Girls NCHSAA 3A State Championship
Individual
Katherine Dokholyan and Clare McNamara (Chapel Hill) are the top two returners from last season after a 2-3 finish. They currently sit 1st and 4th respectively in the 3A class rankings. Another duo Emme Fisher (West Carteret) and Jenna Reiter (West Carteret) separate them in the rankings after a fast performances last week at the regional meet. Dokholyan ran a fast 18:12 up in Virginia at the MileStat.com Invitational and would be the slight favorite heading into the State Meet. Fisher and Reiter ran 18:20 and 18:29 respectively winning by a very wide margin. Fisher is at where she excepted herself at this point in the season, but Reiter has had a monster freshman season and will look to prove herself on the big stage this weekend. McNamara started off the year running 18:45 at Jungle Run, and has run in the low 19s often this year.
Sarah LaTour (Cuthbertson) will certainly put herself in the mix as well this weekend. She's steadily gotten faster as the season has went on, and had a big win at the 3A Midwest regional last weekend. She set her PR of 18:48, and will certainly be ready this weekend, after having a rough day at the state meet last season. Her teammate Lexi Noch is the 6th 3A girl to have broken 19 this season, but a slight ankle injury has held her out of her conference and regional meet, but she should be good to go this weekend. Giavanna Siriranni (South Iredell) was 2nd at the 3A Midwest regional last weekend in 19:08 setting a new seasons best. Last season, she was 8th at the state meet and should certainly be in the mix to repeat her all-state finish.
Anna Stouffer and Madi Marvin (Chapel Hill) will look to make it 4 in the top 10 for Chapel Hill tomorrow afternoon. They rank 9th and 10th respectively on the year for 3A girls, and Marvin was 12th in this race last season, so she will certainly be hungry to grab an all-state spot individually. Sarah Bechtel (Weddington) looked really strong in the middle of the season running 19:01 at Wendy's right behind LaTour. She and teammate Sydney Burke will look be be solid low sticks for the Warriors as they hope to challenge Chapel Hill.
Team
Chapel Hill is a heavy favorite heading into the weekend to defend their title from last season where they posted a dominating 32 team points! They have tremendous depth even beyond their 7th runner and have the potential to dominate once again against this field. But last weekend Weddington bounced back after a rough race at their conference meet. They beat #2 ranked Cuthbertson and placed their top 5 girls in the top 15. They're a very young squad with no juniors or seniors in the top 7. Cuthbertson girls have been very solid all season, but will need a healthy Lexi Noch in order to get on the podium this weekend. They were second behind Weddington at regionals. With two low sticks in LaTour and Noch, the Cavaliers will hope their 3-5 are able to run with Chapel Hill's 3-5 and challenge them for the top spot.
Boys NCHSAA 3A State Championship
Individual
Last year it was David Melville (Northern Guilford) who emerged alone onto the homestretch at Ivey Redmon to win his first NCHSAA State Title. Now a junior, Melville is back and the favorite to defend his title this weekend. Melville has run 15:12 this season when he took 5th at Great American. But there are a few guys that won't make it easy on Melville. Gable Dershem (Cleveland) was just 10 seconds back of Melville at Great American where he ran 15:22. That was the best we have seen from Dershem this season. He was the winner of his stacked Two Rivers Conference meet, but was a little sick going into regionals where he walked away with 3rd. He had an off day last year where he took 22nd, but when Dershem runs well, he runs extremely fast and could challenge on a good day. The 3A East was stacked this season and the regional champion Jacob Gonzalez (South Johnston) has a ton of potential. He doesn't run too many big races, but seems to always show up at the state championships, finishing top 10 over the last three years. He ran 15:47 last weekend, and we really have no idea of how good Gonzalez can be on the big stage.
Austin Carroll (Corinth Holders) has transitioned from a track guy to a strong XC runner and ranks 4th in 3A at this point in the season. He broke 16 for the first time of his career at adidas XC Challenge and has been up at the front in every big race he's been in this season. He was second to Dershem last weekend and will contend for a top 5 position this weekend. Haven Honeycutt (Asheville) surprised himself last weekend as he held off Dylan Shamburger (West Henderson) at the 3A West regional. Honeycutt ranks just 16th in 3A on the season, but it's hard to count out a regional champ of being in the mix. Shamburger has had a very strong season and ran 16;10 to take 2nd at his conference meet.
Gavin Mouat (South Iredell) had a huge race at regionals where he took the win in 16:14, which was a new PR. The junior ran a very smart race and had an extra gear at the end to claim a regional title over a tight group at the front. Kyle Hinson (Weddington) has stepped up for the Warriors this season transitioning from a 5th man to a solid low stick. Hinson took 2nd to Mouat at the Midwest regional and will certainly be in the mix for all-state contention this weekend.
Team
Weddington is the defending champions, but lost 5 of their top 7 from that state championship squad. Last years runners-up Chapel Hill has been ranked at the top of the 3A rankings all season and will be challenged by the warriors. They are one of the deepest boys teams in NC and will easily be the first team to have 7 guys cross the line on Saturday. They come in ranked first in the 3A rankings. Despite what the Warriors lost from last years winning team, they've put the pieces back together and look to be a podium team in what was once thought out as a rebuilding year. They won the 3A Midwest regional over some strong competition last weekend and I think this will be a much closer matchup than the virtual meet predicts. Chapel Hill has a tight 1-5 split of 29 seconds while Weddington has a low stick in Hinson followed by a 30 second spread from their 2-6 runners. This very well could shape up to be the best team matchup of the weekend.
North Lincoln has had a lot of injury's hit their squad this season, but it hasn't slowed them down thus far. Jackson Cathey was sidelined after a very strong first race of the season at Providence, but is back running once again. Brian Risse has stepped up big time and isn't afraid to mix it up at the front of a strong field. #2 man Austin Hilburn was 7th in this race last season, so don't be surprised to see North Lincoln mix it up with Weddington and Chapel Hill this weekend.