Following Week of Saturday, September 23
The action was not quite as heavy as might have been expected for the next-to-last weekend in September, but with the McQuaid Invite rolling around this Saturday, many teams around the state were storing away their adrenaline. At Baldwinsville, Queensbury, Monroe-Woodbury Crusader, East Aurora, Xavier, and Owego, results of some big to medium consequence were laid down. But it was the heat of Bowdoin that had the most overall impact, and it was just one of those scorchers of a day where teams went to see their speed ratings take a dive. As usual in these tough conditions, the top runners held fairly even while the mid-to-back of the pack just plummeted, and even teams that placed relatively well saw their ratings drop unless a key new runner was debuting for them. As a result, we're trying to show a little extra love to the Class A and B teams that braved Bowdoin last Saturday.
If you had to pick a team that made the biggest move last weekend, the nod would likely have to go to a Bethlehem team that won the large race at Queensbury with a squad that appears to have some decent depth. For the small schools, Waterloo with a 2nd place in the Baldwinsville Small Schools race got a big jump in the rankings, while the winning CBA-Syracuse squad hugely extended its ratings lead over the rest of the Class C teams.
At this point to be ranked, with the exception for a certain team that went to Nationals last year, every squad needs to have run in a speed rated invitational (or a non-rated one that is easy for me to estimate) and shown it has at least five runners getting to the finish line. There are a number of teams down in Class D that we are waiting for, but McQuaid will settle everything down there this weekend very nicely.