Glennis Murphy and Gillian Wagner make Redwood formidable up front, but will the depth be there for the team to make a strong state meet run?
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. The rankings were 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
- Returning team from the 2015 CIF state meet
- A little bit of "gut feeling"
Today we take a look at the handful of teams that just missed making the top 30, the Honorable Mention teams. These teams could very well end up in the top 25 by the end of the season, but appear to have a "weak spot" in the data that kept them out for now.
2016 #CountdownToXC Honorable Mention Girls Teams
Northwood
Good returning times at 3 miles and very good track results, but it's hard to break into the state meet from the Southern Section.
St. Joseph Notre Dame
Will be in contention in Division 5, especially if they can develop their depth runners.
San Lorenzo Valley
Returns six runners from the squad that went to the state meet last fall, and had solid track results; could be a sleeper for the top 25 by season's end.
Redwood
Great talent up front, but depth is a huge concern, as they don't even have 5 returning runners in our database.
Homestead
Very solid returning team with a legit #1 in Elena Kamas, and could very well be in the top 25 by season's end.