Confusion at the Top: Girls Class AA Cross

Call me crazy, but I'd like to know just who the best Class AA girls cross country team is this year.

Or, who the best five teams are.

If you've followed the results and the coaches' ratings, you know it's quite the exquisite mess to try to untangle. In the latest ratings released Monday, undefeated Brainerd is ranked #1, but that doesn't tell half the story.

It would in the relatively stable universe of Class AA Boys and Class A, where we seem to have a pretty good idea of where things stand. No so, with the big school girls.

So follow me -- if you dare! -- into the Bizarro World that is Girls Class AA ...

The season starts out normally enough. Lakeville North gets ranked #1 in the pre-season poll. Prior Lake nips them by three points at the Irish Invitational, but that just means there are two really strong programs vying for the Class AA crown. Right?

Sorta ... North surprisingly holds on to its #1 rating in the next poll despite the defeat -- on the strength of their jayvee runners, I'm told -- but a week later they end up on the wrong side of a tight, three-way team finish at Faribault. Un-ranked Eden Prairie wins with 81 points; White Bear Lake (third at Irish) totals 86; North tallies 89.

When the next set of ratings appear, Prior Lake -- which competed elsewhere -- rises to the top of the poll ... North falls to 6th, but giant-killers Eden Prairie rank only #4.

A week later, last weekend, the movable feast that is the Class AA girls cross country season arrived in Lakeville. North, Prior Lake, and White Bear clashed ... and, one might have hoped, sorted things out for those of us that prefer the universe to make sense.

Nope. The winner there: un-ranked, un-known, un-foreseen ... Burnsville!

The Blaze packed all five of its scorers into a span of 11.5 seconds to win the meet with 66 points. WBL had 82, North scored 88, #1 Prior Lake tallied 103.

And when the latest rankings came out yesterday, a team that starts with "B" topped the tables ...

Brainerd.

The northern Minnesota squad has avoided the metro-area fray, so far, and has put together an unbeaten record in 2007. It would be convenient if they are, indeed, head-and-shoulders better than all the teams trumping one-another weekend-to-weekend down here. I've got my doubts, though -- seems too easy!

Burnsville did enter the rankings for the first time this season at #3 behind their alliterative, undefeated out-state rivals and fellow #1-beaters Eden Prairie ... who won handily at the Metro Invite last weekend over defending State Champs Woodbury. Our best guess is that the pollsters are a little fearful of Burnsville's apparent lack of depth.

Heading into Lollapaloozian portion of the high school season -- the Milaca Mega-Meet and the Griak Invitational come this weekend and next -- I'm expecting the wild ride in Girls Class AA to continue. It seems more likely that the churn atop the rankings and meet results will continue rather than abate.

Sure, a team or two could show a special consistency or emerge as clearly superior. If I had to bet, though, I'd wager that at least a half-dozen teams will dig in on the St. Olaf starting line at the State Meet with utterly realistic hopes of hoisting the winner's trophy by the end of the day.

And, it wouldn't even surprise me -- not this year -- if a team not mentioned in this post drives home in the happiest bus that day.