New Prairie Small/Medium School Preview
By: Coach Bob Swank
Small School Writer
For several reasons ranking small schools is extremely difficult. First, results for many of the invitationals that the small schools participate in are extremely difficult to find. For example, already this season, all of the following invitationals had top ten ranked small schools participating, but I was unable to find results for any of them. (Bloomfield Invitational, Greenville Inv., Union Inv., Randolph Southern Inv., Greene County Inv. and several others) Second, the difficulty and accuracy of many of the courses for the invitationals that many of the small schools participate in are usually little more than a guess. Thus when 18 of the 40 top ten ranked small and medium school (boys and girls) teams participate on the same course on the same day, a small school pollsters can get real excited. We will finally get some accurate data on which to base the polls. Five of the top ten teams in both the boy’s and girl’s medium polls will be at New Prairie and 4 of the top ten teams in both the boy’s and girl’s small school polls will be there. It is also likely that an unranked small or medium school will prove by their performance that they have been overlooked. A brief run down of each poll division follows.
MEDIUM SCHOOL BOYS
The five ranked teams participating are: West Lafayette (1), SB St. Joseph’s (4), Culver Academy (5), Oak Hill (7) and Western (10). Also honorable mention Rensselaer will be there. Four teams have separated themselves from the others at the top of the medium school poll. All of the top four have received first place votes sometime this season. Two of the top four (WL and SBSJ) will be at New Prairie. Number four, SB St. Joseph’s may be feeling snubbed as they beat number one West Lafayette earlier this year at the Purdue Inv.. They will be out to show that it was not a fluke. Culver Academy, is ranked 5th but they are far behind fourth. They will try to prove that they belong with or ahead of the top four. Oak Hill (7), Western (10) and honorable mention Rensselear will also be trying to move up. Unfortunately, head to head competition among all these teams may not take place. Because of slight size differences between the New Prairie divisions and Indiana Runner poll divisions, Oak Hill is eligible to compete in the smallest division at New Prairie. Also some of these medium schools may move up to the largest division. (an unconfirmed message board post stated that W. Lafayette would be moving up.) Although I do not believe that times from different races can be compared with complete accuracy, they are certainly better than times from completely different courses.
MEDIUM SCHOOL GIRLS
Again five ranked teams are participating. They are: FW Concordia (2), West Lafayette (4), Culver Academy (6), Fairfield (8) and SB St Joseph’s (9). As in the boys, we may not see all these teams head to head. One or more teams may elect to move up a division. Also even if the entire team does not move up, a team like Culver may elect to move an individual like Waverly Neer up. Nevertheless, we should be able to get a much better feel for where these teams stand in relation to one another.
SMALL SCHOOL BOYS
Four top ten teams (Hebron (3), Carroll (7), Kouts (8) and Triton (10)) will be in attendance. The changes are good that all these teams will stay in the small school division. Hebron looks to be a step ahead of the other three, but Carroll, Kouts and Triton have all had some very fine invitational showings and could surprise. (note: highly regarded medium school, Oak Hill is in the small school race at New Prairie)
SMALL SCHOOL GIRLS
Four ranked teams are entered here including: Tri County (1), Hebron (4), Eastern Greentown (5) and Carroll (10). Preseason number six, Tri County will get a chance to prove that their present number one ranking is deserved. Eastern (Greentown) was unranked in the preseason and has now moved all the way up to 5th. They will get a chance to see how they stack up against number 4 Hebron. Both teams will also take a shot at number one Tri County. This is the division most difficult to find results for and thus most likely to produce a surprise team breaking up the four ranked teams