It's time to get fired up for cross country! Our traditional XC countdown is back, although it may look a little different this time around - our longtime data analyst Jeff George has moved on, leaving this energizing project to the MileSplit team in CA. Our collective goal is to briefly highlight 30 boys and 30 girls teams that we think will have an impact this fall. We will spotlight one team per gender per day over a 30-day period. Similar to past countdowns, we will provide a cross-sampling of teams from all 10 sections without regard to statewide or even division ranking (those will come later, as will articles previewing each section, and returning athletes to watch). As always, if you catch an error or have updated information for us, email CA state editor Jeffrey Parenti (jeffrey.parenti@flosports.tv) and we'll make the corrections.

Campolindo (NC/Division III) 

The Cougars girls cross country program has won 18 North Coast Section titles, has been crowned the Division 3 champion each of the last eight seasons, and has won 10 titles in the past 11 seasons. 

Last fall, the Cougars scored 47 points to beat Tamalpais by 24 points and went on to win the program's sixth CIF-State D-III title and third over the last four seasons. 

The bad news for all teams looking the challenge Campo for division supremacy: Six of the seven mainstays return for '22, including all five scorers from the State Meet race. 

Leading the Cougars again will be rising senior Ellie Buckley (pictured), who placed second at the NCS Final and fifth at State. 

Juniors Shea Volkmer, Makena Weberski, Daisy Penney, and senior Caroline McCool ran 2-3-4-5 at the State Meet.

The distance depth was evident on the track last spring as Buckley ran 10:45.38 for 3200 meters, Volker went 11:06.54, and McCool, Weberski, sophomore Sloan Pullen, and Penney all ran between 11:27 and 11:47. The Cougars' top five averaged 11:20.50, which ranks No. 4 collectively in CA for 3200m returners.

For 1600m, the Cougars have seven under 5:34, and their top five all slot at 5:22.03 or faster. 

By the way, the program's six girls State Meet titles is tied for the fifth-most since the addition of the statewide championship meet in 1987. 

 

Scored against returning girls from all teams in CA.