The Wolfpack lost less to graduation than any of the teams that beat them in D2 last November, and their strong spring season indicates improvement.
Cross country is right around the corner, and we're celebrating by counting down to the start of the competitive fall season! Each day (except today!) we'll release one boys team and one girls team, counting down from 30 to 1 as we approach the beginning of real XC racing.
Claremont finished 5th in the Division 2 race in the 2015 CIF State Meet, but they lost less than every team that finished in front of them (only one senior graduated from that team, in fact). That gives the Wolfpack the 6th-best returning team from that meet, and they also rank 7th in the state overall in returning 3 Mile rankings and 9th in the returning 5K. Spring season followed that exact pattern: Annie Boos led the 9th-best 1600 squad in California with her 4:48, demonstrating that she could make a big step forward this fall, as well. Boos also led 7 returners under 12 minutes in the 3200 with her sub-11 time, and that group includes two rising sophomores that are not among the top 7 returners, adding depth to the Wolfpack this fall. Claremont has all the statistical indications of a team that's significantly improved over last season, and if they had a good summer then contending for the D2 title is not out of the question.
Ranking Data:
- Returning Team Ranking: 7th (3 Miles)
- Combined Spring Track Ranking: 9th (8th 3200, 9th 1600)
- Improvement Rating: 20th
The #CountdownToXC is a data-driven set of team rankings determined using the following information:
- Returning Team 5K & 3 Mile Rankings from 2015 XC: carries the most weight
- Returning Team 1600 and 3200 Rankings from 2015 Outdoor: less weight, but important
- Improvement Rating: a long-term statistical evaluation of how each program improves from season to season. This custom metric compares a team's final team average from each season to their returning team average from the previous season, while also accounting for how highly-ranked the team was. As we continue to improve the depth and quality of our data in California, this measure should get stronger and stronger. Improvement ratings will be the subject of a separate article in August.
- Returning team from the 2015 CIF state meet
- A little bit of "gut feeling"