With talk of realignments for the North Bay League many coaches seem to favor going to a super league for cross country with all 13 schools in one league rather than two divisions.
Thought I would play with that idea.
There are a million ways you could do this, here is just one.
Based off of the 2019 finals results here are how, in the box below, the schools looked strength wise.
No one wants to have 12 dual meets in a year so some combining would need to be done.
I have divided the schools into four, somewhat, balanced groups.
If over three meet dates you had each group take on one of the other groups you would finish with each school competing against the schools in the other three groups once each. For dual records you could decide to have the official dual vs the other schools in your own group as either the first or last date.
Every school would get to compete at Spring Lake (course used for the finals) at least once.
Some advantages include: 1. every week no school has to compete were they would be the only complete school at the meet and there would be an actual team competition, 2 still only four weeks of duals vs a possible five (in a division of six schools) and as mentioned no meets that has all forfeits.
Disadvantage includes having to run against the other schools in your group each week.
Every year or two the groups would be readjusted to maintain balance and keep schools from being with the same schools in a group each year.
Track & Field could also switch to a method like this if they wanted.
Boys Girls 81:55 98:34 Maria Carrillo 84:27 103:52 Santa Rosa 86:44 105:01 Piner 90:46 112:18 Montgomery 93:09 112:19 Analy 88:45 118:59 Ukiah ?89:07 4 Windsor 89:23 2 Healdsburg 4 3 Rancho Cotate 5 2 El Molino 5 1 Cardinal Newman 5 1 Elsie Allen St Vincent
Week 1
A vs B at Spring Lake (Maria Carrillo hosts)
C vs D at Foothill Park (Piner hosts)
Week 2
A vs C at Ukiah (Ukiah hosts)
B vs D at Spring Lake (Montgomery hosts)
Week 3
A vs D at Rancho Cotate (RC hosts)
B vs C at Spring Lake (Santa Rosa hosts)
Finals
All schools at Spring Lake
Group A
Maria Carrillo
Healdsburg
Rancho Cotate
Group B
Santa Rosa
Windsor
El Molino
Group C
Piner
Ukiah
Cardinal Newman
Group D
Montgomery
Analy
Elsie Allen
St Vincent
Some would not like the idea of running against the Puma’s each week, understandably.
Currently it is tough to make something balanced with the current strength of the Puma’s.
Doubt anyone would consider this but you could make them their own group like this.
Group A
Maria Carrillo
Group B
Santa Rosa
Windsor
Rancho Cotate
St Vincent
Group C
Piner
Ukiah
Healdsburg
Cardinal Newman
Group D
Montgomery
Analy
El Molino
Elsie Allen