Individuals
The Favorite(s): Jane Hedengren
Jane Hedengren of Timpview stands alone as Utah's only female-ranked individual coming in at No. 24 in the nation. Hedengren is also one of the few athletes in the country who still has a perfect season and Jane will be looking to capture her first career XC state title. A name that is all too familiar to Jane that will be chasing her is defending champion Raygan Peterson of Timpanogos. Peterson has been one of our state's top performers this season but has been on Jane's heels throughout this season. Raygan will also be focused on a bigger picture for her school as they hope to capture the 5A girls team title.
Other bubble athletes who can mix it up with our favorites are Mountain View's Mari Konold and Julie Moore
Teams
Springville has the longest active win streak across all classifications and genders, and every year the competition has crept closer to toppling their reign. This year, Timpanogos and Mountain View are ready to upset Springville and possibly prevent the defending champs from a podium spot. Timpanogos and Mountain View raced wire to wire at the Region 8 XC Championships and won a tie-breaker to take home the Region 8 title. Both of these teams seemed locked in and ready to go, but don't count Springville out yet. The Red Devils entered the season as our pre-season No. 1 team for a reason. They return all seven of their runners from last year's state team, and this squad knows how to peak at the right moment. Springville was the top performing 5A girls team in the meet merger from the Divisional race last week. At this point, your guess is as good as ours for which of these three teams will walk away with the team title, but have no doubt, this is probably the deepest the 5A girls classification has been in a long time.