There might be some final tweaks after a few state championships conclude, but the Girls High School Top 20 has made its big changes for the season, thanks to an eye-opening national championships in mid-May.

The biggest realization was the general distancing of the West Coast teams from the rest of the field. Fallbrook, Kent, Danville and Pleasanton finished in the top five at DI nationals, and newcomer South Bay won DII (interestingly, the previous three DII titles have gone to California teams making their debuts at nationals: 2013 Fullerton, 2014 Pleasanton, 2015 South Bay). Consequently, other West Coast teams that didn’t compete at nationals but played some crossover games during the season – like Grant and Beaverton – were viewed in higher regard, based on their results.

The Midwest teams fell off a bit, with champion Divine Savior Holy Angels going 1-2, and Catholic Memorial competing in DII and losing in the final. Therefore, the region’s representation on the top 20 was also affected. The East Coast teams were on par with past performances, coming in behind the West and Midwest.

The only exception to the regional comparisons is Sacramento. In a one-off game, at home, the Amazons would likely beat DSHA, for example. But if we’re going to rely on all of the results at nationals – which packs three games into two days – then we have to consider depth and what the Amazons’ light roster might have looked like after such a rigorous schedule.

Below is more specific details on the team shuffling and unranked additions:

Even though Kent advanced to the DI final, five-time champion Fallbrook affirmed that Danville – the Warriors’ semifinal opponent – was the stronger team, hence the swap of Kent with the Lady Oaks in the ranking. The Crusaders had a tough road to the DI final, and it began with its quarterfinal against Pleasanton. The game ended 12-all after regulation and went to kicks for the tiebreaker. The Washington side went 3-0 for the win, but the closeness of that game is what placed Pleasanton over DSHA, which lost 15-0 to Kent in the semifinals.

Orem also enjoyed a big jump after securing its second consecutive Utah state championship. The hard-thumping Lady Stallions had to rally against a determined Herriman, whose gutsy performance put the Mustangs at #18.

Summit holds its spot at #6, having won the high school divisions at the Piper Cup and Jesuit 7s, and the Tigers are currently in Chester, Pa., poised for the High School Rugby Challenge, which runs alongside the CRC. We’re really looking forward to see how Karl Barth’s team squares up against the East Coast teams as well as all-star sides from Texas.

There are four Midwest teams on the list: DSHA (5), St. Joe’s (8), and Indiana’s Penn (19) and North Central (16). If it wasn’t for Penn’s strong performance at Midwests – finished third, defeating both Armstrong and Catholic Memorial – then the Indiana state finalist might have been overlooked. Penn is competing against long-time reigning state champion North Central is Saturday’s championship. North Central went through the southern division without relinquishing a point, and won its playoff matches by a combined 90-15.

It was difficult to eliminate Catholic Memorial, which was in the top 10 until finishing fifth at the Midwest championship, and Armstrong. The Crusaders have some good talent but were light this year, dropped to DII at nationals, and were beat by a first-year attendee.

We weren’t quite sure what to do with Maryville. On the one hand, the Tennessee power won another 15s state title, but it wasn’t challenging itself the way that Morris and West End have been at nationals. In the end, we kept it as-is, since the East Coast teams were both 0-2 at nationals until they played each other for 7th. Morris won by three points.

We still think West End and Morris are the best of East, but were impressed with the Valkyries’ run to the Pennsylvania state title. The team’s toughest game actually came in the semifinals against Doylestown, which had regrouped nicely since its slow start. Valkyries won 12-5 and then defeated Downingtown 30-0 in the final.

Finally, we added West Carroll – which was a fixture on the rankings until (what seemed like) the departure of Maggie Myles. The Marauders defeated North Bay, which looked really strong early in the Pennsylvania league, by 12 points for the Maryland state championship. Hopefully that means that West Carroll is gearing up toward nationals in the future.