Class 2A Girls Preseason Cross Country Rankings

Class 2A Girls is an absolute mess this year with 30-percent of the girls who stepped to the line at the state cross country meet last season leaving for college. The team rankings start out where they ended in 2006 and 2007.

Team Rankings

1. Bennington - Last Year Score and Place: 2nd – 92 points
This one is the easy call. Seven girls return to a traditionally powerful cross country program (two of the last three titles belong to Bennington). Bennington has everything you would like to see out of a top team. Jillian Stratman (second last season and fifth as a sophomore) provides stability at the top. Kaitlyn Wolf was a top 20 finisher last season at 14th overall. Jordanne Ehrhart and Sadie Gantovoort are to top returning three and four runners in the state as well. Add in the bad taste for having a two-year winning streak snapped and that is a formula for a dominant Bennington squad.

2. Clifton-Clyde – Last Year: 7th – 156
The next two teams on this list also return a full scoring team of five runners. Clifton-Clyde has a score of 108 if you just score the returners, they just barely edged by Republic County’s 107 returner score. I give the edge to Clyde because of the better frontrunners it has returning Karly Van Campen and Kenzie George were both top ten finishers last season. These two teams are almost mirrors of each other though.

3. Republic County – Last Year: 3rd – 98 points
Republic County does have frontrunners; they just are not as good as what Clifton-Clyde has to offer. Jaclyn Sheets and Kelsey Keefer finished 12th and 13th last season as individuals. This race is really too close to call.

4. Shawnee Maranatha Academy – Last Year: 1st – 62 points
After the top three it gets tough. Maranatha won last season’s title and was runner-up to Bennington in the two years previous. It gets this ranking from me out of pure respect for what the program has produced in the last several years. From the success of the girls teams to Zach Zarda setting the 2A 3200-meter record in 2008, there has been a lot of success that is no accident and a product of good coaching. Only three girls return, but Bethany Zarda is a good place to start as she took fifth last year. Class 2A is wide open and if Maranatha can field a decent four and five then it could easily remain in the top five after losing four girls (numbers one, three, four and six to be exact) from last season’s championship team.

5. Olpe – Last Year: 9th – 193 points
Frontrunners are the story in this class and this choice came down to Olpe and Berean Academy. Defending champion Katelyn Henderson is the difference. Berean’s top girl finished 46th last season and is only 33rd fastest returner. No top five team regardless of class or gender had a number one runner outside of the top 25 last year. It is not impossible, but it is tough to get a top five finish without a solid number one runner. Berean runs a great pack, but it will likely just not be enough. Olpe is another program with tradition as it boasts two girls champions in the last two years (Henderson and Sharon Zeller was 1A champion in 2007), it also has three team championships in the last five years (all 1A championships). With numbers four and five on this list I am going with the thought that “tradition never graduates.”

Individual Rankings

1. Katelyn Henderson – Olpe, Junior
Henderson is a stud and should be the favorite to win this year and next. She watched teammate Sharon Zeller win a championship in 1A when she was a freshman, and then she picked up right where Zeller left off in class 2A. Henderson was fourth as a freshman and has shown great progression as a runner. She also has a track 3200-meter championship to her credit with a runner-up in the 1600 this past spring.

2. Jillian Stratman – Bennington, Senior
Stratman is another runner that has only gotten better as her running career has gone on. She took 16th as a freshman, fifth as a sophomore and second last season. Unfortunately, Henderson stands in her way. She did beat Henderson in the 800 in track, but that was after Henderson had already won the 3200 and beat Stratman by 10 seconds in the 1600. Stratman is a clear candidate to finish second again, but I don’t think Henderson will relinquish the top spot.

3. Bethany Zarda - Shawnee Maranatha Academy, Senior
Keeping up with the theme of improving ladies, Zarda is the poster girl for improvement. She did not run at the state meet as a freshman, was 26th her sophomore year and stepped up with a seventh place finish her last year. I am not sure if she has any relation to Zach Zarda, but if she is then the pedigree is there to run fast. She was fourth last spring in the 1600.

4. Karly Van Campen – Clifton-Clyde, Junior
Van Campen took fourth last year and continued taking the momentum into track where she was third in the 3200. The top Clifton-Clyde harrier was seventh as a freshman, but the three ladies in front of her are solid as well.

5. Lauren Carter – Elkhart, sophomore
If Carter can continue to improve then by her senior year she should have no problem locking up a title, but that championship year is still a couple away. She was the fastest freshman in 2A last year by 46 seconds. Carter proved her ability was not a fluke by taking fifth in the 3200 on the track as well.

As always and comments or suggestions leave a comment or contact me at cparker@kwch.com.