Girls Coundown to XC Day 1: Great Oak

A season may come when the Great Oak girls will be beaten. This is not that season. Consider this: the Wolfpack had only one senior in the top 7 of last year's Division 1 championship squad, which finished 7th at NXN. They rank 1st in returning rankings for both the 5K and 3 Miles, and they also rank 1st or 2nd in terms of year-to-year improvement - so not only are they loaded with talent, but they are arguably California's best program at developing talent between cross country seasons. Their track results simply defy belief: Great Oak had the #1 returning 1600 team and #2 returning 3200 team without individual state champion Tori Gaitan. So, you can imagine adding her back in to a group that put 6 returning girls at 5:10 or faster in the 1600, plus 6 at 11:35 or better for 3200. The Wolfpack's depth is legendary, but this is ridiculous; the team had 10 returning girls run under 5:25! All of this data says Great Oak will be even better this year than they were in 2018. If Wolfpack opponents are looking for any consolation here, I do have this point: there could be as many as six seniors in their top 10 for 2019. That includes Aranna Griffiths (4:56/10:46) and Audrey Dang (5:03/10:38), who should more than make up for the loss of Fatima Cortes to graduation. Maybe the window will open and someone will challenge the state title streak in 2020, but after holding on to preserve it last fall it doesn't look like this year's team is going to give it up.