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.
Granada (NC/Division II)
Perennial North Coast Section champion Granada returns five of its scorers from the CIF-State Championships where the Matadors placed sixth.
Leading the returning group is junior Jana Barron, who won the NCS Division 2 title last November while leading Granada to its sixth consecutive title and ninth since 2010.
Barron has experienced support in classmate Gabriella Edwards, senior Alexis Rosenberg, sophomore Kerrigan Sauder, and junior Evelyn Ruckmann-Barnes.
Edwards ran No. 3 for the Matadors at State and No. 5 at NCS. Sauder ran No. 3 at NCS and Rosenberg was a consistent No. 4 at both major post-season meets.
Granada loses two seniors and will look to shore up the back end while challenging the returners for scoring spots.
| Granada (NC) | 970 | |||
| 1) Jana Barron | 18:36.30 | 66 | ||
| 2) Gabriella Edwards | 19:03.60 | 126 | ||
| 3) Alexis Rosenberg | 19:15.00 | 158 | ||
| 4) Kerrigan Sauder | 19:40.60 | 228 | ||
| 5) Evelyn Ruckmann-Barnes | 20:24.00 | 392 | ||
| Average Time: 19:23.90 Total Time: 1:36:59.50 1-5 Split: 1:47.70 | ||||
Scoring is against all returning girls in CA.
