The first team up on our NCISAA-Only Pre-Season XC Team Countdown are the Knights of Cary Christian. This squad finished 5th at last season's 3A State Meet, but they return their entire Top 5! The Knights have a ton of senior leadership and experience at the front with the top three runners all being rising seniors. Leading the charge is All-State XC Runner Bennett Mayes. Hayes was 10th in last season's race taking the final All-State mark. With Hayes are Brock Vanek and Kyle Moore, who both notched Top 20 finishes in the State Meet. Their 4-5 runners are not young either, Burke White and Griffin Van Vooren are rising juniors ready to take the next step in the progression. White was 41st and Van Vooren 58th in the State Meet last season, if both of those runners can compete for a Top 30 position, this Cary Christian squad can make an upset run at the NCISAA 3A title!
Overall NCISAA Rankings
NCISAA 3A Rankings
| 11 | Cary Christian School (NC) | 309 | ||
| 1) Brock Vanek | 16:46.40 | 12 | ||
| 2) Bennett Mayes | 17:14.10 | 25 | ||
| 3) Kyle Moore | 17:28.91 | 36 | ||
| 4) Burke White | 18:53.20 | 100 | ||
| 5) Griffin Van Vooren | 19:28.50 | 136 | ||
| Average Time: 17:58.22 Total Time: 1:29:51.11 1-5 Split: 2:42.10 | ||||
| 6) Evan Callery | 19:54.90 | 169 | ||
| 7) Robert Andrews | 20:01.82 | 178 | ||