The idea of this article is to take a look at how a virtual meet of returning athletes from the 2015 season compares with the state meet results of the 2016 season.
All sorts of things factor into this. This is about improvement, but it's not only about improvement. Besides improvement, things that can impact a team's standing from one year to the next are move-ins, move-outs, injuries, incoming freshmen (a bigger factor with girls than with boys), and athletes who decide not to come out the next year.
Still, it's interesting to take a look at how things shift from one year to the next. The first table you see below lists the top 20 5A Girls teams at the end of 2015 based on a virtual meet of top marks. Note that this virtual meet only scores eight deep and does not include relays. As such it's not going to provide a perfect comparison to the 2016 state meet results, but it does provide a window:
Girls - Team Rankings - 19 Events Scored
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1) Fort Collins High School 91 2) Cherokee Trail High Scho 87
3) Pine Creek High School 66 4) Cherry Creek High School 53
5) Rampart High School 43 6) Mountain Range High Scho 40
7) Denver East High School 31 8) Rocky Mountain High Scho 30
9) Monarch High School 29 10) Castle View High School 28
11) Fountain-Fort Carson Hig 20 12) Poudre High School 20
13) Grandview High School 20 14) Mountain Vista High Scho 18
15) ThunderRidge High School 18 16) Rock Canyon High School 17
17) Horizon High School 12 18) Brighton High School 11
19) Fossil Ridge High School 11 20) Arapahoe High School 11
Women - 5A - Team Rankings - 19 Events Scored
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1) Fort Collins 81 2) Arapahoe 69
3) Cherokee Trail 68 4) Rocky Mountain 55.50
5) Denver East 54 6) Grandview 53
7) Horizon 30 8) Mountain Range 28
8) Pine Creek 28 10) Loveland 27
10) Cherry Creek 27 12) Rock Canyon 25
13) Brighton 23 14) Fairview 21
15) Regis Jesuit 20 16) Fountain-Ft. Carson 19
16) Monarch 19 18) Coronado 18
19) Fossil Ridge 17 19) ThunderRidge 17
We observe that a couple of teams made very strong moves. Arapahoe moved from 20th in May, 2015, to second at state. Grandview moved from 13th to sixth. Loveland moved from outside the top 20 to 10th.
Both Grandview and Arapahoe, of course, benefited from some incoming roster help--Arapahoe in the person of Anna Hall and Grandview in the person of Brie Oakley, though you could make the case that Grandview still may have come out sixth at state even without Oakley. I don't care to argue that one one way or the other, but the case could be made.
Another case can be made that the point here is to name a "most improved" team from 2015 to 2016, and not to quibble about how they got there. In that case, we're probably looking at Arapahoe. But, there's certainly some recognition to go around for Grandview and Loveland as well.