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 4A 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 - 14 Events Scored
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1) Niwot High School 58 2) Mountain View High Schoo 38
3) Air Academy High School 35 4) Classical Academy, The 35
5) Longmont High School 31 6) Vista Peak High School 30
7) Cheyenne Mountain High S 29 8) Valor Christian High Sch 29
9) Widefield High School 28 10) Canon City High School 21
11) Delta High School 19 12) Summit High School 16
13) Denver North High School 15 14) Berthoud High School 14
15) Durango High School 13 16) D'Evelyn High School 12
17) Thompson Valley High Sch 12 18) Skyline High School 11
19) Silver Creek High School 10 20) Thomas Jefferson High Sc 10
Women - 4A - Team Rankings - 19 Events Scored
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1) Classical Academy 84.50 2) Air Academy 64.50
3) Niwot 58 4) Valor Christian 54
5) Discovery Canyon 47 6) Green Mountain 38
7) Cheyenne Mountain 34 8) Widefield 32
9) Vista Peak 30 10) D'Evelyn 29
11) Berthoud 28 12) Mountain View 27
12) Windsor 27 14) Canon City 26
15) Skyline 23 16) Pueblo West 21
17) Thompson Valley 19 18) Delta 18
18) Palisade 18 20) Palmer Ridge 16
20) Mullen 16
The obvious answer here would seem to be Discovery Canyon, but let's take a longer look. Discovery Canyon definitely improved their standing between May of 2015 and May of 2016. Most--though not all--of that improved standing, however, had to do with the move-in of Lauren Gale.
Something intside me halts at naming a team as "most improved" largely on account of a move-in. Fortunately, there is another very good alternative here.