Brie Oakley enters as the favorite for the individual title after breaking the Liberty Bell course record in 16:44--this year's fastest 5K time in the nation--last weekend.
Girls Sweepstakes Race
Saucony Flo50 Ranked Teams: No. 3 Great Oak (CA), No. 6 Arcadia (CA), No. 17 Buchanan (CA), No. 25 Claremont (CA), bubble team Southlake Carroll (TX)
Saucony Flo50 Ranked Individuals: No. 6 Brie Oakley, No. 18 Julia Heymach
Challengers: Kelli Hines, Chloe Arriaga, Rylee Bowen, Desert Vista (AZ)
Start Time: Saturday, 9:34 p.m. PT
What to watch: The Woodbridge XC Classic is the first cross country meet this season that's big enough to draw top athletes from multiple states. Brie Oakley headlines the individual field here with her U.S. No. 1 16:44 5K from the Liberty Bell Invitational in Colorado last weekend. Her time broke the course record by 14 seconds; the prior mark was set by Jordyn Colter the year she placed fourth at Foot Locker. Oakley will be challenged by Julia Heymach, a 2015 Foot Locker finalist and the defending Texas state cross country champion.
Two other names to watch are Kelli Hines of Mission Viejo, California, who made a statement by winning the Cool Breeze Evening Invitational two weeks ago with a blazing 16:54.81, and Chloe Arriaga of Walnut, California, who won the short course Rosemead Invitational in 16:01.4.
All the top California teams will race here with the exception of No. 4-ranked Davis. No. 3 Great Oak won the team title last year and returns five girls from that squad, including top three Evelyn Mandel, Sandra Pflughoft and Sydney Belus. Nicole Rice ended up coming on strong later in the season, and looks to be the top runner for 2016. This will be the varsity squad's debut race, though their 'B' team has the fastest three-mile average in the country so far.
No. 6 Arcadia and No. 25 Claremont will get a rematch from the Cool Breeze Evening Invitational, which Claremont won with 63 points to Arcadia's 80. But the Apaches were without two of their projected top-five runners. This meet should be a better indication of the California pecking order.
Watch the highlight reel from the Cool Breeze Evening Invitational, where Kelli Hines won the individual title and Claremont took top honors over Arcadia:
No. 17 Buchanan has not raced yet this season.
Southlake Carroll will make the trek from Texas in hopes of improving their national ranking. They ran very close to No. 23 Keller at the Marcus I Invitational and scored 77 points to Keller's 64 points.
Another potential bubble team is Desert Vista from Arizona. The Thunder placed fifth at NXN in 2014, and recently posted an impressive showing at the Desert Solstice with a 27-second top-five spread and two runners who finished the course in under 18 minutes.
