Key Losses
None
Key Returners
2015 End of Season Rank - 26th
2016 Preseason Rank based off 2015 times - 22nd
Lake Norman Charter ended their season in dismay with a tough third place finish at the NCHSAA 2A State Meet. They finished 6 points out of first and 4 points out of second just narrowly missing the podium. They return their whole top 5 from the 2015 season and they are going to be hungry to redeem themselves from last year.
Mariah Howlett and Izzy Evely were the two frontrunners for LNC last fall and will assume the same roll this season. Howlett is the more long distance oriented from of the two while Evely seems to prefer middle distance events on the track. Howlett had a very strong track season running 5:08 and 11:04 and took 2nd in both the 1600 and 3200 at the NCHSAA 2A State Meet. She will be the favorite coming into the season to win the 2A state meet. Evely took 3rd in the 800 at the outdoor state meet running 2:17.98. She will have to readjust her training and focus to get back in shape for the longer 5K distance. But that hasn't been a problem in previous years.
Where LNC will look for some improvement is their 3-5. Lauren Jones and Raven Seldon also train for the 400/800 during the outdoor season, so it could take them til the later part of the season to be in solid 5k shape. Rachel Chi, who was not in their top 7 last season but made great strides on the track running 5:57. She should be able to chop a lot of time off of her 5K PR and could be a factor in making the LNC top 5 this season. Ainsley Lay also will look to step up for LNC this fall. She ran 5:56 and 13:09 on the track.
It's no question that LNC will be strong against their 2A competition this fall, but it'll be interesting in how the matchup with the larger 3A and 4A schools in the bigger invitationals. With Howlett and Evely having the ability to be towards the front of any race and score low points they could fair a lot better than expected.