section 5 B teams bravely traveled east for Manhattan after running McQuaid, and that will certainly be remembered for future rankings.
Cheers to all, and ride that rising tide into the postseason surge..
