Individual Girls
Abi Archer (Chaparral, Sr.) has been the back to back D2 Girls State Champion over the past two years, before Chaparral transitioned to Division 1, now among the largest schools in the State. She's ranked US no. 13 for her 5km performance at Desert Twilight where she almost broke 17-minutes. Last year, Archer ran 17:58 as the fastest performance of the day to became the ninth girl to run sub-18 over Cave Creek Golf Course.
Looking to challenge Archer, is Highland's aerobic monster Caroline McLeskey. As a sophomore, McLeskey finished 2nd at last year's DI Girls race. This season, she's run a 5km lifetime best of 17:18 at Desert Twilight. This past Wednesday she handily secured her Section Title dipping under the 18-minute mark along the hilly Crossroads Park course.
Katy Clausen (Desert Vista, Jr.) finished second in that race and has also developed into a major competitor this season. She's placed top-three in each of her races outside of Desert Twilight and could surprise a lot of people at Cave Creek.
Additionally, Morgan Foster (Chandler, Sr.) appears to be healthy and ready to roll. Her highest finish at the State Championships was when she placed 6th as a freshman and though the conclusions to her two previous cross-country seasons have been less than ideal for her, she's intent to leave it all out on the course for her team this Saturday.
D1 Girls Race is set to go off at 12:45 pm as the sixth race of the day.