Girls Preview
Individuals:
Looking at the girl's 3A state race, two names stand out from the crowd and those are Alyson Churchill and Valerie Lastra. Let's start off by saying both of these girls have been having a fantastic season, both are on a three race win streak, and lastly both are freshmen. Focusing on Churchill, who is from Lincoln High School, she won the 3A Region 1 race with a time of 17:55.80. Not only is she coming in with the fastest time from regionals but that time was her personal best. Her season has been awesome too since she has won five of seven races ran this season. The way she has been running right before this state meet positions Churchill with a high chance of taking home that state title. It will still be a tight race with Lastra literally right behind her.
Valerie Lastra, who is from Mater Academy, has been having a great season as well and is definitely a top contender coming into this state meet. She ran a time of 18:07.50 to win her 3A Regional 4 race to continue her current win streak. Lastra has ran this whole season in the 18s and almost broke 18 at the flrunners.com invite but just missed it and crossed the line at 18:00.64. Looking at her season, she has been up and down with races but when she would run a slow time she'd bounce back and crush the next race. With that said if its Lastra's day then she will come out with the win but this is definitely one race you don't want to miss.
Team:
For the girls team battle it's definitely clear that Niceville High School will go home with the state team title. Not saying it's a for sure lock in but Niceville had an awesome regional team finish in regionals by scoring 40 points. Not only did they score well but they also placed their first five runners in the top 15 and finished with a 28 second split. So as long as everything goes smoothly for Niceville then they'll win but you never know on race day what can happen. That's why Chiles high school has to perform their best and try to defend their last year's state title, which is something that can happen. Chasing Chiles will be Ponte Vedra High School so definitely look out for these three teams for the 3A girl's state race.