Football
Mater Dei of California tops January standings
Monarchs move past Wayzata of Minnesota, New Trier of Illinois based on basketball, soccer success.
Long considered one of the top overall high school athletic programs in the country, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) took over the No. 1 spot in the MaxPreps Cup rankings after the month of January.
The Monarchs were in third place in the MaxPreps Cup rankings after the fall sports season with 1,196 points. Mater Dei trailed New Trier (Winnetka, Ill.), which had 1,413 points, and Wayzata (Plymouth, Minn.), which had 1,354 points.
At the end of last month, Mater Dei was ranked in boys basketball (the Monarchs have since dropped out of the MaxPreps Top 25) and boys soccer, giving it 281 additional points for a total of 1,477. Wayzata, meanwhile, is ranked in boys ice hockey and has moved into second place with 1,452 points. Wayzata scored 2,303 points in 2022-23 in finishing atop the MaxPreps Cup standings.
The MaxPreps Cup is an award based on a rating formula that attempts to rank high school athletic programs across the nation based on state championships, runner-up finishes and national rankings. The formula is weighted, and includes points awarded based on size of state, size of enrollment division, popularity of sport and number of teams competing in an enrollment division.
The January update does not include any additional championship or runner-up state finishes, and is based solely on national rankings for boys and girls basketball, soccer, ice hockey and girls wrestling.
Following are the top 25 teams in the MaxPreps Cup standings along with their point total.
(Getty Images)
MaxPreps Cup: January standings
1. Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), 1,477
2. Wayzata (Plymouth, Minn.), 1,452
3. New Trier (Winnetka, Ill.), 1,413
4. Edina (Minn.), 1,264
5. Carmel (Ind.), 1,205
6. Baylor (Chattanooga, Tenn.), 1,184
7. Bolles (Jacksonville, Fla.), 1,095
8. North Allegheny (Wexford, Pa.), 1,089
9. Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas), 978
10. Bentonville (Ark.), 970
11. Noblesville (Ind.), 948
12. Rockhurst (Kansas City, Mo.), 898
13. Downers Grove North (Ill.), 877
14. Peters Township (McMurray, Pa.), 871
15. Middleton (Wis.), 854
16. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 825
17. Assumption (Louisville, Ky.), 823
18. Fayetteville (Ark.), 801
19. Lovejoy (Lucas, Texas), 800
20. Conestoga (Berwyn, Pa.), 787
21. Bozeman (Mont.), 780
22. Bishop Kelly (Boise, Idaho), 776
23. Yarmouth (Maine), 774
24. Crystal Springs Uplands (Hillsborough, Calif.), 760
25. Sioux Falls Christian (Sioux Falls, S.D.), 731
