Both Middleton and Madison Edgewood remain at the top of their respective divisions following the release of the WISCA Poll on October 7th.
Division 1
Middleton still remains the top team in division 1 after five weeks of retaining that position. Their lead has dropped, however not by anything significant. They’re still over 100 points ahead of second place Arrowhead.
This weekend Middleton won the Highlander Invite which featured nine of the top 12 division 1 teams.
Arrowhead made a big jump this week, moving from 5th to second with 386 points. They’re just one point ahead of Waukesha South-Mukwonago who remain in third with 385 points.
Brookfield East is the only other team that moved up in the rankings this week. They’re now sitting in seventh after their eighth place ranking last week.
Sun Praire fell down from second to fourth despite coming in second at the Highlander Invite. They’re only 22-points behind newly ranked number two Arrowhead. Madison West dropped from fourth to fifth and Verona Area-Mount Horeb are now ranked eighth after being ranked seventh last week.
Cedarburg remains in sixth, Germantown in ninth, and Menomonee Falls-Hamilton in 10th.
No new teams have entered the top 10.
Division 2
There have been no changes to the division 2 rankings since the September 30th rankings which saw plenty of change.
Madison Edgewood still sits on top of Baraboo by 121 points, leading the division for the third week in a row. Madison Edgewood has been ranked first four out of five times this season. On September 16th they were ranked second to Whitnall by 20 points. Whitnall now sits fifth over 200 points behind them.
Baraboo took home the win at the Waunakee Invite this past weekend, winning seven events.
RANKINGS METHODOLOGY
The weekly WISCA polls are computer generated and based on the WISCA Top Times database.
The polls are generated at midnight each Sunday. Individuals are scored in their top two scoring events only.
Points are awarded as follows:
Individuals: 1st Place – 30 points – 30th Place – 1 point (1 point increments)
Relays: 1st Place – 60 points – 30th Place – 2 points (2 point increments)
How does Arrowhead move up to #2 spot when Waukesha South/Mukwonago handed them a loss in their own pool a couple weeks back? I thought golf & tennis rankings were bad. This makes no sense.
Jamie – the rankings are done objectively based on season-best times, not based on head-to-head times, as is explained in the article. So, if Arrowhead swam more slowly that day, but faster on another day, the rankings will have them ahead, even if they lost head-to-head.
There’s lots of ways to rank teams, this is just how WISCA has chosen to do so. It’s a ranking that lends itself more toward a ranking of “how teams would perform at a state meet” than a dual meet, head-to-head style.
Thanks Braden…
Interesting…i must be looking at the best times that are not factored in the overall ranking as it appears if Waukesha/Mukwonago has better times “overall” than Arrowhead. That’s taking the head-to-head out of the equation. I pulled that from WISCA site. Outside of Diving and Back, I’m not seeing how Arrowhead is higher ranked. Maybe I just don’t get WISCA ranking.
Arrowhead has a lot more divers than Waukesha/Mukwonago (who has 0 points from divers right now). There’s some events that Waukesha/Mukwonago has a clear advantage, and some where Arrowhead has a clear advantage. Waukesha has the better swim team thus far, but Arrowhead has a +56 advantage by WISCA poll scoring in diving. With only a 1-point gap between the teams…the diving pretty much explains the difference between what you’re rightly observing in ‘times’ and what the rankings show.
One other note about the WISCA methodology: it’s based on ranks to 30th place. The state meet is scored to 16 places. This approach has both positives and negatives. Going to 30 accounts for nearly ever swimmer who could plausibly score (which is good), but it also over rates the value of depth come state meet time (which is bad). This means that the rankings should be viewed as a bit imprecise. Edgewood and Midleton are way out front. From this ranking, they should be viewed as strong favorites (which matches conventional wisdom). Teams whose point totals are close together should be seen as essentially tied. Any teams within 20-30 points are basically ranked equal in this poll. Arrowhead and… Read more »