Boys XC Preseason Rankings: #21

<p> <span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">NCRunners is counting down the top 25 boys teams heading into the fall season. &nbsp;The full rankings will be released on the first day of official practice: Friday, August 1st. &nbsp;These are subjective rankings (not computer generated); they take into account returning team rankings, returning team averages, team rankings in the 1600 and 3200 from indoor and outdoor track, and a school&#39;s &quot;Improvement Rating.&quot; &nbsp;Improvement Rating is a custom metric developed by researching the improvement in a team&#39;s 5-person average from year to year, in comparison to that same team&#39;s ranking. &nbsp;Improvement Rating numbers and methodology will be released on the weekend of August 2nd.</span></p>

Green Hope lost their top four runners after a fantastic finish to the 2013 fall season, but they still have enough depth to run well.

 

	Green Hope (NC)
	1) Henry Pehr		16:25.05	78
	2) Carter Lux		16:42.47	127
	3) Michael Kolor		17:11.87	227
	4) Brian Huitt		17:27.32	298
	5) Patrick Stylski		17:28.02	301
	Average Time: 17:02.95 Total Time: 1:25:14.73 1-5 Split: 1:02.97
	6) Matthew Horan		17:34.31	329
	7) Owen Dreikosen		17:43.18	380

Unfortunately, the Green Hope boys are going to be largely starting over in the leadership department in 2014: the top 4 runners on last year's team (which finished 6th with a great performance at the 4A state meet) were all seniors.  Those seniors also played a pivotal role on the Falcons' very strong 4x800 both indoors and outdoors, although the returning runners still posted solid team track times.  There is enough firepower back to project this team as 4th-best in the tough Mideast 4A, though, and that's enough to solidify them as a top-25 team overall.  As you might expect from a program that has been known to have well over 100 boys on the team, Green Hope's biggest asset this fall will be depth, with a strong connection from runner 3 through runner 7.  If a 2 or 3 of those depth runners become sub-17 guys in 2014, then the Falcons will be back in the state meet, though a second straight top-10 finish there might be difficult to achieve.

• 2013 XC Returning Team Ranking: 21st

• 2014 Outdoor Returning Team 1600 Ranking: 15th

• 2014 Outdoor Returning Team 3200 Ranking: 16th

• 5-Year Improvement Rating: 6.300 (17th)

• 3-Year Improvement Rating: 4.619 (23rd)