Girls 2A West Region
Teams to Watch
The top 2 teams in this region are also two state title contenders, and it will be very interesting to see how they battle it out as the season progresses. Smoky Mountain enters 2015 with the slightest of leads in the returning 5K rankings over Lake Norman Charter. Since then, though, LNC has demonstrated significant improvement by having the best team 1600 and 3200 results during the spring season. To make things even more interesting, East Lincoln returns a top 5 that is within striking range of those two teams (especially if they can develop their 5th runner), and the Mustangs ran almost as well in the 3200 as Lake Norman Charter. Based on 1600 times, it's also possible that Polk County could make this a 4-team race. Will that competitiveness sharpen up the West teams for state, or will it grind them down?
Athletes to Watch
Frances Massey (East Lincoln) has by far the top returning time in the region, but Mariah Howlett (Lake Norman Charter) put up such strong track times that she has to be considered a contender. Brevard's Eliza Witherspoon also ran well in the spring, as did India Godlock (Polk County). This is a young region - the top 6 returners from 2014 will be back for 2016, and 4 of them will be around another year after that!
Top 5 Returning Teams (Full Rankings)
| # | Team | Score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smoky Mountain | 72 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 24 | 25 | - | - |
| 2 | Lake Norman Charter School | 76 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 28 | 29 | - | - |
| 3 | East Lincoln | 89 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 20 | 51 | - | - |
| 4 | Owen, Charles D. | 148 | 11 | 17 | 22 | 32 | 66 | - | - |
| 5 | Brevard | 151 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 54 | 70 | - | - |
Top 10 Returning Individuals (Full Rankings)
| Place | Athlete | Yr | Team | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frances Massey | 10 | East Lincoln | 18:42.00 | 1 | |
| 2 | Mariah Howlett | 9 | Lake Norman Charter School | 19:16.00 | 2 | |
| 3 | Eliza Witherspoon | 10 | Brevard | 19:27.27 | 3 | |
| 4 | Izzy Evely | 9 | Lake Norman Charter School | 19:33.00 | 4 | |
| 5 | Aleshia Tisho | 9 | Smoky Mountain | 19:42.51 | 5 | |
| 6 | Jade Sterling | 9 | Smoky Mountain | 20:15.12 | 6 | |
| 7 | India Godlock | 10 | Polk County | 20:26.94 | 7 | |
| 8 | Magdalyn Foley | 11 | East Lincoln | 20:29.76 | 8 | |
| X | 9 | Megan Rowles | 11 | East Lincoln | 20:30.23 | 9 |
| 10 | Ava Findley | 9 | Brevard | 20:44.88 | 10 |