NXN Heartland and Cedar Rapids Prairie

[Brianruns10]

What are your thoughts on Cedar Rapids Prairie? I'm compiling data on the top ten teams to look out for at Heartland NXN this Sunday, and they've got me stumped. ESPN/Dyestat's rankings has them pretty low, 7th at last check, yet their times are some of the fastest I've seen. Going just by the numbers, I'd be tempted to rank them above Wayzata. But I could be missing something.

What all do you think? How would you place them?

And while we're at it, what are people's thoughts on the heartland region as a whole?

Based on my stats, I'm putting Wayzata, Edina, Cedar Rapids Prarie and SMNW as lead contenders, with Mad West, Eden Prairie and Arrowhead close behind/potential upsets.

[The Profit]

Heartland is ridiculous this year with how they have raced. I looked into Cedar and they are pretty tough.

I think Wayzata is the clear favorite then after that I have to go with Eden Prairie or Cedar Rapids. Then I'd put Edina, Arrowhead, Madison West and that Kansas team Shawnee Mission Northwest I believe. It may work in Eden Prairie's favor if all these teams are this close. Because it will just push everyone's 3-5 back farther and if they can get their 4 and 5 in the mix at all, they will be extremely dangerous with their very good trio up front. The individual battle for the heartland should be pretty interesting as well.

[Smitbob04]

I think that Cedar Rapids is underrated because of the fact that they don't travel to any nationally recognized meets, like the Roy Griak. If they were able to go there, i think dyestate and espnrise would rank them much higher just because they're going to meet that they may know and recognize. With regards to the quality of thier team, cedar rapids prairie is very deep and have been all year round. They have basically two groups on varsity, they have two front runners, and then a pack of 4 to 5 runners about 25 seconds behing those two. I think that with everyone running around there pr's, that they can have 6 runners under 16:00 and upset wayzata. It will be a fight in the middle of the race where the 3 to 5 runners are, and I think that is where the race will be won.