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Chasing History: The long legacy of high school cross countryPublished by
CHASING HISTORYThe long legacy of high school cross country It wasn’t that long ago that cross country teams across America waited by the mail for the arrival of Marc Bloom’s Harrier Magazine ranking updates. Each year questionnaires would go out to his thousands of coaches and contacts that he had developed over the decades he passionately covered the sport. He would organize them and produce in-depth pamphlets that over time became the standard of performance. I personally have wondered what compels a single person to try and persist in the unthinkable task of bringing national notoriety to a previously marginalized sport. We may never know what really inspired Marc Bloom but I am sure even he never foresaw the outcome of the Nike Cross National Championship from his effort. Along the way to this extraordinary sporting event there were teams from states who were left out, marginalized by the unfairness of state association rules or by selection committees. To the casual observer it was not a “big deal” but to those who knew history, that long line of greatness that led to the event, it could not go unaddressed. We at xcnation went to work, digging through microfilms, newspapers, calling coaches and athletes off state championship teams across America going back 30 years, and even reached out to the trackandfieldnews archives. We did this for the sport and along the way compartmentalized every known component of each championship team and formulated an evolving formula to determine how a team’s performance related to their current year competitors as well as history. In 2012 Michigan had some teams that were undoubtedly top 25 and with two teams who competed at the national championship level. They deserved to be measured and recognized. To the athletes on the marginalized teams having their hard work recognized matters. Rankings are important only in as much as they recognize teams that otherwise would not receive notoriety for their effort. The two dozen teams who compete at NXN are not always the best two dozen in America, despite the “close to target” effort of NXN. Out of the need for fairness final rankings should not be decided by a single event but instead a comprehensive analysis of all performers, whether their season ended at the State Championship, Foot Locker, or NXN. We have been asked continually what it is we look at in our analysis of teams. While formula and weighting specifics won’t be shared the areas of focus are as follows:
Let there be no misunderstanding, NXN is king and they rule the kingdom, however they do not govern the history and there is a fairness and honesty to be found in a third party reviewer. Each year we perform rankings in relation to that current year’s competition. After the season internally we review those against history just so we can see the historical nature of certain teams. However, this year we were surprised on the boys side by 3 teams who when compared against this year’s competitors all scored a perfect 1.000 score. Meaning, that on any given Saturday one of them would win in relation to the measured pool of competing teams. Therefore, we made the decision to adjust the rankings against history in order to expand the metrics and display the margins between each of them. In regards to history, the top boys’ team of all time is 1977 Deerfield High School out of Deerfield, Illinois. Comprehensive coverage on their amazing back-to-back national championships can be found at xcnation.com. On the girl’s side, the 2009 Fayetteville Manlius squad was so dominant that they skew the rankings and perhaps no team will ever compare. Listed are the top 10 teams (end of season) from 1970 to present:Boys:
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