Opening weekend has come and gone for the 2017 cross country season. More than half of our national preseason ranked teams and individuals have opened their seasons, joined by some new names to the national scene. What better time to start looking at the sport's landscape?
We've merged the best performances of the early season to see where all the big names are. These are purely reflective of what has already happened, so if a team hasn't raced yet, it wasn't included in the merge. 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 teams open up and performances continue to improve.
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.
Without further ado, here they are...
Girls Top Individuals - Click Here
Girls Top Teams - Click Here
Boys Top Individuals - Click Here
Boys Top Teams - Click Here
Bonus Material: Explaining Griak Girls
After this weekends' races out in Minnesota, many people emailed asking "why the Speed Ratings didn't work." Grace Ping was beaten by someone who was several points lower than her, and Naperville North took down Great Oak.
In essence, Speed Ratings are seed times. Ping ran about what she had run all year, maybe a bit even better. Emily Covert hadn't needed to run as fast to win her race. Ping didn't run badly, Covert just ran better than she had previously in the season. As for the team competition, just like seed times, not all marks are equal. When Great Oak ran their ratings, they did so in almost ideal conditions, on a short, fast course. It was almost the equivalent of running on a banked track, and having those seed times compared against flat track times. It is another reason why NXN is the great equalizer, giving people a fair course, with pluses and minuses to everyone.
Much was made about the times the Loudoun Valley team ran at their country championships. However, looking at the Speed Ratings, you can tell it was simply a training run, indicating why there was some switch-up in the usual finishing order.