Ashley Tysiac's Top 10 Girls Individual Rankings

Cuthbertson looks assured to have a lethal duo of defending 3A state cross country champion Madeline Hill and junior Leah Helms. Helms finished third at last year's entertaining state meet at Ivey Redmon, and has the talent to medal again this fall or even find herself on the top podium position.

After not running cross country as a freshman, Helms opened up her career as a sophomore in impressive fashion. She broke 19 minutes for the 5k in her second race at the Western NC Cross Country Carnival and never looked back, improving continually and eventually culminating in her third-place state finish in a new personal record of 18:19.22.

Helms then carried her momentum from the fall into the indoor track season. She ran the brutal 1,600m-1,000m-3,200m triple at the 3A state championships in February and came away with the win in the 1,600m and a fourth-place medal in the 1,000m. Her success in the 1,600m continued on into outdoor track as she recorded an NC #9 time of 5:07.46 in the distance event.

This cross country season, Helms can now use her one year of experience to her advantage and navigate bigger races with much more ease. With Hill just ahead of her, both could make a strong push for another state team title for Cuthbertson, and Helms could even challenge for the individual win.