Week 3 XC Rankings - Week of 10/19/20

VTHSXC.COM Vermont HS Cross Country Poll Results -Oct. 19, 2020

Boys Overall Top 10

1.CVU

2.StJay

3.U32

4.Essex

5.BHS

6.BFA

7.SB

8.Spaulding

9. MMU

10. Woodstock/Harwood/Rutland

Comments:

#1CVU continues to win and to get faster. Meanwhile #2 St. Jay upset the rankings applecart this week with a decisive victory over previous top seed #3U32 at the NVAC’s hosted by Craftsbury. The Hilltoppers who had narrowly fallen to the Raiders the week before at Daville, turned the tables behind a first and second place finish by juniors Evan Thorton-Sherman and Hayle Boyden. #1CVU behind an elite 16;20 by Caleb Nye put in an impressive run in winning the Chittenden NVACs with their 2-5 runners packing up within 35 seconds. The Redhawks have both an elite low stick in Nye and a fast and tight pack making them the #1.

These three teams will meet again this coming Saturday and, if all qualify, at the recently announced Vermont Meet of Champions set for 11/7. Lots of questions and exciting racing to come. St Jay may yet have the upper hand as Thorton-Sherman gives them a true low stick who becomes more and more valuable the bigger and higher caliber the race field. #4 Essex is an enigma as their top runner Brady Maritus hasn’t raced locally in almost a month. In his absence, the Hornets pack has been up and down. If the “supporting cast” run well and with Martisus back in the line up, Essex could easily be back on top at States and the Meet of Champs in a few weeks time.

Behind the top four it's a ways back to the 5-10 ranked teams. #5BHS has been the most consistent and deep of the remaining challengers. #6SB has been holding place in the rankings for several weeks now but after that the coaches are all over the board. No fewer than six teams (Spaulding,MMU,Woodstock, Harwood,Rutland,Midd) received votes for the final three positions, with the Boys from Barre nabbing the #8 position. All of these six teams have shown some of the elements needed to move up but will also need a couple runners to improve a bit. Spaulding is representative of the log jam, in that they have three very strong runners who are competitive with any team in the state, but in this case it takes five to tango. The team battle to qualify for the Meet of Champions (top 6 teams plus division champs) is going to be a tight one.

On the individual side, everyone is waiting to see the Martisus vs Sherman-Thorton race. For now those two seem to be 30+ seconds ahead of the field. Nye and Shepherd seem to be the best of the rest for the time being.

Division 1 Boys Top 5

1. CVU

2. St Jay

3. Essex

4. BFA

5. BHS

Comments:

CVU has its strongest team performance of the season with Nye winning NVACs with a 16:20. He had plenty of back up with Hillier and Ireland finishing 2nd and 4th overall. The Redhawk round out their top 5 with 8th and 14th places showing some impressive depth. St Jay makes the biggest jump of the week with a big win over previous overall number #1 U32. They seem to get stronger every time they race and have one of the states strongest 1-2 punch with Thornton-Sherman and Boyden. Essex gets ranked 3rd by all voters with the expectation that when Brady runs it will push them past BFA, BHS and SB. The rest of the Hornets run with a tight 2-5 gap that puts them in position to make some higher when they race as a full team. BFA swaps positions with BHS by beating them at NVACs. Storms/Trembley have joined Mashtere near the front of the pack creating a very strong 1-2-3. BHS holds 5th with another consistent team performance. Even though SB isn’t ranked they were only several points behind BHS.

Martisus, Thornton-Sherman and Nye make up the three strongest performers in D1 so far this season.

Division 2 Boys Top 5

1. U32

2. Spaulding

3. Harwood

4. Woodstock

5. MIDD

Comments:

No changes to the D2 rankings. While #1U32 is clearly vulnerable, as St.Jay showed on Saturday, the rest of D2 still has some work to do to catch the Raiders. #2Spauliding solidified their hold on the next spot with an excellent race at NVAC Chittenden (how is Barre in Chittenden??) with #3 Harwood, #4Wodstock, and #5 MIDD all holding serve. Don't sleep on unranked Vergennes who have two of the best runners in the Division in seniors Ben Huston and Gabe Praamsma. These two will definitely be at the front of the States Race at Thetford on 10/31.

Division 3 Boys Top 5

1. Craftsbury

2. Peoples Academy

3. Stowe

4. Bellows Falls

5. Thetford

Comments:

Lots of movement in the D3 Boys rankings this week. #1 Craftsbury raced to a strong 3rd place at NVAC mountain division championship to earn the top spot for D3 on the day. They were led by Cormac Leahy, and fellow sophomore Charlie Krebs. The number two spot belongs to Thetford this week, after going to Brattleboro and beating them head to head, with a score of 24-31. #3 Rice was in action twice, and finished middle of the pack both times. #4 Peoples and #5 Stowe rounded out the top 5 for the week, both with limited results so far this season. Look for Bellows Falls to make an appearance in the rankings when they finally put a full team race together.

Individually Cormac Leahy is still top dog with his early season mark of 17:37, but the division is slowly catching up. Junior Tobin Durham of Thetford is the closest, after he posted a 17:42 time at Bellows Falls Union last Tuesday.

VTHSXC.COM Vermont HS Cross Country Poll Results - Oct 19, 2020

Girls Overall Top 10

1. CVU

2. Harwood

3. U32

4. BFA

5. EHS

6. St Jay

7. SB

8. BHS

9. MMU/B&B Tie

10. 
    

Comments:

As more and more results come in, the only constant is that CVU remains in the top spot. The defending State and New England Champions kept rolling at districts with a very strong team performance. From here the voters didn’t agree on any order. Harwood received most of the #2 votes. They have no new results this week but the previous races were enough to keep them here. The next group of teams separated by only a couple of votes. U32 narrowly stays at #3 despite losing to St Jay (#6). BFA (#4) remains ahead of EHS (#5) by one vote. SB (#7) and BHS (#8) continue to chase. MMU and B&B round out the top ten. Different racing formats and top teams not able to race head to head make ranking accurately nearly impossible. The announcement of Vermont's Meet of Champions the week after states will allow all the top teams and individuals to race head to head!

Thurston is the defending over VT champ and remains undefeated this year. Broadley also remains undefeated and has the fastest time in the state with 18:12 (about a 45s improvement from the same race last year). In the past week Emily Bloom has run two sub 19 5ks. One of those sub 19’s was the fastest time of the day at districts. Veronneau and Preston make up the biggest challengers from D1.

As results keep coming in expect more changes and more names to be added to the mix.

Division 1 Girls Top 5

1. CVU

2. BFA/EHS Tie

3. 
   

4. SB/St Jay

5. 
   

Comments:

CVU continues its streak as district champions by finishing 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 16 and 20. The Redhawks always seem to run their best when it counts so it’ll take a special effort for anyone to challenge. BFA and EHS both received votes for the #2 spot. The Hornets 3-4-5 runners have quietly been closing the gap to the rest throughout the season which has helped them beat BFA for the first time this season. BFA still has one of the tightest packs in the state. CVU was the only team to have its five runners in before them. Voters were split on St Jay and SB at the 4th spot. St Jay hasn’t had the opportunity to challenge many of the other D1 teams yet but they did beat U32 who was ranked higher than all but CVU. SB puts up two solid performances in the past week. They are led by a powerful front 1-2-3. BHS did get bumped out of the top 5 but did receive 1 vote for 5th.

Veronneau has two wins in the past week while being highly tested by Preston. Nails/Stimson/Larson/Fisher/Hemond have also shown some very strong performances so far this season. There is potential some results have not yet been released from other D1 schools.

Division 2 Girls Top 5

1. Harwood

2. U32

3. Burr and Burton

4. Midd

5. Lamoille

Comments:

No changes to the D2 rankings as #1Harwood opted not to run the NVAC’s at Craftsbury. #2U32 ran well at that race narrowly losing to D1 St.Jay by a single point. On a positive note for the Raiders Lana Page seems to be regaining the form that has made her All State each of the last two seasons. Will she be enough for U32 to beat the Thurston led Highlander machine? Results remain scarce for #3 Burr and Burton but they were fast when they last ran and could be the wildcard at States. #4Midd is consistent and #5Lamoille has a front runner in McGee.

Division 3 Girls Top 5

1. Bellows Falls

2. BFA Fairfax

3. Rice

4. Hazen

5. ?? Thetford/Randolf

Comments:

The top two team of the division met on Tuesday, with #1 Bellows Falls getting the better of #2 Thetford, 37-38. This strong result from Thetford is the closest anyone in the division has come to #1 Bellows Falls in years. #3 Rice was busy this week, racing its full squad twice. They come in a strong 3rd this week for the rankings,but lack sufficient depth behind their top runner, senior Emily Bloom. The fourth and fifth spots on our list are a bit more fluid, with many teams still in the mix to claim a spot in the top 5 before states on Halloween. #4 Fairfax was in action at NVAC and again 2 days later on Monday, putting forth a scoring team in both races.

Individually,Abigail Broadley (Bellows Falls) still holds the top spot with her 18:12 performance from earlier in the month. Emily Bloom (Rice) ran a PR this week of 18:40 to claim the #2 spot. Outside of the top 2 spots in the division the rest of the field could see a lot of movement, as no athlete has emerged to claim the 3rd spot definitively.