Many teams around the state finished their seasons with Sectional or conference championships last week. A lucky group will continue on to States, and the CHSAA teams of the NYC area will be running for their championship on Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park. While we provided a Sectional Merge in our State Meet Previews, we did not provide the typical Overall State Rankings.
The list below is our breakdown of the standings for NY's top 30 girls teams based on their season's ratings along with their performance at their most recent championship. Some teams, especially a pack in the Section 2 Class A race, boosted their ratings with huge efforts, even if it only earned them a 7th place. Another group of teams had less cheery results, especially a few teams that were missing key runners.
Besides the top seven teams in S2-A -- Saratoga, Bethlehem, Shenedehowa, Shaker, Niskayuna, Ballston Spa, and Colonie -- Sectional champs who saw their ratings soar with winning efforts included Cornwall, Pearl River, Northport, Churchville-Chili, Bronxville, Clarence, Burnt Hills, Honeoye Falls-Lima, South Jefferson, Suffern, and Norwood-Norfolk. East Aurora also would likely have made a leap if not for an official's misdirection issue in the S6-B race, and we have made adjustments here as best we can guess. Quite a number of the smaller schools such as South Side, Voorheesvile, Newfane, and Wheatley had great days at Sectionals, but the size of the Class A teams helps them to dominate the Top 30 list. One big team that definitely has the speed ratings to make this list -- Orchard Park -- unfortunately just has too big a 1-5 split for rankings that give preference to more compressed pack teams.
Note: This list has no influence on the Federation Meet Invitations. It is simply our view of the post-season, replacing what would have been the Nike Regional, which is typically 30 teams deep in the Championship Session.
In the rankings below, the speed ratings average for the top five runners is noted along with the season's individual scores in parentheses. The smaller the gap from the first to the fifth number, the better. A few runners who have made giant leaps lately that are not really reflected in their season's average are noted with a + sign.