Some of you may have noticed some drastic jumps by a few individuals in the rankings this week. As we've said before, the rankings are still an evolving process, and some of those drastic jumps were a part of that evolution.

One of the items that has concerned us over the course of the year and a half that we've been doing rankings is that upward progression for athletes that made extensive leaps in performance from one year to the next were forced to climb the ladder more slowly than they should. Tyler Devault was a victim of that problem last year. While he ended at roughly the right place, he was extremely undervalued for much of the season. We instituted the Povick Rule during the course of the season last year, and that helped to a certain degree. However, viewing the performances of certain athletes this year compared to how they were ranked showed us a need for a further step. This past week we took that step by instituting the Breakthrough Provision.

The Breakthrough Provision provides an additional 50 points in the rankings to anyone who triggers it. What does it take to trigger the breakthrough provision? It can be triggered in 3 ways. The first way is to net a 30 point gain in two consecutive meets that feature 15 or more ranked runners. The second way is to net a 20 point gain in three consecutive meets of any size. The third way is to net a 15 point gain in four consecutive meets of any size.

The Breakthrough Provision was triggered this past week by the following athletes: Karen Wigal of Morgantown (Consecutive increases of 36, 28, and 24 points), Kristal Hardway of North Marion (Consecutive increases of 25, 19, 17, and 39 points), Amanda Maxwell of Preston (Consecutive increases of 25, 21, and 26 points), Amber Glover of East Fairmont (Consecutive increases of 23, 32, and 27 points), Jennie Spencer of Doddrige (Consecutive increases of 42, 28, and 58), and Greg Cooke of Cabell Midland (Consecutive increases of 25, 34, and 25).

Several more could trigger the provision in their next meet (assuming we get the results), but we'll not spoil the fun by telling you who they are. Just run hard and it might be you.

We also instituted one other change to help people climb more quickly. Previously, we limited the amount you could gain on one individual to 50 points. We have increased that limit to 100 points in meets with at least 10 ranked runners, but you can still only lose 50 to an individual at any meet.

We believe these changes and additions to the rankings will help people move more rapidly to their rightful place in the runner rankings.