2A Girls Preview
Can anybody in this classification catch Brittany Stanley? The Mount Pleasant senior has a season best of 18:13.70, and she ran that at Ivey Redmon just this past weekend, while winning the Midwest Region by 23 seconds! Stanley is a heavy favorite, but there should be a highly competitive chase pack about 15-20 seconds behind her, with 4 girls that have all run within 5 seconds of each other. That includes the Lake Norman Charter lead duo if Izzy Evely and Mariah Howlett, who will actually have someone to chase for the first time in a while. Amanda Hickey (Carrboro) and Kaitlyn Stone (West Stokes) should be right there with the two Knights, and the race for second place could come down to which girl is stronger over the final set of hills in the 3rd mile.
For most of the season, Lake Norman Charter has been on a completely different planet from the other 2A teams. The Knights have spent most of their season on tough courses, and they should be well-prepared for Saturday's race. That means LNC is the team to beat, and it will take a major elevation from any of the contenders to unseat them. The battle for the second-place trophy, though, could be extremely intense. Mideast Region rivals Carrboro and Durham School of the Arts ended up almost even last weekend, with the Jaguars squeaking out a 2-point win. Brevard is battle-tested, having stayed within 15 points of Lake Norman Charter at the West Regional, and with the change from the Freedom course to the easier Ivey Redmon the Blue Devils could exceed expectations. You also can't count out Science & Math, who happen to be led by former East Lincoln star Frances Massey, and she knows how to lead a team in a championship meet, having contributed to the 2013 state title.