Minnesota cross country will have 3 classes starting next fall.

It's about time. Minnesota shouldn't have only two classes. You've got high schools in a large metro area, and then tiny farm towns, and a lot in between. Splitting schools into only two divisions still leaves a large range of sizes of schools.

Now how long for Illinois to stop having only two classes? They've got a similar situation, but possibly even more extreme since Chicago is bigger and still a ton of rural towns.

Meanwhile some states like Iowa and Nebraska have at least 4 divisions even though the differences in school size isn't nearly as extreme from city to rural as these other states can be.

Indiana is single class. Only one Champion.

Alan

going to HS in wisconsin i always thought it was goofy that we had 3 divisions in cross country and track while minnesota, with a near identical population and similar urban/rural divide, had only 2. also it's hilarious that football in WI has like 8 divisions or something outrageous like that.

hard working 16:30 kids in the west metro, rejoice!

Oh! I thought you were referring to Male, Female, and Other! My bad...

Spainflyer wrote:

Oh! I thought you were referring to Male, Female, and Other! My bad...

You are about 3 years ahead in your thinking.

This is a good thing wrote:

Now how long for Illinois to stop having only two classes? They've got a similar situation, but possibly even more extreme since Chicago is bigger and still a ton of rural towns.

Illinois has three classes, has been that way for years.

And most of the Chicago schools (especially for cross) are in the small school division. The large schools are the suburban schools. Large city does not equal large school.

So some teams that were in AA that won’t be in AAA like Worthington will have a better chance to qualify to state and Highland Park will have a better chance to win the state meet.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Indiana is single class. Only one Champion.

Alan

That's wild. Even basketball went to divisions.

What is the West Metro?

jecht wrote:

What is the West Metro?

He is likely referring to the western suburbs in the metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities. These cities are not twins either but you may know them by the names of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They are the two largest cities in a state known as Minnesota which is in the United States of America.

Oh, ok, he had originally mentioned Wisconsin so I thought it was maybe a reference to the suburbs or section of Milwaukee.

Go Vikings! (I have a friend whose family is from Minneapolis).

This is a good thing wrote:

It's about time. Minnesota shouldn't have only two classes. You've got high schools in a large metro area, and then tiny farm towns, and a lot in between. Splitting schools into only two divisions still leaves a large range of sizes of schools.

Now how long for Illinois to stop having only two classes? They've got a similar situation, but possibly even more extreme since Chicago is bigger and still a ton of rural towns.

Meanwhile some states like Iowa and Nebraska have at least 4 divisions even though the differences in school size isn't nearly as extreme from city to rural as these other states can be.

Four classes in Nebraska is ridiculous. The competition is watered down and smaller class runners never reach their potential or have an opportunity to compete at a respectable level, same with track. Worse yet, there are seven classes for football in Nebraska. One year, the second largest class only had about 20 teams for football and 16 teams made the playoffs.

Luv2Run wrote:

Runningart2004 wrote:

Indiana is single class. Only one Champion.

Alan

That's wild. Even basketball went to divisions.

Yep. I do love it when David beats Goliath though. We've had many individual champs from smaller schools and smaller schools place high but really the big schools are the ones who win it all.

4000+ student Carmel is one of the largest schools in the nation (top 20 I think)

Alan

Some states have 6 classes for XC. Virginia is an example.

jecht wrote:

Oh, ok, he had originally mentioned Wisconsin so I thought it was maybe a reference to the suburbs or section of Milwaukee.

Go Vikings! (I have a friend whose family is from Minneapolis).

yeah i'm referring to the western suburbs of the twin cities, which has a disproportionate amount of the running talent. they have the double whammy of high population and affluent striver types who like to run. the section that OP mentions is insanely hard to qualify for the state meet from. Wayzata is a huge, rich school that routinely will have their top 5 under 16:30. probably somewhat equivalent to the NCAA region with Colorado, NAU, etc.

I'm from Ohio. Live in Cbus, but was from CLE for 30 years.

It sounds similar to rich suburbs or big Catholic schools in CLE (Solon, Rocky River, St. Ed., St. Iggy, Mentor), or CIN (Moeller, Elder, St. X, Madiera, St. Ursula).

Cbus has a few good schools (UA, Hillard Darby, the various Dublin HSes, etc.).

Go Vikings!

Runningart2004 wrote:

Luv2Run wrote:

That's wild. Even basketball went to divisions.

Yep. I do love it when David beats Goliath though. We've had many individual champs from smaller schools and smaller schools place high but really the big schools are the ones who win it all.

4000+ student Carmel is one of the largest schools in the nation (top 20 I think)

https://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/boys%20sports/crosscountry/Boys%20Cross%20Country%20Records%20Book.pdf

Alan

Brebeuf Jesuit Prep from IN hasn’t won state yet?

I guess next year could be their first year they do that. They got 3rd last year and are returning their 1-5.

Wayzata currently has around 6 or 7 guys sub 4:40 and 4 in the low 4:30s. Only 1 of the low 4:30 guys is a senior but 30% of our top guys are injured right now.

I predict that the Wayzata boys will win state next year and win the NXR Heartland if it happens.