Who Makes The Cut? OSR Introduces New Balance Power Rankings

Who’s No. 1? Who’s moving up? Who’s breaking into the rankings?

Those are the questions we’ll answer each week with our newest feature on Ocean State Running—the New Balance Power Rankings. Together with us here at OSR and a panel of knowledgeable, unbiased coaches, we’ll be ranking the top 10 girls’ and boys’ cross-country teams in Rhode Island throughout the fall season.

With the dual-meet portion of the campaign kicking off this week, the timing couldn’t be better to launch this feature. Every Monday or Tuesday, we’ll reveal our updated rankings, based on how teams performed during the week, including weekend competitions. Each member of our panel will submit their top-10 lists, and the consensus at each spot will determine the standings.

Thanks to the beauty of the internet, we’re able to follow league meets, top invitationals, and even out-of-state competitions. But we also want to make sure we don’t miss anything. That’s where you come in—if your team competed outside Rhode Island or had a standout performance, let us know! Send details to OSR at smazzone5@gmail.com so we can keep our rankings as accurate and complete as possible.

Below are our preseason rankings, originally compiled last month during our summer preview.

Check back each week to see how the list changes. For teams that move up or down, a number in parentheses will indicate their previous ranking. Teams appearing in bold will mark newcomers to the top 10. In addition, we’ll highlight squads just outside the cut as Honorable Mention candidates.

***

CURRENT TOP-10 RANKINGS

GIRLS

1. North Kingstown
2. La Salle Academy
3. Cumberland
4. East Greenwich
5. Barrington
6. Moses Brown
7. Mount Hope
8. Prout School
9. North Smithfield
10. Smithfield

BOYS

1. Bishop Hendricken
2. North Kingstown
3. La Salle Academy
4. Cumberlland
5. East GReenwich
6. Barrington
7. St. Raphael Academy
8. South Kingstown
9. Smithfield
10. Mount Hope