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.
Archbishop Mitty (CC/Division 2)
Let's play a little "Good News/Bad News" as it relates to the 2022 cross country season for the girls from Archbishop Mitty.
The Monarchs are coming off a season in which they placed third in the Central Coast Section Division 2 final to earn a trip to the State Meet.
What's particularly exciting for the Monarchs is that four return, including three scorers from the CCS meet, and four scorers and five overall return from the State.
Now for the bad news. While CCS D-2 runner-up Willow Glen has been dropped into D-3 for this fall, three of the top teams from D-1 -- Los Gatos, Los Altos, and Palo Alto -- are all now in D-2. Those three placed first, second, and fourth, respectively, in CCS last fall.
Now, return you back to the good news ...
Taking on this now-super deep division leading Mitty is Evie Marheineke (pictured), who, as a freshman, ran No. 1 for the Monarchs with a third-place overall finish in CCS and 17th place (13th among scoring runners) finish at the State Meet.
Based on '21 division placement, Marheineke would be the No. 10 returner from that State Meet race, and the No. 2 girl in the 2025 class behind only Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura (SS).
On the track in the spring, Marheineke won the league title in the 1600 meters with a PR of 5:02.62 and followed a league 3200m title with the trip to the CCS Finals where she placed fourth with a 10:46.44 PR.
Also scheduled back this fall for Mitty are seniors Alexandra Zanon and Pascale Zanon, sophomore Grace Caradonna, and senior Esme Brody.
Alexandra Zanon ran No. 3 at both post-season meets last November and Caradonna ran No. 5. Pascale Zanon ran No. 4 at State and Brody ran No. 7.
Among others potentially in the mix to replace three key graduated seniors are sophomore Siobhan Maloney and senior Emilie Beaudoin-Rousseau.
One final nugget of optimism for the Monarchs: When filtering for track times among returners in the CCS, Mitty's girls rank fifth in the section for 1600m with a five-runner average of 5:23.24, and also No. 5 in CCS for 3200m with a five-runner average of 12:04.29.
| Archbishop Mitty (CC) | ||||
| 1) Evangeline Marheineke | 18:01.20 | 5 | ||
| 2) Alexandra Zanon | 19:39.60 | 31 | ||
| 3) Pascale Zanon | 20:33.70 | 56 | ||
| 4) Siobhan Maloney | 20:46.30 | 64 | ||
| 5) Grace Caradonna | 20:49.00 | 66 | ||
| Average Time: 19:57.96 Total Time: 1:39:49.80 1-5 Split: 2:47.80 | ||||
| 6) Esme Brody | 21:54.70 | 118 | ||
| 7) Emilie Beaudoin-Rousseau | 23:05.50 | 182 | ||
Photos by Pat Rhames
Jeffrey Parenti is the California Editor for MileSplit