Carmen Alder (Pinecrest)
Alder has been a star on the USATF level throughout her early running career, and it was obvious she was going to be a star on the high school level. She held 1500m and 3000m PRs from last summer of 4:45 and 10:24. But even with insane PRs coming into high school Alder exceeded my expectations running 18:33 winning the Providence Invitational over last years top freshman Sophie Faircloth (Reagan). She also made the ultimate freshman mistake of taking a wrong turn meaning she could have run 15-20 seconds faster. I think Alder has already solidified herself as a top 5 girl in North Carolina and is going to be fun to watch as she goes up against strong competition this year.