Ultra running National Rankings: Fall Update

photo: the North Face

photo: Runners World

OK.  First off, if you're wondering what this is all about, or how I came up with this, go back and read the first Ultra National Rankings post I put up in June.  Briefly, as a fan of top-level ultra running, I thought it would be fun to have a system to rank elites (and non-elites) in an objective way.  So, I came up with a system.  The original post outlines much of the thought process that went into it and addresses some of the issues that I've identified with the system (some of which will be tweaked next year, some which will be left alone because I don't think they need changing, and some which are inherent to the system and just won't be able to be fixed).  It's pretty long, but it gives you a good idea of where this comes from, so if you think this might be at all interesting to you, I'd encourage you to read it.  There are a bunch of comments on that post also, much of which is a pretty interesting discussion (which was kind of the whole point), so check those out too.

At the end of that post I listed the top 50 men and women for the year, through May 31.  I'd like to remind everyone that it's not just the top 50 that are ranked; I have, at this point, over 2200 women and 2400 men who have earned at least one ranking point for the year.  Fifty just seemed like a good number to put on the blog, but you can view the entire list if you want.  (Fifty wasn't completely arbitrary either; starting next year, the top 50 will all count toward determining the "field strength multiplier" for each race (which is going to mean so much more work for me, ugh)).  I'm constantly updating the list each week, but my goal was to publish an updated top 50 every few months for people to see.  But, as I explained last week, my computer died, and I fell multiple weeks behind in August and September, so I've just now caught up and have a fresh top 50 for you, which you can scroll down to the bottom of this post to see.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how the rankings are reflecting the results so far.  As you might have guessed by the pics leading off this post, Western States champs Rob Krar and Magdalena Boulet are leading the respective lists, both of whom would be tough to argue with at this point.  Looking down the rest of the top 10-20 on either side, I think the system has done a good job of identifying some folks who are really having some great years.  A few people might be a little over-valued by being prolific, which may get tweaked a little bit next year.  But, being prolific is a skill, too.  It's hard to run an ultra a month at a high level and stay healthy, so in the abstract at least, I don't have too much of an issue with it.

One aspect of this whole project that I've enjoyed the most is that it really highlights athletes who are having outstanding seasons that probably don't get enough attention or credit.  (Not that everyone necessarily wants that, but...)  I mean, everyone knows about Rob's and Magdalena's exploits, but before I did this, I never would have realized how great a year Kathleen Cusick is having, or Paul Terranova, or Nicole Studer, or Bob Shebest.  Hopefully this throws at least a little bit of a spotlight on those folks who aren't the household names in our sport, but are having great years nonetheless.

Of course, it's nowhere near perfect.  Two folks who are definitely too low are Sage Canaday and Camille Herron, both because they haven't run a ton of ultras this year.  Both have run some fast road marathons, which cut into their ultra schedules.  Sage's injury-related DNF at UTMB obviously cost him a shot at a lot of points.  Camille is ranked pretty high at 14th despite having run only two ultras, but in those two races she's won a national title and a world championship, and I'd like to see her in the top 10 at least.  But I think everyone in the top 10 really is deserving.

We'll see how the rest of the season plays out.  Magda has probably locked up the top ranking for the women for the year--and deservedly so, in my opinion--but the top placings on the mens' side are very much up for grabs, particularly with the TNF-EC championships on the not-too-distant horizon.  If we have some significant movement before then, I'll post an updated list in a month or so, but we'll see how it all shakes out.

Again, if you want to view the entire list (alphabetically, not numerically, sorry) please waste a bunch of time at work doing so.  As always, questions/comments/feedback/suggestions are encouraged.

Through October 1

	Men	State	Points	Women	State	Points
1	Rob Krar	AZ	87.5	Magdalena Boulet	CA	171.6
2	Brian Rusiecki	MA	74.75	Stephanie Howe	OR	89.7
3	David Laney	OR	71.1	Aliza Lapierre	VT	78.6
4	Ian Sharman	CA	69.5	Kathleen Cusick	VA	78
5	Seth Swanson	MT	67.8	Kaci Lickteig	NE	73.275
6	Alex Nichols	CO	57.8	Nicole Studer	TX	71.275
7	Bob Shebest	CA	54	Cassie Scallon	CO	61.6
8	Alex Varner	CA	52.6	Larissa Dannis	CA	58.2
9	Jared Hazen	CO	52	Kerrie Bruxvoort	CO	49.4
10	Paul Terranova	TX	52	Hillary Allen	CO	49.25
11	Chikara Omine	CA	50	Katalin Nagy	FL	47.5
12	Justin Houck	WA	48	Emily Richards	NV	46.6
13	Ryan Bak	OR	48	Rachel Ragona	CA	45.25
14	Mario Mendoza	CA	47	Camille Herron	OK	45
15	Benjamin Stern	CA	46.2	Jacqueline Palmer	DE	42
16	Andrew Miller	OR	46	Caroline Boller	CA	41.95
17	Dylan Bowman	CA	44.1	Ashley Erba	CO	40.9
18	Gediminas Grinius	LTH	44	Traci Falbo	IN	40.3
19	Jean Pommier	CA	42	Emma Roca	WV	39.75
20	Ryan Kaiser	OR	41	Lee Conner	OH	39.5
21	Jorge Pacheco	CA	39.3	Angela Shartel	CA	39
22	Mario Martinez	CA	38.4	Silke Koester	CO	37.4
23	Ryan Smith	CO	37.8	Kara Henry	CO	37
24	David Herr	VT	37	Darcy Piceau	CO	34.375
25	Michael Borst	WI	37	Beverly Anderson-Abbs	CA	33.6
26	Nate Jaqua	OR	36	Ashley Lister	PA	32.8
27	Mike Foote	MT	35	Robin Watkins	DC	32.1
28	Michael Wardian	VA	34.85	Meghan Arbogast	CA	32.075
29	Jorge Maravilla	CA	34.6	Alissa St. Laurent	Can	32
30	Sage Canaday	CO	34.5	Amanda Basham	OR	32
31	Christopher Denucci	CA	33.3	Sara Bard	MA	31.225
32	Tim Tollefson	CA	31.5	Joelle Vaught	ID	31.05
33	Tyler Green	OR	30.5	Ashley Nordell	OR	31
34	Chris Vizcaino	CA	30	Mallory Richard	Can	31
35	Nate Polaske	AZ	30	Megan Stegemiller	VA	31
36	Scott Breeden	IN	30	Darla Askew	OR	30.6
37	Scott Traer	MA	30	Neela D’Souza	Can	30.5
38	Timmy Parr	CO	29.5	Janessa Taylor	OR	30
39	Lon Freeman	CA	29	Megan Roche	CA	30
40	Jeff Browning	OR	28.7	Katrin Silva	NM	29.95
41	Daven Oskvig	NY	28.5	Bree Lambert	CA	29.75
42	Nickademus Hollon	CA	27.25	Melanie Fryar	TX	29
43	Mark Austin	ID	27	Kerrie Wlad	CO	28.6
44	Mark Hammond	UT	27	Laura Richard	CA	28.1
45	Oswaldo Lopez	CA	27	Leslie Semler	MA	28.1
46	Karl Schnaitter	CA	26.5	Luanne Park	CA	26.525
47	Nathan Stroh	OR	26.5	Amie Blackham	UT	26
48	Ford Smith	TX	26	Amy Rusiecki	MA	26
49	Gabe Wishnie	WA	26	Suzanna Bon	CA	26
50	Michael Owen	OH	26	Catrin Jones	Can	25.8
	Pete Kostelnick	NE	26
	Ray Sanchez	CA	26