Denver East's Kami Mendez returns with the best 5A 100 meter hurdle time from last year. Colorado Track XC file photo.
One way of estimating the relative strength of teams coming into the track season is to simulate a meet by taking the best performances of returning athletes from 2009 and placing them into a mock meet. We just did that for 5A girls and, based on those results, Littleton appears to be the early favorite to repeat as state champions this season.
Of course, virtual meets contested nearly three full months before state provide no guarantee of anything that happens in May, but they are a decent starting point for a conversation. Littleton, for example, has lost a long-time head track coach. And, in girls track, incoming freshmen typically play a strong role in the fortunes of many teams.
Regardless, here's what the team scores for 5A girls (assuming all individuals stayed with the same school, participate in track this spring, etc.) break down as:
Calculated as of February 27, 2010
These rankings were calculated by scoring the rankings as a meet. We took the individual rankings and scored them as a normal meet: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. No relay events are calculated into team scores due to the difficulties inherent in identifying and "replacing" graduated relay legs. Athletes whose graduation years are unknown were left out of the list.