For the better part of the decade, the best girls teams in Virginia have come from Northern Virginia and more specifically regions 6C and 6D. This year is no difference with W.T. Woodson, West Springfield, and James W. Robinson all vying for the top spot in our rankings.
In our first iteration of our subjective rankings we had these teams ranked Woodson - Robinson - (Glen Allen) - then West Springfield. Things have been shaken up though following the first two weeks of the regular season.
It all started at the Monroe Parker Invite where these three teams squared off. Ultimately winning was West Springfield (57) ahead of Woodson (81) and Robinson (112).
If you just took those results at face value, it would make for a great order but then the results came in this weekend and at the Wolverine XC Invite it was Robinson putting on a show... this time with freshmen Petra Gruendel in their varsity lineup.
And now, that brings us to our newest edition of our team rankings. In these rankings we have moved Robinson up to the top spot followed by West Springfield and then W.T. Woodson.
This move came solely based on Petra Gruendel moving into the varsity ranks because when you do that, the Monroe Parker results change. The old results were 57-81-112 and the new results would be 61-65-86 with the new order being WS - Robinson - Woodson.
Though West Springfield does still take the win, we think that after seeing the results at Wolverine XC, we would rank James W. Robinson slightly ahead of West Springfield.
We would say there is one big thing to note about this Robinson team but really there are five. That is that the entire top five is returning again next year and seven of their top eight are too. This team is gearing up to be one of the better teams we've seen in quite some time if they continue to improve. But first, they want that title in November.
Last year it was West Springfield beating Robinson by two points and WT by three. The year before that it was West Springfield taking down Langley.
Year after year, West Springfield finds a way to win the big one and that could very well be the case this year too but just like last year, it is very tight up front between these three giants.
For now, James W. Robinson looks to be our top team but in a month's time the entire order could be flipped.