Claiming the No. 8 spot on our pre-season cross country countdown is Northwood's Caroline Murrell.
Murrell, a rising senior, made her mark on the state during track season. She came out and ran a huge personal best of 5:06 in the 1600m at NCRunners Twilight.
She won the 3200m at the NCHSAA 3A Mideast Regional running 11:15. She saved the best for last, however. She got to Aggie Stadium on the campus of NC A&T University ready to roll for the NCHSAA 3A state meet. She ran a huge personal best, and set a new NCHSAA 3A state meet record in the 3200m clocking 10:51 on route to the victory!
She was 6th in the NCHSAA 3A Mideast Regional in cross country in a stacked region. The following week at the state meet she earned an all-state selection, placing 10th.
With the shake up in classifications in the NCHSAA, Murrell is by far the early season favorite in 3A.
| GIRLS 3200 METER RUN FINALS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLACE | ATHLETE | TEAM | RESULT | WIND | H# | |||
| 1 | Caroline Murrell | 11 | Northwood | 10:51.83 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Kaitlyn Obremski | 10 | Topsail | 10:58.56 | 1 | |||
| 3 | Emma Jones | 11 | Weddington High School | 11:06.90 | 1 | |||
| 4 | Madeline Hill | 12 | Cuthbertson High School | 11:11.19 | 1 | |||
| 5 | Anna Ritter | 12 | Weddington High School | 11:19.15 | 1 | |||
| 6 | Lillian Nasta | 10 | Cuthbertson High School | 11:27.00 | 1 | |||
| 7 | Margaret Sept | 10 | East Chapel Hill | 11:28.14 | 1 | |||
