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One year ago Carrboro girls edged North Lincoln 69-80 for their sixth NCHSAA 2A XC title in the last ten years. Both teams returner their entire squads from last years state championship meets.
The dynamic of both teams hasn't changed too much, except that both squads look to be much better as a whole coming into tomorrows state meet.
Carrboro has a tight pack from 1-5 ranking 8-10-11-12-15 in 2A coming into the state meet. North Lincoln are headlined by Angie Allen and Alyssa Galvin who are the only 2A girls to break 19 minutes on the season. Allen and Galvin finished 2nd and 3rd respectively behind Carrboro's Hannah Preisser last year. Individually Allen is one of the biggest favorites across all classifications tomorrow with her 18:05 seasons best.
So North Lincoln likely will have the advantage up front, but Carrboro is deep. Their fifth girl projects to finish just before North Lincoln's 3rd with North Lincoln's 4th and 5th girls coming in just behind. They're vastly different with Carrboro having a 39 second 1-5 spread on the season and North Lincoln 2:22 from 1-5.
The two programs have raced once this year at the Greensboro XC Invitational where Carrboro took 5th to North Lincoln's 6th 153-174. North Lincoln seemed to be a little shorthanded which could make the difference. In the same regard Carrboro girls had a 1:27 spread which shows they're weren't at 100% either.
North Lincoln will need to have Allen and Galvin in the top 3 tomorrow to lock in low points and give them an advantage up front. Their 3-4-5 will need good days. If they can come in in range of Carrboro's 5th runners it'll give them a great chance at their first team title on the girls side. Carrboro will be hard to beat if they run to their abilities. They have a lot of talent in their top 5, and if any of them have a big day and can finish around 5th-8th it'll make it that much harder for North Lincoln to make up points from their 3-4-5 runners.
North Carolina School of Science & Math and Lake Norman Charter look to be in a battle for 3rd. First Flight and Brevard are teams that have performed well at the state meet in years past, so I wouldn't rule them out from having a huge day this weekend.
While a 1-2 finish would be huge for Allen, Galvin and North Lincoln, a few girls will look to break that up. Sofia Wong (NCSSM) won the Mideast Region last weekend. She was a 1A/2A 1600m State Champion indoors and a runner-up in the 1600m and 800m last year. She took 7th in this race a year ago, but I wouldn't be surprised to see her break up North Lincoln's 1-2 punch.
Abby Farris (Lake Norman Charter) was just 13 seconds back of Galvin at regionals last week with Karina Coulter (Fred T. Foard) just 8 seconds behind her. Dylan Garcia (Franklin) has also run 19:06 this season.