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 3A 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) Lutheran High School 95 2) Platte Valley High Schoo 63
3) Sterling High School 38 4) Salida High School 27
5) Colorado Springs Christi 26 6) Alamosa High School 24
7) Gunnison High School 21 8) Aspen High School 20
9) SkyView Academy 20 10) Eaton High School 18
11) Lamar High School 18 12) DSST: Green Valley Ranch 14
13) Vanguard School, The 13 14) Ridge View Academy 13
15) Bennett High School 12 16) La Junta High School 12
17) University High School 11 18) Brush High School 10
19) Buena Vista High School 10 20) Monte Vista High School 8
And, now, a look at how 3A Boys actually finished this May:
Men - 3A - Team Rankings - 18 Events Scored
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1) Lutheran 137 2) Platte Valley 65
3) Sterling 57 4) Eaton 47
5) Salida 44 6) Manitou Springs 42
7) Gunnison 33 8) Frontier Academy 32
9) Lamar 29 10) Strasburg 26
10) Colorado Springs Christian 26 12) Bayfield 25
13) Aspen 24 14) Alamosa 23
15) Vanguard 22 16) SkyView Academy 20
17) Coal Ridge 15 17) Jefferson Acdy. 15
17) La Junta 15 17) University 15
For most folks, it's not at all surprising that Lutheran ran away with this thing. They started out, and finished in the top position.
If, however, you are looking for the team that made the largest leap forward, there are two teams that stand out head-and-shoulders above the rest. Those two teams are Manitou Springs and Frontier Academy. Both moved decisively from the status of afterthoughts in May of 2015 to top-eight teams once the actual 3A Boys state meet was contested in May of 2016.
And, Manitou's jump was the larger of the two. We'll settle, without hesitation, on Manitou Springs as the 3A program that demonstrated the most development from May, 2015, to May, 2016.
Complete 3A Boys virtual meet of returning runners from 2015