Yesterday, we did the boys. Today, we turn our attention to the girls.
All the same caveats apply. This is guesswork. There may be a little bit of science, but there's a healthy dose of guesswork, too. It's easier to guess at a top five than a top 10 or 20, but it's still subject to a lot of things we simply don't know about yet.
There are some excellent competitors who will not show on this list. If that serves as motivational fodder for some of those athletes, that's a good thing for all concerned.
This article is neither more nor less than my best guesses at the top five female high school cross country runners this fall in Colorado. I'm already resigned to the fact that probably one or more of these will end up being displaced by someone else before the season is over. That's what happens when you guess.
Beyond that, I'll add that distinctions were already thin, and quite a bit fuzzy, before I settled on the five athletes included in this article. So, yes, you could most definitely make solid cases for a few other athletes to be on this list.
Click on Next to advance to the first athlete. I randomized the order to help keep things interesting all the way to the end.