Top Returners Chiara Dailey, Lily Alder Take On Paige Sheppard, Jaelyn Williams For Individual Girls SweepStakes Title; No. 2 Buchanan CA Girls Meet No. 3 Union Catholic NJ Girls In Early-Season Test; No. 3 Jesuit CA Stands In The Way Of Herriman UT's 4-Peat Pursuit; Jackson Spencer, Aiden Le Roux In Clash Of Southwest's Top Individuals

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Ken Martinez photos

WATCH THE WOODBRIDGE CROSS COUNTRY CLASSIC ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, SEPT. 19-20, ON RUNNERSPACE.COM (RunnerSpace+ required)

California’s premiere high school cross country invitational welcomes back another elite lineup of teams and individuals to the 44th edition of the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic Presented by Asics America, taking place Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19-20, at Great Park in Irvine, California.

Teams and individuals entered in Saturday’s Bob Day’s Girls Sweepstakes and Doug Speck’s Boys Sweepstakes races will hale from different regions around the United States, such as California, the Northeast, the Northwest, the Southwest and the South.

An historic 2024 meet witnessed both three-mile course records go down in the sweepstakes races. Rylee Blade of Santiago (Corona) CA shattered Jane Hedengren’s 2023 best of 15 minutes, 32.5 seconds, running 15:20.3. Owen Powell of Mercer Island WA lowered Leo Young’s course best from 2021 of 13:38.1 to 13:30.3.

With Blade off to Florida State University and Powell at the University of Washington, two new athletes will be crowned champions in this year’s sweepstakes races, which will be run Saturday night.

Two of the top three girls from last year’s Bob Day’s race are set to return: Chiara Dailey of La Jolla CA and Lily Alder of Timpview UT. Both girls also ran under Hedengren’s course best alongside Blade, with Dailey running 15:28.2 for second and Alder running 15:28.9.

Other top individuals returning to this year’s meet include Payton Meineke of Riverdale Ridge CO (8th), Braelyn Combe of Santiago (Corona) (9th), Grace Smith (15th) and Isla Bulmer (29th) of Claremont CA, Millie Bayles of Trabuco Hills CA (13th), Jordan Banta of Air Academy CO (16th) and Isabella Ramirez of Bullard CA (25th).

Outside of those returners, a few notable entries worth mentioning that were not a part of last year’s sweepstakes race, but are this year, are Paige Sheppard of Union Catholic NJ, Jaelyn Williams of Eastlake CA and Summer Wilson of Irvine CA.

Sheppard, the New Balance Nationals Outdoor mile champion and anchor for Union Catholic’s national record distance medley relay team, will make the long trek from Scotch Plains, New Jersey, with her team to test themselves against national level competition. Union Catholic is No. 3 in the DyeStat Preseason National Team Rankings.

Williams, who missed last year’s Woodbridge meet due to an Achilles injury, is healthy and ready to test herself against fierce competition. Williams has already beaten her future Stanford teammate, Dailey of La Jolla, at the CCA Ravens Invitational, running 16:03.1 for three miles.

Wilson, now in her second season with Irvine after transferring from JSerra Catholic CA in 2024, has impressed early in the season with a 10:03.9 two-mile effort at the Saddleback Cup, winning by 56 seconds. Wilson last ran at Woodbridge in 2023, finishing 39th in the sweepstakes race.

Rowan Saacke of Bridgeland TX, Maddie Carney of Caldera OR, Emily Cohen of Cherry Creek CO, Macy Wingard of Denton Braswell TX, Isabella Ramos of Point Loma CA, Kamilah Salim of West Torrance CA, Adria Favero of Olympus UT, Taylor Drewry of Basha AZ and Amelia Sarkisian of Brentwood CA are names top keep an eye out for in the field.

Union Catholic’s presence makes for an intriguing top-three nationally ranked match-up between them and No. 2 Buchanan. The Bears, who finished third at Nike Cross Nationals last fall, will feature Brooklyn and Kyznlee Buckley, Gaby Gutierrez and Molly Sundgren. All four girls finished top 55 or better in last year’s Woodbridge meet, leading Buchanan to a fourth-place team finish.

The top-returning team is Santiago (Corona), finishing third last season behind Blade’s win and Combe’s ninth-place finish.

Air Academy, ranked No. 11 nationally this season, were sixth last year.

Buchanan is joined by other top California teams in Trabuco Hills, Del Norte, Oak Park, Claremont, Tesoro and Oak Ridge. Bridgeland TX is another out-of-state team to watch.

In the Doug Speck’s boys field, seven of the DyeStat Preseason Boys National Team Rankings are entered, including four of the top 10.

Led by No. 3 Jesuit CA, featuring Isaac Abott, Lucas Alberts, and Drake Hoferer, have proven their depth plays to their strengths. They’ll take on a tough No. 4 Herriman team, led by Jackson Spencer, the top sweepstakes individual returner finishing sixth and early-favorite to win the individual title this year, and Eli Jarvis, who finished 38th last year. Herriman became the first school in meet history to win three consecutive sweepstakes team titles and will go for an unprecedented fourth in a row.

No. 7 Coeur d’Alene and No. 8 Bridgeland TX both provide challenge that could give Jesuit and Herriman fits. Wyatt Carr, 20th individually, is the top returner for Coeur d’Alene, who finished fifth as a team last year. Griffin Saacke leads Bridgeland.

No. 12 Beckman, No. 14 Matilda Torres CA, No. 18 San Clemente, Redondo Union, Mountain View, Woodbridge and Mt. Carmel are the other top California teams outside of Jesuit. Austin Vandegrift TX and Boulder CO bring in quality out-of-state teams.

Spencer's attempt at an individual crown will not only come against California's top athletes, but also those from out-of-state. Aiden Le Roux of Cheyenne Mountain CO is one of them.

In the two times Spencer and Le Roux met last fall, Le Roux beat Spencer at NXR Southwest, then Spencer returned the favor to Le Roux a few weeks later at NXN. Both were top 10 at nationals, with Spencer finishing seventh and Le Roux finishing ninth.

Zarian Rodriguez of Hamilton AZ, another Southwest Regional standout, made the most of his opportunity at Woodbridge last season, finishing 19th. He should be in the top 10 mix this year.

Kai McCullough of Austin Vandegrift TX, Noah Strohman of Holliday TX, Brady Anderson of Faith Lutheran NV, Mason Morical of Caldera OR, Carson Smith of Air Academy CO, Ashenafi McKinnis of North Eugene OR and Symond Martin of Page AZ.

Maximo Zavaleta of Martin Luther King CA, seventh last year and California's top-returning individual, will look to return the individual sweepstakes title to The Golden State two years after Evan Noonan of Dana Hills won in 2023.

California's remaining athletes to watch for are Aidan Antonio and Aiden Zavala of Woodbridge, Hunter Hannah and Benjamin Fernandez of Matilda Torres, Jaxson Northcutt of Mt. Carmel, Carter Prater of Somerset Academy Sky Pointe, Cooper Castleberry of Poway, Jace Deledonne of Poly (Riverside), Takashi Shipp of Orem, Kiefer Willcox of Tahoe-Truckee, Oliver Hunter of Dana Hills and Noel Huato of Del Oro.