New sectional assignments

UPDATE: This entry was originally posted last spring, I am bringing it forward because I'm not sure any one saw it back then and I think that it is relevant. Make sure you click the read more tab at the end to see the full analysis.
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The new sectional assignments are out and they are very interesting. Whitefish bay is still in D1 so we wont get to run against them this year. Our new sectional is a lot closer to home, so we should be able to draw more spectators. The teams involved are also a big step up so we will have to give an honest effort to move on next year. The new race will be at Milwaukee Lutheran and it looks like this :

SECTIONAL #8 - MILWAUKEE LUTHERAN
Brown Deer, Catholic Memorial, Grafton, Greendale, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Martin Luther, Messmer, Milwaukee Lutheran, New Berlin Eisenhower, New Berlin West, Racine St. Catherine’s, Saint Francis, Saint Joan Antida (Girls), Shorewood, Thomas More, Union Grove, Wisconsin Lutheran.


Wisconsin Lutheran was third in the D1 race last year, and Catholic Memorial has been right behind us for two years now. This will be fun!


Update:

I did a little checking ...

Wisconsin Lutheran took third in D1 last year. That included Pede who was first in the team scoring. He was a senior and so wont be back. Their third runner was also a senior. The other five were juniors. Their times range from 16:49 to 18:13. They will have at least three solid seniors next year ( sub 17:40).

Catholic Memorial took second in D2 last year. They only had one senior in their top seven. That was Weissenr, he was their #2 and ran 17:09. Their top three runners next year will be seniors and they should all be under 17:30. After that they have two freshman returning who ran right at 18:00.

We are losing our number two and number six runner from the last race. On paper if we can find a fifth runner under 17:40 we will be more than competitive, but we have no room for injuries this year.

Finally, just for fun I put the five returning runners from each team in a hypothetical race. I gave them their times from the state meet and then scored the imaginary race.

results:

Shorewood 32
Wisco 43
CM 45

As you can see, the three teams are about dead even in terms of returning talent.

And for those of you who really like irrelevant what if scenarios ... If you plug the Wisco times from the D1 race into the D2 results we would have beat them.


Clearly though, our new sectional has arguably the three best D2 teams in the state, so some very good team is going to be left home.

Of course anything can happen between now and then.