3A Boys
Turnover comes for every team, and every classification, eventually. The top 4 individuals in this race last year (and 5 of the top 6) graduated, leaving Coleman Mitchell (Cary Academy) as the top returner. In the the spring season, though, Miller Meares (North Raleigh Christian) made a big leap forward, and he has carried that through the summer and fall. Meares defeated Mitchell head-to-head last week at the TISAC Championship, making him the favorite this Friday - but he only won by 6 seconds, so he can't feel too secure in his place just yet. We also can't rule out Jack Ratterree (Charlotte Latin), who is the 3rd runner in the classification to have broken 16 minutes. This race looks like the inverse of the 2014 event: out of the top 10 3A boys so far this year, only 3 are seniors, and the rest are all sophomores and freshmen! That includes Noah Dolhare (Providence Day), who has improved drastically this season and has a chance to become the 4th sub-16 runner in the race Friday.
Alas, that same turnover may have caught up to 5-time defending team champion Providence Day. The Chargers have graduated a remarkable amount of talent over the past three seasons, and it's not too surprising that there would be something of a rebuilding year at some point. The last team to beat them in a 3A championship race was Cary Academy in 2009, and it looks like that's the favorite team again this year. They're also the Chargers (so at least the winning mascot is likely to stay the same), and they currently sport 4 of the top 12 runners in the classification, including 6 under 17 minutes - no other team has more than 3. Durham Academy has the pre-race lead in the battle for second place, which is shaping up to be very interesting. That's because CISAA rivals Providence Day and Charlotte Latin are almost dead even; in fact, they actually tied for the conference championship before PD won the tiebreaker to preserve a 16-year winning streak there. If you don't remember the days when Durham Academy was a power, get ready to have your memory refreshed: the Cavaliers have all 7 of their varsity runners back next year, and 6 of them back for 2017 to boot.