Results
Girls Great American All-Time List
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Cary, North Carolina - Bowdon's (GA) Averi Lowen took a thrilling win at the Great American XC Festival Race of Champions in 16:33 holding off a late charge from Ragsdale's (NC) Elle Dawson who took 2nd in 16:36.
Lowen, the defending champion, went out very fast like she often does going through the 1 Mile in 4:55.6, 25 seconds ahead of the field who came through in a large ground at 5:20. The field was no joke with Lowen ranking #3 in our COROS MileSplit50 rankings with #5 Madison Lange (Cherokee Trail, CO) and #10 Dawson headlining as challengers for the individual title.
The first mile at WakeMed does feature a long downhill start and the first ascent back up the hill starts at the beginning of the second mile. Lowen came through the 2 Mile in 10:30 well ahead of the field. Dawson had broken away from the chase pack as she'd cross in 10:53, but would only make up two seconds on Lowen. Madeline Dorsch (Pinecrest, NC) led Abigail Mesfin (Oakton, VA), Reese Holley (JSerra Catholic, CA) and Kaitlyn Estep (Cardinal Gibbons, NC) through the 2 Mile in 11:10, 17 seconds behind Dawson.
While it looked like Lowen's lead would be too much to overcome, Dawson gave it everything she had. With about 800m to go Lowen's lead would be down to just 15 seconds ahead of Dawson. The final ascent of the long 500m to 600m hill at WakeMed was all that was left.
Lowen's lead was dwindling as she held on from a blistering early pace, and would be able to hold on through the line in 16:33.8 with Dawson just three seconds behind in 16:36. Dawson's mark from splits at 2.65 Mile to 5K, or 3.13 Miles was 2:20.1. Really impressive closing speed for .48 miles that was about 75% going up a hill. Very exciting race for two opposite styles of running who hardly were together aside from the beginning and end of the race.
Mesfin had a very strong track season running 4:41.83 and 10:17.08 for 1600m and 3200m as the recent University of Virginia commit ran a PR of 17:12 to place third. She ran 17:55 at Great American in 2025. Just behind would be Estep in 17:21 pulling away from Dorsch and Caitlin Kasten (Marvin Ridge, NC) over the final straightaway to the finish.
The field was incredibly deep overall with 28 girls breaking 18:00 and 16 under 17:45.
On a hot day, Lowen was just off her winning time from last year of 16:27. She also ran 16:37 to win NXN Southeast on the same WakeMed course last in the season. Dawson just ran 16:45 two weeks ago to win the adidas XC Challenge here. Dawson's 16:36 puts her at #3 All-Time at Great American behind Katelyn Touhy's 16:22 from 2019 and Lowen's 16:27 from a year ago.
Both girls proved to be a force in the South Region in a battle we should see again in a few weeks in a VA XC Showcase field that should add some additional challengers amongst them.
Race of Champions Girls 5000 Meter Run
