Key Losses
Taylor Delaney
Ashley Damron
Key Returners
Janay Hall - 5:09 1600, 11:17 3200, 19:06 5K XC
Key Transfers
Madeline Carkeet - Jack Britt
Carlie Benefield - E.E. Smith
2015 End of Season Ranking - 17th
2016 Rank based off 2016 times - 33rd
2015 NCHSAA 4A State Meet Finish - 8th
South View losing Taylor Delaney and Ashley Damron to graduation will take a lot away from the Tigers in 2016. But they return Janay Hall who has pushed for the top spot the last two years will be back and be their definite #1 girl this season. She will miss racing with Delaney and Damron and having them to push her during the race, but she will still be an all-state contender this season.
Key transfers Madeline Carkeet and Carlie Benefield will be the saving grace this season for the Tigers, as they would have struggled to make the state meet out of the 4A East this season without them. With they will be contenders to win the regional. Benefield could benefit a lot from this transfer. At Smith she was one of two distance runners so didn't have many people to push her in practice daily. Having strong teammates to push her daily in practice it could really take her to the next stage in her running career. Carkeet returned as the top girl for Jack Britt and has run 19:52 so should come in as the #2 girl for South View. She had a strong freshman season where she qualified for the state meet as an individual and finished 72nd. When you add in the addition of Carkeet and Benefield to South View's returning ranking it moves them from 33rd to 23rd scoring roughly 808 points.
Faith Roy has run 20:22 during her sophomore year and seems to have had an injury plagued 2015 XC season only running three meets during the season. And with Michaela Ackerman the story is the same. Only ran at the conference meet last XC season, but ran 20:28 the year before. So if you factor in South View with the two transfers and having a healthy Roy and Ackerman South View can have a team with 5 girls under 20 and ranks them right outside of the top 10 in the returning rankings! Though a lot of pieces have to come together for the Tigers the potential for this team is through the roof and a 21st ranking might not do them justice once everything starts to come together for them.