What's It Take to Be Ranked in the Top 20 Girls' 5K in FL XC

The 2025 AAU Junior Olympics in Houston, TX are this weekend.  MileSplit will be streaming the races beginning at 9:00 am on the 26th.  After the JO's, all of our attention will be focused on the upcoming Florida High School and Middle School Cross Country seasons.  Florida has a rich tradition of talented distance runners. Just how good are you? What does it take to be ranked in the Top 20 Girls' 5K in Florida Cross Country? 

We revisited the 2014-2024 Florida Top 20 rankings and compared the No. 1-ranked time through the 20th-ranked time for each season.  From 2014 to 2024, the sub-17:00 mark was run twice, with the fastest 5K cross-country time recorded in 2021 when Caroline Wells of Winter Springs HS ran a 16:40.20 to win the Hagerty Invitational in Oviedo. The second sub-17.00 run was by IMG's Tatum David at the Desert Twilight XC Festival Queen Creek, AZ in 2020. The fastest time of the 20th-ranked runner of the eleven seasons was run last year.  Masha Dorofeev of Fort Myers HS won the 3A girls state title, running an 18:05.50. The average time from 2014 to 2024 for the number one-ranked runners was 17:31.31. The average spread from the number one-ranked time to the twentieth-ranked time was 48.92 seconds. Two runners in the eleven seasons were ranked No.1 twice. Rafaella Gibbons of Winter Park HS led the state in 2014 and 2015.  Carly McNatt of Holy Trinity and IMG was at the top of the rankings in 2018 and 2019.

Bottom line is, if you are going to get into the top 20 rankings in the 2025 cross country season, you will probably need to run sub-18:25.  To be the No. 1 runner, you will need to run sub-17:15.

-39 of the 220 Top 20 rankings for all eleven seasons came in postseason races.

-17  were run at the Footlocker South Regionals.

-11 were run at the Nike Cross National SE Regions.

- 8 were run at RunningLane National Cross Country Championships. (Started in 2020)

-3 were run at the Great American XC Festival. Cary, NC

In State 

- 9 were run at the New World Fall Spectacular starting in 2018. 

-50 were run at FHSAA Districts and Regionals, questioning the actual distance of some District and Regional courses.

-The most popular meet is the FSU Invitational (Pre-State) on the Apalachee Regional Park (Tallahassee) course.  63 of the fastest times were run at the FSU Invitational (Pre-State) and the FHSAA State Finals.  Perhaps because of the number of ranked athletes at the FSU Invitational (Pre-State) meet and the FHSAA Cross Country State Finals.

-Fastest courses in the state - Apalachee Regional Park, North Port course at North Port HS, and the New World Fall Spectacular course in Jacksonville.

Girls' 2014-2024 #1-20 Rankings, Times and Difference