Northwest Regional Team Rankings - October 1

With the Alaska state meet in the books, and since I did a quick merge for most of the Southwest, I started wondering how the Northwest rankings would wind up, if I only included the meets from the past couple of weeks. This certainly won't be the best gauge for everyone (e.g. the girls rankings, where Lewis & Clark WA and Edmonds-Woodway WA were both missing one of their front trio of runners the last few meets), but it would be enough to get an idea of where the teams are roughly standing. Here is what I came up with:

Boys

1. 109 - North Central WA - 180.65 @ Bob Firman ID
2. 175 - Bozeman MT - 177.33 @ Mountain West MT
3. 180 - Crater OR - 178.02 @ Bob Firman ID
4. 215 - Skyline ID - 176.59 @ Bob Firman ID
5. 238 - Bellarmine Prep WA - 174.37 @ Bob Firman ID
6. 304 - Star Valley WY - 173.49 @ Davis Open Regional UT
7. 311 - Borah ID - 173.94 @ Bob Firman ID
8. 312 - West Anchorage AK - 171.06 @ State Meet AK
9. 336 - Summit OR - 170.20 @ Oxford Classic OR
10. 345 - Eisenhower WA - 170.21 @ Bellevue WA
11. 345 - Central Catholic OR - 169.74 @ Meriwether OR
12. 349 - Lewis and Clark WA - 169.55 @ Mountain West MT
13. 362 - Tahoma WA - 169.77 @ Sunfair WA
14. 385 - Lewiston ID - 170.40 @ Bob Firman ID
15. 401 - Sunset OR - 165.07 @ Nike Portland OR
16. 402 - South Eugene OR - 168.64 @ Nike Portland OR
17. 402 - Henry Jackson WA - 169.95 @ Nike Portland OR
18. 403 - Sugar-Salem ID - 167.98 @ Bob Firman ID
19. 407 - Rocky Mountain ID - 167.90 @ Bob Firman ID
20. 413 - Kamiakin WA - 167.13 @ Sunfair WA
21. 420 - Camas WA - 169.02 @ Nike Portland OR
22. 423 - Central Valley WA - 167.21 @ Sunfair WA
23. 432.5 - Jackson Hole WY - 166.45 @ Bob Firman ID
24. 447 - Interlake WA - 166.17 @ Bob Firman ID
25. 459 - Glacier Peak WA - 165.96 @ Marysville Twilight WA
26. 466 - Joel Ferris WA - 166.65 @ Mountain West MT

Girls

1. 120 - Jesuit OR - 125.09 @ Bob Firman ID
2. 141 - Bozeman MT - 124.48 @ Mountain West MT
3. 147.5 - Jackson Hole WY - 127.57 @ Bob Firman ID
4. 168 - Mountain View ID - 122.51 @ Roy Griak MN
5. 273 - Sunset OR - 116.28 @ Nike Portland OR
6. 282 - Eagle ID - 114.56 @ Bob Firman ID
7. 309 - Billings Senior MT - 112.80 @ Mountain West MT
8. 318 - Summit OR - 109.27 @ Nike Portland OR
9. 341 - Boise ID - 110.66 @ Bob Firman ID
10. 341 - Sheldon OR - 108.76 @ Nike Portland OR
11. 371 - West Valley AK - 106.46 @ State Meet AK
12. 375 - Madison ID - 107.79 @ Bob Firman ID
13. 378 - Hellgate MT - 107.58 @ Mountain West MT
14. 389 - Lewis and Clark WA - 105.69 @ Marysville Twilight WA
15. 389 - Glacier Peak WA - 104.13 @ Bellevue WA
16. 409 - Camas WA - 104.10 @ Nike Portland OR
17. 427 - Mead WA - 102.19 @ Mountain West MT
18. 430 - Northwest WA - 103.11 @ Nike Portland OR
19. 431 - Central Valley WA - 103.85 @ Mountain West MT
20. 435 - Issaquah WA - 101.40 @ Marysville Twilight WA
21. 443 - Holy Names Academy WA - 105.52 @ Nike Portland OR
22. 447 - Lincoln OR - 101.18 @ Sunfair WA
23. 448.5 - Interlake WA - 99.40 @ Bob Firman ID
24. 452 - Rocky Mountain ID - 100.91 @ Bob Firman ID
25. 452 - Twin Falls ID - 102.02 @ Bob Firman ID
26. 461 - North Central WA - 99.03 @ Sunfair WA

notes: I expect that, if Edmonds-Woodway WA and Lewis & Clark WA girls had their full squads healthy and ready to go, they'd jump up to and possibly past Sunset and Eagle (although not necessarily). As such, were this to be actual rankings, I would have them both at least top 10 unless confirmed that their missing runners are out for the rest of the year (very doubtful in E-W's case as this was the first meet Parle has missed). Also, Star Valley WY was hard to include because they haven't really ran much since the Tiger/Grizz ID Invite almost a month ago. Their ratings at the Davis Open Regional is really based on what the Davis UT JV runners ran at Bob Firman vs. what they ran at that meet, so consider it a somewhat questionable, though I think fairly realistic, guess.

There are other teams not included which deserve a look, however I just don't have any recent ratings for them. Laramie WY boys is one that stands out, as they were a little better than #23 Jackson Hole at Liberty Bell CO. Laramie might be a Top 15 or so team. Their girls might be Top 20 as well, and the same for the Cheyenne Central WY girls.

I haven't been looking at ALL the teams around the nation, but based on what I've seen, I would expect that the Northwest's top 5 boys and top 4 girls teams are all comfortably in the US Top 30 this year. I am tempted to say they are all in the top 25, but California is always deep and Utah is looking good once again, so who knows... unfortunately, the national rankings at Milesplit and Dyestat disagree with me: Milesplit, last updated on Sep. 19, has 2 boys (#7 Bozeman, #23 Crater) and 3 girls (#13 Bozeman, #16 Jesuit, #17 Summit) in their top 25's; Dyestat, updated just last week (Sep. 29), has 2 boys (#7 Bozeman, #15 North Central) and 4 girls (#8 Bozeman, #18 Jesuit, #27 Mountain View, #30 Summit) in their Top 30.