This one will wrap up the "who improved most" series.
Although track and field is not yet done, coverage will begin steering more clearly in the direction of cross country at this point.
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 2A 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
===============================================================================
1) Cedaredge High School 55 2) Lyons High School 48
3) Resurrection Christian H 48 4) Vail Christian High Scho 25
5) West Grand High School 25 6) Sedgwick County 24
7) John Mall High School 24 8) Rye High School 23
9) Wiggins High School 22 10) Wray High School 20
11) South Park High School 18 12) Peyton High School 17
13) Paonia High School 17 14) Mancos High School 15
15) Telluride High School 14 16) Swallows Charter Academy 14
17) Rangely High School 13 18) Meeker High School 13
19) Denver Christian High Sc 12 20) Ouray High School 11
And, now, a glance at how 2A Boys actually finished this May:
Men - 2A - Team Rankings - 18 Events Scored =============================================================================== 1) Cedaredge 98 2) Resurrection Christian 85 3) Lyons 63 4) Sedgwick County 39.50 5) John Mall 39 6) Sanford 38.50 7) Ellicott 37 8) Paonia 35 9) Wiggins 33 10) Vail Christian 30 11) Mancos 28.50 12) Rangely 24.50 13) Byers 20 13) Highland 20 15) Yuma 18.50 16) Soroco 18 17) Hoehne 17 18) Custer County 16 19) Telluride 15 20) Rye 14
There are not many 2A Boys teams that stand out on account of rising well above where a virtual meet at the end of the 2015 season had them projected to finish. And that makes the one team that did make an exceptional rise all that more apparent.
Sanford was, at the end of 2015, nowhere to be found on the radar screen. Yet, when the dust had settled on this year's state meet, the Indians had finished sixth with 38.5 points, and only one point out of fourth place.
Complete 2A Boys Virtual Meet of Returning Athletes at End of 2015 Season