Rylee Blade of Santiago High in the Southern Section (bib 320 in photo) was voted as the MileSplitCa Sophomore Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year in a statewide poll conducted through our partners at FanPower. Blade received 67 percent of the vote. Sierra Cornett of Buchanan (CS) and Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura tied for second, each with 11 percent of the vote. Congratulations to Rylee!!
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The MileSplitCA All-State Cross Country teams are subjective selections based on results within the class at the State Meet, section championships, and marquee events like the Clovis Invitational. Each team is limited to seven on the line. We also conducted polls through our partners at FanPower to select a runner of the year for each class. Those winners are acknowledged above and with a banner photo. Congratulations to the amazing Class of 2025!
MILESPLITCA ALL-STATE SOPHOMORE GIRLS XC
FIRST TEAM
(Listed alphabetically)
HOLLY BARKER (Laguna Hills/SS)
Coming from a school nicknamed the Hawks was a perfect fit as she flew above most of the competition finishing as one of the top 40 runners in the country with a 33rd in the Champs National Championships. A third in the CIF-SS championships was duplicated in the State meet where she ran 17:43.69 for 5K in Division IV. She won the Orange County Championships in 16:51.60.
RYLEE BLADE (Santiago/SS)
The fan favorite saved her Personal Record (PR) for the State D-I championships where she clocked a 17:36.47 to place third, a 14-second drop from her 13th place in the Clovis Invitational six weeks earlier. Blade took advantage of the super-fast Woodbridge Classic in September to run 16:39.60 over three miles. Blade also won Cool Breeze (17:13.50) and the Inland Empire Challenge (16:55.90) three-milers.
SIERRA CORNETT (Buchanan/CS)
Running everything from 1,600-meters (4:43.04 at the Buchanan Winter Mile) to 5K (17:36.98 at the Douglas Rudolph Invite), Cornett was a key member of the Bears' nationally-ranked team. She, like most, collected her 3-mile PR at Woodbridge (16:42.80) before helping Buchanan to the State Division I crown when she placed fifth in 17:51.57. She was 54th in the Team Nationals as Buchanan placed third.
MAYA DEBROUWER (La Canada/SS)
Talk about consistent. Debrouwer dominated the Rio Hondo League before placing second in the Southern Section championships at 17:09.80 at Mt. SAC, a week after being the top-qualifier. She also scorched a 16:41.10 PR at Woodbridge to place third overall before rolling to her fifth place finish in the State Division IV championships.
SADIE ENGELHARDT (Ventura/SS)
Sick off and on most of the season, Engelhardt was healthy when it mattered. She won all of her 3-mile races, including Woodbridge (a meet record-setting 15:42.60) and the CIF-SS D-2 championship (17:12.80), before being the lone girl under 17-minutes at the State Meet, winning in 16:57.9. She earned second team All-American honors with a 10th place finish in the Champs Nationals, running the 5K Morley Field course in 17:41.40.
ELLIANA LOMELI (Buchanan/CS)
The 10:54.24 two-miler had a bit of an up and down season. Lomeli was 11th at Woodbridge in 16:15.30, won the Douglas Rudolph Invite 5K in 17:29.52 and after a shaky State Meet (tied for second with a mile to go before an injury), finished strong, placing 44th as the second Bears placer at the Team National championships, behind only senior Grace Hutchison, who was 29th.
HANNE THOMSEN (Montgomery/NC)
OK, so Thomsen isn't perfect. But almost. She won the Clovis Invitational 5K at 17:04.20 (the No. 2 time by a sophomore in meet history), rolled to victory in the North Coast Section Championships with a 3-mile PR of 16:30.60 before defending her State Division III crown in 17:12.77. The lone loss came a week later when, despite an illness, she took on some of the nation's best in Oregon and was 16th in 17:35.20 at Team Nationals as the No. 1 sophomore at the meet.
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SECOND TEAM
Phoebe Benun (Santa Monica/SS) - Benun was always in the top 10. She was the Bay League champion where she posted her fastest three-mile time of 17:09.04. She placed second in CIF-SS Division I and was sixth in State at 17:45.84.
Kinga Czajkowska (Palo Alto/CC) - Clocking a personal best 17:54.28, Czajkowska place fifth in the State D-II 5K. She also won her division at Clovis and placed third in the CCS championships.
Brynn Garcia (JSerra/SS) - (pictured above) Her 16:09.70 at Woodbridge was the third-fastest 3-mile time in the state, and she again came up big in the State Championship where she placed sixth in 17:57.6 to lead the Lions to a second consecutive D-IV title.
Evie Marheineke (Archbishop Mitty/CC) - A mostly high-quality season, Marheineke won her section of the Clovis Invitational in 18:16.60 en route to finishing second in the CIF-CC Championships where she ran 17:36.20 for 2.95 miles.
Sophie Polay (Santa Margarita/SS) - From her 17:35.10 at Clovis to her 16:42.80 at Woodbridge to her 18:07.50 to place seventh in at State -- the exact same place she got in the CIF-SS Championships -- Polay was tough.
Tiffany Sax (Newbury Park/SS) - Sax was never out of the top 20 and her fifth place in the CIF-SS (17:55.40) was followed by a ninth at the State Meet (18:01.20) where her team finished a strong second to Los Altos.
Emily Soobrian (Los Altos/CC) - The tightly-knit Los Altos team looked to the younger Soobrian sibling to lead the way when injury slowed her sister, senior Lauren Soobrian, the team's top runner. Emily stepped up big time, placing 10th in the State D-II final at 18:03.9, paving the way for the Eagles' title run.
Photos by DeAnna Turner, Stacy Soriano, Daniel Hernandez, Raymond Tran, and Dan Tyree
Steve Brand is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to MileSplit.
California MileSplit State Editor Jeffrey Parenti contributed to this article.