Like the boys' side, the No. 4 team on our girls' cross country pre-season countdown are the Lady Tigers of Chapel Hill.
Last year's 4th place team from the NCHSAA 3A state meet returns five of their top seven, including their 1-2-3 punch.
Abby Weber, who was No. 5 on the individual rankings, leads this Chapel Hill into the new NCHSAA 4A classification. Weber was 5th at the 2020 NCHSAA cross country state meet and was the 3A Mideast Region champion.
Chapel Hill won the NCHSAA 3A Mideast Regional scoring just 33 points.
Amelia Maughan was 5th at the cross country regional and 25th at the state meet. On the track, however, she really shined. She ran 5:09 over 1600m at the Mount Tabor Mile and ended up finishing 9th at the state meet in the event. She was runner-up in the 800m at the NCHSAA 3A state meet where she ran a personal best of 2:17.
Nora Daley was 6th in the 3200m at the NCHSAA A Mideast Regional and holds a personal best in the event of 11:21.
Senior Mara Pirone is looking to be the No. 4 runner for this Tiger squad, but she needs to bring current 5-6 runners Amelia Stephenson and Grace Cawley to that sub-20:00 mark.
The athletes in the NCHSAA 4A classification this season are scary talented, but with a legit front-runner in Weber and a strong pack behind her, this Chapel Hill squad is a serious threat to walk away from the state meet with some hardware.
| 6 | Chapel Hill (NC) | 376 | ||
| 1) Abby Weber | 18:21.52 | 9 | ||
| 2) Amelia Maughan | 19:00.33 | 33 | ||
| 3) Nora Daley | 19:34.90 | 72 | ||
| 4) Mara Pirone | 19:52.00 | 101 | ||
| 5) Amelia Stephenson | 20:26.60 | 161 | ||
| Average Time: 19:27.07 Total Time: 1:37:15.35 1-5 Split: 2:05.08 | ||||
| 6) Grace Cawley | 20:33.69 | 184 | ||
| 7) Claire Peng | 21:24.10 | 295 | ||