Girls Top 25 Cross Country Countdown: #6 Carolina Day School

Carolina Day School was awesome last year ending the season as NCISAA 2A XC State Champions by a wide margin and ranking #6 overall in NC at the end of the season.  They lose their star Ralene Kwiatkowski, but are going to be very strong once again returning the rest of their top 7.  They return as the #6 team in North Carolina with all of their PRs coming from Hagan Stone, which isn't known as the fastest course.  Carolina Day also is a very tiny school as one of the smaller NCISAA 2A schools with 637 kids from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  They return just 10 girls, but will have one of the best top 7 girls in North Carolina.  

CDS will be lead by Olivia Sutter, who as a freshman was 3rd at the NCISAA 2A State Championships and will be the top returner this season.  On the track Sutter was the NCISAA 2A 3200 State Champion and 1600 runner up losing a battle to Davidson Day star Melissa Zammitti.  Sutter proved she was legit last fall running 18:42 at the end of the season.  For the last two years Sutter has placed 3rd at the NCISAA 2A XC State Champions, but will be a heavy favorite to win this year.  She's certainly shown she's going to be the next NCISAA star with PRs of 11:18 and 5:15, and I'm excited to get to watch her compete in big races this fall.

Ella Dockendorf is another sophomore for CDS who took 5th at the NCISAA 2A XC State Championships running 19:33.  Dockendorf ran in the 21s most of the season on some tough Asheville area courses, but clocked a big PR at the State Championships.  Dockendorf didn't run much last track season, but holds should be back in a big way this XC season.  Kathleen Norton will be a senior this fall, and should be in store for a great year on the grass after running 5:20 and 2:23 on the track this spring. Norton ran 19:55 last fall, but seems to have a lot more to do in XC after seeing her track success over the last few years. We'll see how she does this fall, but I'd predict a big year from her.

Erin Hovendon will be a rising 8th grader, but has already proven that she's Carolina Day's future running 20:08 as a 7th grader and also 5:33 for the 1600.  Last fall Hovendon was 7th at the NCISAA 2A State Championships and should be a sub 20 girl this fall.  She's still extremely young, but will be a long term member of CDS' top 5.  Carolina Day looks to be just one girl short of having as strong of a top 5 as last fall, but do return 6th girl Maleeah Langstaff.  Langstaff will be a senior this fall and was the High Jump, 400m Dash NCISAA 1A/2A State Champion last spring.  Langstaff seems to be a pure athlete holding a XC PR of 20:36 from last season.  Though XC might not be her strong suit Carolina Day will look at her to contribute this season.  Ellen Weaver was also in the top 7 last year running 21:20 and could impact the top 5 this season.  With such a small school options are limited as to how many athletes they can get out to XC.  But if you compare the size of their school relative to strength of XC Carolina Day would easily rank as the top program in NC.  I'm excited to see what these girls can do this fall!