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.

St. Mary's College HS (NC/Division IV)

The Jackson trio went 8-9-10 at the North Coast Section Finals race in Division IV but it wasn't enough for St. Mary's College HS girls cross country team to overcome a senior-dominant Miramonte lineup for the NCS title, falling 10 points short of the Panthers first title since 2008.

Fast-forward to '22 where senior Sofia Jackson, junior Milan Jackson, and sophomore Khaya Jackson return at the top of the Panthers lineup. Senior Leiah Goode ran No. 4 for SMCHS at NCS, junior Annika Punz ran No. 5 and sophomore Alexa Lawson ran No. 6.

On the Hayward HS 3-mile course for NCS, those six gapped just 50 seconds. At State, in placing 11th, the top five -- Milan, Khaya, Annika, Sofia, Alexa -- gapped 52 seconds.  All encouraging signs for a return to the top of the NCS podium for the first time in 13 seasons.

Scoring is against all returning girls in the NCS.