The first rankings of the high school softball season were released late Friday afternoon by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and Greene County starts the season ranked fifth in Class 3A. Coach Tom Kennedy’s Rams were 29-8 last year with all nine hitter returning and all but one defender back from a season ago, when Greene County placed third in the 3A State Tournament.

Solon is ranked number one. The Spartans dropped a class after finished second in last summer’s 4A tourney.  Two teams the Rams beat at State last year are ranked ahead of them. Center Point-Urbana is second and East Marshall (Le Grand) is fourth. Benton Community (Van Horne) claims the number three position.