Ben Hinckfoot, left, of The Classical Academy is the top returner in 3A in both the 110 and 300 meter hurdles. 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 3A boys and, based on those results, it looks like there are any of a dozen or so teams that could legitimately contend for the title with an small infusion of new talent and/or strong development of the talent that was already in place last year. One thing we already know, however, is that Buena Vista's Michael Schroeder was a foreign exchange student last year and won't be in a Demon uniform this spring. So, Buena Vista takes that hit in addition to losing Mason Finley and Joseph DeMoor.
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. Here's what the team scores for 3A boys (assuming all individuals stayed with the same school, participate in track this spring, etc.) break down as:
Calculated as of March 02, 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.