An absolutely HUGE week in MA XC, so a lot going on in the rankings.  Last weekend we had three major meets (Bay State Invite, Catholic Memorial Invite, Brown Invite) with upsets that brought HUGE changes in the rankings, and two rather major dual meets involving top 10 teams.

Team (Last Week's Ranking) * = Outside Top Ten Last Week

1. Methuen (2)- Yup, we've got a new number one in town, and while I expected them to win, I have kept Lowell up top since they hadn't done anything to give me reason to drop them.... until now.  Methuen beat Lowell on Wednesday by a score of 23-32 on the 2.87 mile course.  Jared Reddy won the race (as expected) in a CR time of 14:40. Notable was Tyler Sullivan's 15:12 fourth place finish, because he fell, breaking his wrist at the start (it was ruled a false start), and still ran a tremendous race.

2. Mansfield (3)- With an impressive victory at the Bay State Invitational on Northfield Mountain, the defending champs catapault themselves into second place.  Impressive victory with sme solid top ten teams competing in it and at a very tough course.

3. Lowell (1)- I was hoping to see a closer meet between them and Methuen.  Although they still ran a great race (Giardina took second place and also broke the old course record), it was not as close as it should have been.  I never really had faith in Lowell (although I kept them at the top anyway), and this affirms my lack thereof.

4. Brookline (6)- Impressive second place finish at Bay State Invite, and a win over fellow top ten team Newton North affirms Brookline's spot in the top five.

5. Marshfield (*)- I had been thinking about putting them in them in the top ten... but not this high.  However, after their third place finish at All States, they become immediate contenders. 

6. Nashoba (9)- They didn't race on the biggest weekend of the year so far!  Well... that may have helped them based on the performances of other teams... they get bumped up.

7. Newton North (7)- The only team in the top ten that holds their spot.  They lost to Brookline in a dual meet, but they are still a good team.  No invitational for them last weekend.

8. St. John's Shrewsbury (*)- IMPRESSIVE fourth place finish at Bay States puts them back into the top ten.

9. Westboro (8)- Disappointing finish at Bay States, but I expect they were missing some guys to the PSAT... thus I keep them in the top ten.

10. Shrewsbury (10)- They did nothing this week, so they hold their spot.

Outside the Top 10

• What happened to St. John's Prep?  They are injury plagued.  They have been all season, but I have had confidence they will be healthy for championship season.  I still do, but some of the performances from public schools against them in Bay States impressed me too much.  Expect them back in the top ten... soon.
• Andover ran a HUGE race at Bay States, but they were so far down on my list before I simply could not stick them in the Top 10 yet.  However, if they keep running like they did at Northfield, expect them in the top ten soon.
• Coming out of nowhere at Bay States was Concord Carlisle.  God knows where they came from for seventh place.  Impressive, but perhaps a "PSAT hoax".

On the D2 Front

• Impressive victory for Pembroke at the Brown Invite in Rhode Island, affirming their position at the top of D2.
• Newburyport won the D2 race at the Bay State Invite, affirming their spot in second place in Division 2.
• Performance of the Week came from Johnny Gregorek of Seekonk, running a BLISTERING 15:56 at Bay States.  Northfield is a wicked slow course (some say as much as a twenty seconds from Franklin Park in Boston), so that is like running a 15:40 or lower at Franklin... and he did it all alone!

On the Girls Side

• Lincoln Sudbury with an impressive win at Brown, affirming their spot at the top of the MA charts.
• Bishop Feehan edges out Hamilton Wenham (both D2 girls schools) at Bay States, in a ten point win that was a little too close for comfort for the number 3 overall team in the state and arguably the #3 team in the Northeast.
• Franklin with an impressive third place at CMIs, nearly beating out Bishop Guertin (NH).

This weekend really confused me... private schools took the PSAT last Wednesday (they get out of class for it), and so most public high school juniors and sophomores took it on Saturday (they day of all these meets).  Oddly, however, despite many of these public schools being without their top sophomores and juniors, they outperformed the private schools!  I really don't understand that, but it happened nonetheless.

Anyway, this is a slow weekend in MA XC.  No meets, and then next week most conferences will have their league championship, with most of them occuring on Halloween.  Then on November 7th we will have the MSTCA Coaches Invite (a rather bleh meet), and then on the 14th we will see the State Divisional Meets, with the All State Meet following the week after.  Ladies and gentlemen, it is championship season in Massachusetts! :D