1. North Allegheny - Off Weekend
2. West Chester Henderson - Opened the season with a 21 second spread 1-5 but without their true #1 in Tony Russell. They averaged 16:09 on a slightly more difficult course where they averaged 16:16 with Russell last season. This team has a lot of room to improve and I know they will.
3. Cardinal O'Hara - Off Weekend
4. Lower Dauphin - Off Weekend
5. Red Land - Wow, these guys surprised me with a really strong finish at Carlisle. They were only 44 points behind nationally ranked Tatnall. They finished well @ PTXC behind Lower Dauphin, but I ignored their solid finished. Now they've really proved themselves. Their 1-2 punch with Lauer and Seiger is really good. Now that Wilkinson has broken out this team looks strong. They will need to improve their 4-5 however if they with to maintain this ranking.
6. Carlisle - They team ran really with at their home course this past weekend. A few weeks ago they got close to SC when SC didn't have their 5th man Milligan. This weekend Carlisle took down an SC team with Milligan. Brehm being one of the best low stick's in the state really helps this squad.
6. State College - Yes, there are two teams at 6th place. Both beat each other at their home invitationals and this squad has runs big Invitation after big Invitational. They ran really well @ Hershey , but didn't have quite as good of a showing this week. I still like the pieces they have.
8. Malvern Prep - Off weekend, but Jaxson Hoey ran really well and I like what this team has.
9. Freedom - Off Weekend
10. Council Rock North - Didn't have a great weekend as TV and TW got very close to them at their home invite, but their 2-4 are really impressing me as Simmons and Griswold improve every week. They will need a 5th man however. They maintain top 10 since they have the top runner in the state and I have Arita projected 67th, Simmons 76th, and Griswold 78th giving them a solid team score.
That's all for Now Folks!
--ForrestCRN
If history repeats itself there will not be three District 3 teams in the top 6 come state meet. It's just to difficult to run that course back to back weeks.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the teams overrated from Bulldog getting ranked properly. WCE and Dwest are out of the top 10, though they have the talent to get back. Malvern dropped a couple and O'Hara is marginal at #3, both need to get more depth to hold their positions.
ReplyDeleteWe will see come districts which teams were overrated.
DeleteWhat I think is very notable is that only 2 teams on this list are from D1 with 1 of those teams on the verge of being kicked off the list by someone else (although it would most likely be a D1 team...). D3 is packing some power though. A nice switch up here.
ReplyDeleteThis list tends to be who raced well last week. Since the big races this weekend are in the east, you will probably see a bunch of D1 teams move back onto the list.
DeleteI pushed West Chester East all last year and I'll push Downingtown West all this year. Bad race and a lot of young kids, not surprised by their inconsistency, but come the easy districts course and they will fly.
ReplyDeleteGreat rankings once again and I think the 6th place tie is definitely necessary until a tie breaker occurs that's on a neutral course. I'd like to see Pennsbury run a normal course to see how they do. I think with the solid invitationals this weekend teams will solidify their places.
-RTJ