Athletes to Watch
Brooklyn Biancamano (All-State #1) - Long Beach High School
Starting off the list for athletes to watch is Long Beach High's very own Brooklyn Biancamano. She has had a very dominate senior season, coming into this race with the fastest seed time of 18:00 that she ran at the 2021 Jesse Owens Classic Gold Division girls race, coming in 3rd place overall in the meet. Another notable performance from Biancamano this season was at the 2021 FSU Invitational, where she came in 4th place in the Elite Girls race, clocking in a time of 18:15. On top of all of this, she has won the girls 5A state race 4 times in a row. Biancamano will be looking to take home one more title to end off her successful high career, being known as one of the best high school girls runners to come out of the state.
Mia Card - Saltillo High School
Another notable athlete to watch for in the 5A girls' race is Saltillo's Mia Card. Card comes into this race with the 4th fastest seed time of 20:11, a seasonal best that she ran at the 2021 Watson High School Meet, winning the girls silver division race. She also came in 3rd place at the 5A girls state race last year. Card has been competitive all season and is in great competition between Lafayette's Mia Dawson and Maine Lund. She has a good amount of experience at the state race, putting her in that podium-placement mix and could make a big jump at the state race.
Mia Dawson - Lafayette High School
One of Lafayette's runners to look out for in this race is Mia Dawson. She comes into this race with the 3rd fastest seed time of 20:06, making it her personal record and placing her in the top 25 at the 2021 Watson High School Meet in the girls gold division. Another notable performance from Dawson this year was at the 2021 Region 5A-1 Meet, where she won in dominate fashion, winning in over 30 seconds. Just like Saltillo's Mia Card, Dawson has years of experience running at the state meet under her belt. With all this in mind, Dawson is another name to look out for in the race for the podium finish.
Anna Caroline Crouch - Saltillo High School
One of Saltillo's standouts that will be competing at the state race is Anna Caroline Crouch. Crouch comes into the state race with the 5th fastest seed time of 20:23 that she ran at the 2021 Pontotoc XC Invitational, coming in 5th place overall in the 4A-6A girls race. She has had a very competitive season, placing in the top 10 in almost all of the meets she has competed in. Crouch has the ability to stay in that front pack and battle her way to good positioning and time, especially with her teammate Mia Card being in the mix as well. Don't count Crouch out!
Maine Lund - Lafayette High School
Last but not least, we have Lafayette's freshman standout Maine Lund. Lund comes into this race with the 2nd fastest seed time and her own personal record of 20:01. Lund ran this at the 2021 Watson High School Meet, where she placed one position above her teammate Mia Dawson in the loaded gold division race. Another notable performance from Lund was at the 2021 Pontotoc XC Invitational, where she came in 4th place overall in the 4A-6A division race. With a competitive field behind her, Lund has the potential to break 20 minutes and place high at the state meet as a freshman. It'll be exciting to see what she'll throw down this Monday!
Key Matchups
Biancamano v. The clock
The biggest matchup to look for in this race is Long Beach's Brooklyn Biancamano. As previously mentioned, her seed time in this race is 18:00, but this won't be the first time that she will be chasing that sub 18 time. Biancamano has broken sub 18 twice in her high school career and has been very close many times since. With all this in mind, she has the talent and the capabilities to do so. Regardless, Biancamano will still have a very solid race and could come away with another big state title.
Battle for the Silver Medal
As mentioned in the Athletes to Watch, the race for the silver and bronze medals will be a very competitive one, to say the least. With such a close, loaded field with only a 23-second spread between the 2nd and 5th seeded times, it will be a close matchup that you will not want to miss!
Teams to watch
In the team race, Saltillo comes into this race seeded first with a combined score of 43 points. There projected to place their top 4 within the top 10 spots with their number 5 runner projected top place in the top 10. They hold a 24 point lead ahead of Brookhaven's girl's team.
Lafayette's girl's team comes into this race seeded in third place with a total score of 71 points. This puts them just 4 points behind Brookhaven, who will be contending for that second-place team title. The key matchup to look out for is going to be between Brookhaven's and Lafayette's 3 and 4 runners. It's gonna be a close matchup between these two teams!
Finally, we have Brookhaven's girls team, which is the second-seeded team with a team score of 67. Brookhaven's top 5 is seeded within the top 25, and if they can make adjustments to match Saltillo's top 5, it could make for very interesting team competition, to say the least. Regardless, it's going to be a very close matchup between Lafayette and Brookhaven. It's going to be a very fun race to watch on Monday!