Team Favorite: Pensacola Christian Academy
The Pensacola Christian Academy girls are the defending 1A Champions and are returning 6 from last years team. Last year the girls scored 68 points to the Cambridge (Christian) School's 86. They are better this year with Jr.'s Jaimee Tutton and Reagan Smith leading the team. They are the #2 and 3 ranked 1A girls in the state. Based upon best times run this season, they have an Average Team time of 18:52.46 and a 1-5 Split: 1:57.14. The #3 runner is returner is Jr. Sofia Peterlevitz and rounding out the scorers are #4 Jr. Eliana Reynolds and #5, 8th grader, Clara Goncalves. They are young and in the #6 spot is another returner, 8th grader Emma McLaughlin. The 7th runner is 7th grader Sophia Whiteman. Whiteman is the only non-returner. The squads top 6 are all sub-20:00. With #7 Whiteman at 20:00.49. Tutton has run 17:42.09 and Smith 18:23.83. With their experience and youth, they are the team to beat and may be next year as well.
Team Contenders: Cambridge (Christian) School, Providence School, Community School of Naples
Pensacola Christian's main competition for the team title will come from the Cambridge (Christian) girls. They won the team title in 2021 and 2022 and this year the #1 ranked 1A girls in the state Eliana Black has returned and leads the team. They were 2nd last year and blacks return has added experience and depth to the squad. Based upon the individual times this season, they have an Average Time of 19:18.96 and a 1-5 Split of 2:21.00. They are an experienced squad returning 4 girls from last years team and Black who was the 2022 1A State champion. The three seniors are Kaiya Budwick, Addison Galloway and Amirah Johnson. In addition to Black, they are the #2-4 scorers. #5 is Jr. Alex Estremera who did not run at state last year. Rounding out the squad are 7th grader Brooklyn Friedman who was 36th overall last year at state and 8th grade returner Genevieve Meister.
Individual Favorites: Jr. Eliana Black (Cambridge (Christian) School), Jr. Jaimee Tutton (Pensacola Christian) Academy, and 8th grader Mary Summers (Seven Rivers Christian School).
The defending State champion, Jr. Sienna Audrey of the Community School of Naples, has been out most of the season . She did win at Districts, but did not run at regionals. Another of the top 1A girls is Jr. Caroline Couch of Maclay and she is out with an injury. With Audrey and Couch out, Eliana Black, the 2022 1A State Champion should be favored to win her 2nd state title. She leads the 1A state girls rankings with a 17:33.00 and is experienced and over the last year she has started to find that magic again.
Black however will have to deal with 8th grader Mary Summers who is having a standout year. She was 3rd last year at state, so she has experience running at Apalachee Park. She is the #2 1A ranked girl.
The other girl who joins Black and Summers this year with sub-18:00 runs is Jr. Jaimee Tutton. It always comes down to race day, but we just may see Eliana Black atop the podium again in the 1A girls race.