I know these are a little late, but if you haven’t seen the Section 1 rankings at the armory website click here to view them.

After you take a look at them, here are some of my thoughts:

Boys 

Class AA

Arlington has yet to run in any major invitational, but we all know how good this team is. North Rockland takes a big step early in the season. At the start of the season it was definitely behind Suffern. Now a few weeks later North Rockland looks very impressive. Suffern is good and I think it will be flip-flopping with North Rockland all season. Mahopac, while winning the section is a long shot, it is going to give some teams problems and take away a lot of points from teams.

Class A

Fox Lane is definitely the team to beat. It has such a solid front five it will be tough to beat. But Horace Greeley had a real strong race last weekend and will not go away. While Fox Lane is the best team in the class right now, it will definitely be tested. Somers promises to put up a challenge, while Brewster and Yorktown will need to develop some more depth before the end of the season. Although, Yorktown has the fastest runner in the class in Manu Kumar.

Class B

Pearl River has the best runner, but it also has some depth behind Mike Hickey. This is also the defending champs, and are still the team to beat. Watch out for Byram Hills. It will not give up the class without a fight. It was close last year and it should be close this year. Kennedy, Putnam Valley and Rye are all pretty closely knit.

Class C

This is turning out to be one of the more interesting classes in section 1. In the state rankings, Bronxville is the highest ranked school, but here it is 4th behind Pawling, Irvington and Dobbs Ferry. I think Dobbs Ferry has the edge right now because it has more depth and can place runners in between Irvington’s top two. But Irvington has yet to run a complete race. Bronxville should be right with the first two teams. It should be pretty competive.

Girls

Class AA

Interestingly, Suffern and Arlington are tied at the top. I still think Arlington has the advantage, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Suffern takes over the class. With the best runner in the state, it’ll be tough to beat Suffern. Mahopac definitely moved up this list and is going to be here all season. North Rockland took a step back this week in the rankings. This team needs to find some more depth. Carmel is still a tough team.

Class A

Ursuline is the best team in the class. This is a young team that will continue to get better. Brewster has good talent, but will need to improve a good amount to take over Ursuline. As of right now, this is a two-team race, with the top team haveing a sizable advantage.

Class B

Pearl River is just so good it’s scary. It’s a race for second in this class. Kennedy, Nanuet and Ardsley all have equal ability with Kennedy getting the advantage because of its two lead runners. But Nanuet will definitely push them.

Class C

Again…Bronxville is the best in Westchester. Again it’s a race for second. It’s between Irvington and Pawling for second. Irvington has a great lead runner, but need to find some more depth. Neither team has enough to challenge Bronxville who could well be on its way (along with Pearl River) to a state title.