Cross country regionals

Congratulations to the Rensselaer boys cross country team, which came in fourth at the regionals. They beat New Prairie and Portage(!). The idea of Rensselaer beating Portage would have been crazy a few years ago when Portage was a powerhouse in cross country. Results are here. Next week they have semi-state, where they are unlikely to be top six. However, they may be top ten, which would be awesome and probably better than any boys cross country team has ever done. (In cross country big schools and little schools all compete together, which means that it is almost impossible for a small school to make it to state.)

Update: Congratulations are also due to the Tri-County girls team that placed third in the Harrison Regional. They were only a few points (58) behind Harrison (52) and West Lafayette (57). I thought they would be third, but I did not expect them to be only a point behind West Lafayette.

indianarunner.com has a poll ranking medium sized schools and small schools. The Rensselaer boys team is ranked sixth in the medium schools, and Tri-County girls are first in the small schools.

It would be historic if Tri-County could get out of semi-state to the state meet. If Indiana had a class system in cross country, Tri-County probably would be state champions of the small schools.

Update 2: Monday's Rensselaer Republican reported, "For the first time in school history, Rensselaer Central will send a boys’ cross county team to this week’s semistate at New Prairie." In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, Rensselaer made it just about every year. They usually finished 17th or 18th in the field of 20. However, it was easier to qualify then because the Harrison regional was not as competitive as the New Prairie regional is now.