2026 XC Division Assignments

 Schools are placed into certain leagues based on many factors (geography, enrollment, overall competitiveness to name a few). A team's divisional assignment in track is solely based on the league they belong to, such as the WAC is assigned D4 and the CCAL is assigned D2. But in XC the divisional assignment is only based on a school's enrollment. Some schools are firmly locked into their divisions ie the community has very little growth or the school is so large. But a few schools are close to the bottom or top of the division and a small jump or a small decrease in enrollment may cause a divisional shift and thus make them either more or less competitive (look at Tokay 2127 is the last team in D1 and Cordova 2126 is the first team in D2--one student was the difference)

 The highlighted teams are the ones that I cover for South SJS Distance in cross-country. The different colors indicate the different leagues.

A few things to notices such as the huge enrollment disparity in the VOL (purple) between D1 Mountain House and D5 Central Catholic. Also Central Valley, which by every measure that I listed in the top paragraph, should be in the CCAL; and its WAC competitor Livingston, which has about half the enrollment.

There are a few big changes in divisional alignment from last year:

1. SIERRA HS--gained about 70 kids and moves from D3 to D2

2. BUHACH COLONY HS--lost about 35 students and goes from D2 to D3.

3. SUMMERVILLE HS--gained about 180 individuals and jumps from D5 to D4. 

 

What does any of this mean...well the different divisions qualify a different number of teams to State based on how past SJS teams in that division have performed at State. In other words, the better this year's teams from D2 place at state the more qualifying spots SJS will get from D2 in the future. Of course the opposite is true also...for SJS D5 has been our weakest division at State, so there are only two qualifying teams from that division each year.

 

With that info in mind let's look at what happened to Summerville. They qualified both their boys and girls for State last year in D5 (the weakest division in the SJS). With the enrollment bump to D4, they are now in a much more competitive division, and qualifying for State will be a lot tougher. A few years ago both Waterford and Bret Harte experienced a switch from D5 to D4. Historically D2 is the toughest bracket in the SJS (yes that is my opinion) and D3 much less so...so Sierra moving up from D3 to D2 likely makes section and State qualification more difficult. Buhach, however moved the opposite direction which might make things easier. 

 

To some up...for most local teams they are in the same divisional as last year. There were a few changes which might be a qualifying factor either for their individual runners or for their teams once we get to the end of the season.