The thing that makes XC the best season for many is the undeniable team aspect of the sport. Though you can win national titles and state titles all while setting records as an individual, it truly takes five guys or girls to bring home a team trophy in cross country.
Check out all of the rankings over the coming weeks. Check out the #5 rankings here, #4 rankings here, #3 rankings here, #2 boys' rankings here, and #2 girls' rankings here.
Girls' Team #1: Blacksburg High School
Last year Lake Braddock gave them a run for their money but this year Blacksburg is back on top yet again. In fact, this marks the fourth year in a row that these Bruins have held this honor... well at least preseason wise.
This year's installment of the perennial powerhouse is led by Ailene Edwards, Sophia Link, and Kaitlynn Wolfe to name a few. They are stacked upfront and despite moving up to 4A from 3A are still heavy favorites for the team title this year.
State wide they are theoretically scoring half as many points as any other team in the entire state with their 5th runner entering the season at 19:08. In the 4A classification they are looking at around 30 points with their fifth runner being at 13th preseason. That type of scoring would give them close to a 70 point margin of victory in arguably the toughest classification of them all this year.
This team, just like Blacksburg's team the past few years is built on speed and strength meaning whether it is on the hills or MileStat's course, this team is going to roll right over the competition and have a shot at NXN yet again. For all those reason and the overwhelming amount of data in their favor we are ranking them our preseason number one team.
Top Returners and State-wide rankings
| 1 | Blacksburg High School (VA) | 128 | ||
| 1) Ailene Edwards | 17:49.00 | 5 | ||
| 2) Simonne Guenette | 18:35.90 | 16 | ||
| 3) Kaitlynn Wolfe | 18:51.00 | 26 | ||
| 4) Sophia Link | 18:56.60 | 30 | ||
| 5) Emily Fitch | 19:08.00 | 51 | ||
| Average Time: 18:40.10 Total Time: 1:33:20.50 1-5 Split: 1:19.00 | ||||
| 6) Eliza Stowe | 20:32.00 | 277 | ||
| 7) Akaela Feng | 20:37.00 | 302 | ||