#13 Covenant Day School
Key Losses
Key Returners
A year ago Covenant Day School pulled off an epic win at the NCISAA 3A State Championships winning on a 6th man tie break over defending champions Cary Academy. Their girls program had been strong at the middle school level in cross country, and it translated up to the high school ranks over the last few years. The team will return their top 5 girls from last fall and should be even better this fall.
Their top girl last season was freshman Sedona Dancu who placed 4th overall at the NCISAA 3A State Championships. Dancu kicked off her freshman year running in the low 20s in her first two meets. In three of her last four meets she was sub 20 with her best of 19:11 coming at the NCISAA State Championships. Dancu will be the #3 returner in the NCISAA 4A classification and will be in the running for an individual state title this season as well.
They'll also return their #2 girl Eva Lindner who placed 5th at the NCISAA 3A State Championships last fall. Lindner will be a rising junior and returns with a PR of 19:16 after breaking 20 minutes 3 times last fall. After placing 5th in cross country Lindner placed 4th at the outdoor state championships clocking 5:27 for the 1600m. She'll join Dancu as Covenant Day's top girl this fall.
There will be a gap back to the teams 3 through 5 girls as they return a tight second pack of girls beyond Dancu and Lindner. Kelsey Troutman was the teams #3 girl last fall running 20:08 and taking 14th at the state championships last fall. Troutman is more of a middle distance runner but has been solid over 5K the last two years for CDS. Troutman ran 2:20.83 for the 800m and 1:00.06 for the 400m last outdoor season, but will look to get back into cross country shape this fall.
They also had a strong year from Olivia Mueth who ran 20:23 as a freshman setting a 40 second PR at the NCISAA State Championships to place 16th. She had success on the track as well running 2:33 and 5:40. The teams #5 returner is rising senior Sadie Evans who only runs cross country for CDS. Last year she had a major breakthrough dropping her PR nearly 3 minutes over the course of the season. Evans ran 20:27 at the NCISAA State Championships to place 19th overall.
This team won't be as deep through 6 as they seem to have a gap back to their #6 girl. But Covenant Day look to be ready to repeat their NCISAA State Title as the school moves up to the new NCISAA 4A classification.