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, 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 4A Boys 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:
Boys - Team Rankings - 14 Events Scored
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1) Mountain View High Schoo 59 2) Classical Academy, The 57
3) Palmer Ridge High School 48 4) Montrose High School 39
5) Thompson Valley High Sch 32 6) Valor Christian High Sch 31
7) Pueblo Centennial High S 25 8) Littleton High School 24
9) Cheyenne Mountain High S 23 10) Palisade High School 21
11) Longmont High School 20 12) Pueblo Central High Scho 20
13) Vista Ridge High School 19 14) Roosevelt High School 14
15) Air Academy High School 13 16) Pueblo County High Schoo 13
17) Pueblo South High School 13 18) Mullen High School 12
19) Durango High School 10 20) Golden High School 9
Now, here is how the actual state meet scoring went for 2016 (once again, showing the top 20 teams):
Men - 4A - Team Rankings - 18 Events Scored
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1) Mountain View 89 2) Palmer Ridge 79
3) Classical Academy 61 4) Vista Ridge 57
5) Montrose 44 6) Longmont 41
7) Air Academy 39 8) Valor Christian 37
9) Canon City 32 10) Durango 25
11) Pueblo South 23 12) Pueblo Central 22.50
13) Thompson Valley 22 14) Palisade 20
14) Pueblo Centennial 20 16) Greeley Central 17
17) Roosevelt 14.50 18) Cheyenne Mountain 14
19) Standley Lake 13 20) Windsor 12
We note that the top three teams as projected by rankings at the end of 2015 were still the top three teams in 2016, with some slight shuffling of order. Vista Ridge moved up solidly from 13th to 4th. The higher you are to begin with, the more difficult leapfrogging places becomes--so Vista Ridge's leap is noteworthy in a compelling sort of way. Air Academy, Canon City, Durango, and Longmont also saw solid improvements in standing from 2015 to 2016. Canon City, in particular, moved from outside of the top 20 to finish ninth at this year's state meet.
So, you can take your pick of Vista Ridge and Canon City, both with solid cases to be made, as the most improved 4A Boys team from 2015 to 2016.
I'll continue this series, at the rate of one a day, until all ten combinations of classification and gender have been completed.
To see the full virtual meet used to create the first table (you must have a MileSplit Pro membership to view the virtual meet), click here.