Although we still have about seven weeks left in the season, we've got a good start to the 5K distance on the girls side. The girls on this Top 100 list are all comfortably under the 20-minute mark, which makes us wonder how much more time they'll be able to chip off prior to the postseason. There's only a few more major invitationals at the state level that cover the 5K distance, so those opportunities will be precious.
Leading the charts right now is junior Natalie Arriaza (Patterson HS // SJS), who clocked a respectable 17:43.40 to win the Kim Duyst Twilight Cross Country Invitational this past Saturday. She crossed the finish line unchallenged and put a gap of 10+ seconds between her and runner-up Brenna Mannion (Vista del Lago HS // SJS), who is also a junior and #2 on this chart.
Interestingly, seven of the Top 10 runners on this list are all from the class of 2026, and the other three are from the class of 2025. Stay tuned to see what the month of October brings us in this...