Bloom's Preseason Picks — CBA, FM

Marc Bloom — a senior contributor at Runner's World — has released his high school cross country top 25s and the Armory region (New York State and the Northeast Corridor) is widely represented.

In fact, the top boys' team comes from just an hour down the Garden State Parkway as Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft, N.J., returns five key runners, headed by George Kelly, to a team that took fifth at the Nike Cross Nationals. In addition, three New York teams — Shaker High of the Albany area; Fayetteville-Manlius High of the Syracuse region; and Rush Henrietta High near Rochester — are all ranked in the top 20.

Shaker — recently featured by The Armory's Christopher Hunt — is ranked No. 10, followed by FM (No. 15) and Rush Henrietta (No. 17).

The girls' side is even more region-dominated as Fayetteville-Manlius, led by Christie Rutledge, and North Shore High of Long Island are ranked No. 1 and No. 2. While Bloom gives FM the top nod for a sixth-straight NXN championship, he does write the North Shore's "over-the-top talent" puts the Vikings "on the short list of national contenders."

Also in the rankings are Saratoga Springs (No. 6); Voorhees High of New Jersey (No. 13); Pennsbury High, north of Philadelphia (No. 18); and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (No. 23).

For Bloom's full report on DyeStat, please click here.