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.

Turning the page to the 2022 season where Highland moves to Division II.

Torrecillas, a junior, is coming off a strong track and field season in which she won the CIF Central Section Masters Meet 1600m to advance to the CIF State Meet. In cross-country last year, Torrecillas' PR in 5000 meters was 17:44.96 during a dual meet with Bakersfield North. Guerra and Johnson are back for their final seasons, while Vasquez and Mireles are juniors. Another returning runner is Nicole Almaguer, who is a senior.

Scoring is against all returning girls in the Central Section.