Varsity Girls – Teams
First of all, this will be the first battle of the season between a couple talented 1A teams. Bishop McGuinness and Topsail should be fighting for a state title in November and this may be the only time they see one another until then. I'll go out on a limb and say that I expect
Topsail HS is led by the defending 1A state champion, Zatha Loewen. Zatha is only a sophomore but has already posted a time of 19:22 at Tanglewood. Her teams looks to be stronger than last year and has already run well against some better 3A schools, as they beat #8 ranked, White Oak.
Bishop McGuinness finished 2nd at last year’s 1A state championships and wants to improve on that this year. They are led by Heather Hofman and Cissy Nitz. These two finished 3rd and 4th at last year’s state championships. They could definitely finish top 3 in this race.
Sun Valley is ranked #6 in the 3A Coaches Poll and finished 1st in this race last year. Danielle Hobbs is a very talented sophomore who will be near the front of the race. This team obviously has talent as they ran the fastest 4x800 in the state last track season. Yes, they lost the older Hobbs, but the rest are back.
Northwood won the Invitational race at the Jungle Run last weekend with fine running Kathryn Dispennette. She won this race last year in 20:10, but look for her to go under 20:00 this year. Northwood is currently ranked #3 in the 2A Coaches Poll.
Providence Day’s girls finished 3rd at last year’s NCISAA state championships and is hoping to improve upon on that finish this year. Haley Holway, a newcomer to XC, will lead this team and should be near the front. They only have one other new runner in the top 7 this year, so they do have experience.
Sherando (VA) finished 3rd in this race last year, but I’m not sure who they have returning. The way I see it, they wouldn’t travel all this way to finish out of the top 5.
Varsity Race – Invididuals
Sun Valley – Hobbs
South Central - Boltinhouse
Topsail - Loewen
South Stokes - Lemons
Bishop McGuinness – Hoffman, Nitz
Northwood - Dispennette
Providence Day – Holway
Marvin Ridge – Love