We are giving a slight edge to American Leadership Academy (Queen Creek) to win tomorrow's Division III Girls race, but it will not be easy for them as they go up against Salpointe Catholic, Arizona College Prep, and Coconino high schools.
American Leadership Academy - Queen Creek
Evelynn Carr (sophomore) has a very good chance of winning this whole thing tomorrow at Crossroads Park. The rest of her team is also young and tough-minded. They beat out Arizona College Prep in the Crossroads Sectionals last week and based on their Twilight times versus the other schools we are tracking here, they are set up well to take the team title. Last week their top three runners (Evelynn Carr, Talya Workman, and Ashley Brewer) were all under 20-minutes (Carr being under 19) and their number four and five runners were 21:21 and 22:03, respectively. No team on this list has all five runners under 21-minutes and so it's really going to come down to how runners three thru five on all these squads match up.
Salpointe Catholic
Kylie Wild might have a say in who gets the Division III individual title. At Twilight, Carr's time was only 2-seconds faster than Wild's. Salpointe has the best spread between runners two thru five (about 40 seconds), and if all these girls can be in the high-20s and low-21s then it's going to make for a very interesting race tomorrow.
Arizona College Prep
What ACP has going for them is that they have a great pack of runners one thru five. Sophomore, Eryca Fawkes, leads the Knights and the rest of these young ladies need to stay tight if they are going to have a chance for an upset victory. If Fawkes can break into the top-10, then that will be a good start for ACP; but if runners Isabel Brady and Lauren Harsen can find their way to the top-15 as well, then we think theirs a chance Arizona College Prep could make some real noise when it is all said and done.
Coconino
Coconino may be a bit faster version of ACP. They have a 90-second gap between runners one thru five; and their top-two runners, Cathron Donaldson and Wheaton Smith could be in the top-10 individual finishers if all goes well. It's always hard to figure out how the teams from up North do down here, but if last week's sectional 27-point team victory at Rose Mofford is any indication of how the Panthers will fair, then tomorrow's early afternoon Division III race may be more competitive then it looks on paper.