Five of the ten fastest returning 1A girls stayed home. Mary Summers won her opener alone again, a seventh grader finished 42nd in the varsity Elite race at Cecil Field, and the fastest 1A time of the weekend came from a girl we had eighth.
Update: the week 2 edition of this ranking is now up, with everything the second weekend of racing changed.
Florida Class 1A girls cross country, after opening weekend: August 21-22, 2026
Five of the ten fastest returning 1A girls did not pin on a number this weekend. That is the story of this list as much as any race was.
What did happen: the best runner in the class won her opener alone, like always. A junior from Lakeland Christian went out and raced two of the best girls in Florida. A seventh grader lined up in the varsity Elite race at Cecil Field and finished 42nd. And the fastest 1A time at Cecil came from a girl we had ranked eighth in the class.
As always, this is data plus judgment, and we will miss somebody along the way. A (P) next to a name means she has not opened yet and we are going on last November. How we sorted it out is at the bottom. Races are not won until the kids have run. Enjoy.
The statewide lists: Week 1 girls top 10 and Week 1 girls team top 10. The other classes: 1A boys, 2A girls, 3A girls and 4A girls. The Class 1A girls team rankings are here.
1. Mary Summers, Seven Rivers Christian (Lecanto), So.
Third in 1A at state as a freshman in 18:27.9, the fastest returning 1A mark in Florida by nineteen seconds, and she opened by winning the Lecanto Invitational in 18:32.9.
That is the fastest 1A time of the weekend by any measure, and it is not close. Depending on how kind you are to the Lecanto course she is somewhere between half a minute and a full minute clear of the next 1A girl. She belongs in the conversation with the best girls in Florida regardless of class, which is why she was seventh on our statewide top ten.
She ran it alone, which is the permanent condition of being Mary Summers. Lydia Vincent of Zephyrhills finished eight seconds back and is the only girl who has made her work since November. Seven Rivers is not a ranked team. Nobody in this class is going to force a race out of her before the regional meet, and maybe not then either.
2. Emma Wilkinson, Lakeland Christian, Jr.
The best evidence anybody in 1A produced this weekend, and it came from choosing a hard race. Wilkinson was sixth in 1A at state in 19:00.0 and finished third at the Ragin' Storm XC Challenge in 19:37.2, behind only Natalia Gaona-Zelaya of Wiregrass Ranch and Lainee Mercer of Springstead. Those two are on the fringe of the overall Florida top ten.
Ragin' Storm ran slow, so her opener is worth close to half a minute better than her state time, against a field that gave her nothing for free.
She is ranked ahead of a faster returning mark on purpose. Rachel Judy's 18:46.6 from November is quicker on paper, but Wilkinson is the only girl in this class besides Summers who has proved anything at all in 2026.
3. Rachel Judy, Masters Academy (Vero Beach), Sr. — (P)
Fifth in 1A at state in 18:46.6, the second-fastest returning mark in the class, and she did not open.
Judy has a real claim on second and possibly on more, and there is no way to settle it from a blank line in the results. Her state time says second. Her projection says third. The first time she races, one of those becomes the real number, and we would not bet against her.
Masters Academy is tenth in 1A with a 5:52 spread, so like Summers and Wilkinson she is running for herself.
4. Noelle Richardson, Westminster Academy, Sr.
The fastest 1A time at Cecil Field and the biggest quiet move of the weekend. Richardson ran 19:36 for 27th in the Girls Elite race, in the deepest field anybody in Florida faced, and that is five seconds faster than her state time on a night the rest of the field gave back close to half a minute.
She was 13th in 1A last fall and came in as our eighth-ranked returner in the class. She is not the eighth-best runner in 1A. Westminster Academy is third in 1A as a team on the strength of it.
5. Emma Akhundjanov, Providence (Jacksonville), So.
Akhundjanov was 28th in 1A at state in 20:18.6 as a freshman and came in as our 21st-ranked returner. She ran 19:43 at Cecil for 29th in the Elite race, seven seconds behind Richardson. That is better than a minute of improvement, and the biggest jump by any 1A girl who broke 20:00.
One race is one race, and Cecil in August rewards the kids who trained all summer more than November does. But she did it in the hardest race available instead of an easy one, and that is worth something. Providence is seventh in 1A behind her.
6. Adelyn Lubke, Indian Rocks Christian, So. — (P)
Eighth in 1A at state as a freshman in 19:21.8, the third-fastest returning mark in the class, and she did not open. Indian Rocks Christian is second in 1A as a team, so that is a program with plenty to lose by staying home and no apparent worry about it.
Lubke's problem is not ability. It is that four girls who actually raced beat her projection this weekend. She may well be the second-best runner in 1A. She has not been asked to show it.
7. Joanie Webb, Donahue Academy, Fr.
The only genuinely new name in the class, and what an introduction. Webb won the Lehigh Senior High Invite out of a 203-runner field in 19:42.8, fifteen seconds clear of Madison Easton, in her first high school race.
There is no state meet history to check her against and no second race yet, which is the only reason she is seventh instead of higher. A freshman who wins a two hundred girl race by fifteen seconds in August is usually nowhere near done by October.
8. Jacquelyn Perrin, St. Edwards (Vero Beach), Jr. — (P)
Ninth in 1A at state in 19:33.0, the fourth-fastest returning mark in the class, and no opener. Same note as Lubke: five girls who ran have already beaten her projection. She is one race from being ranked considerably higher and one bad race from being ranked lower.
9. Kaitlyn Conboy, Circle Christian, 7th grade
The most improbable line on this board. Conboy was 21st in 1A at state as a sixth grader in 20:01.9. She opened by running 20:07 at Cecil Field for 42nd in the Girls Elite race. The varsity race. Against the best fields in the state. At twelve or thirteen years old.
That is essentially level with her state time on a course that cost everybody else half a minute, which means she got faster. She is ranked ninth in a class where the girls around her are three to five years older than she is.
10. Naeha Akella, St. Stephens (Bradenton), Sr. — (P)
Twelfth in 1A at state in 19:40.2 and did not open. She is the last of the projected group whose November mark is good enough to hold a top ten spot, and a senior year is the wrong time to be ranked on last fall. Her ranking gets decided by her, not by us, sometime in September.
Just missed
The ones who sat out. Reese Allen (Oak Hall, 8th grade) was 17th in 1A at state and is eleventh here, the closest call on the board. Her teammate Lola Murfee (Sr.) is right behind her, and Oak Hall is fourth in 1A. Alexandra Middleton (Indian Rocks Christian, Jr.) and Kenzie McCollum (Trinity Christian, 8th grade) also stayed home.
Four from the raced side. Faith Dykens (Cornerstone Classical, Fr.) ran 20:23 at Cecil with no state history at all and led a Cornerstone team that is sixth in 1A on three freshmen. Catherine Staten (St. Johns Country Day, So.) ran 20:30 as her team's number one, and St. Johns Country Day is fifth in 1A. Her teammate Ella Rose Hanna (So.) went 20:38 after 22:15.5 at state, which is the biggest improvement by any 1A girl in Florida this weekend. Sophia Hobson (St. Stephens, Jr.) ran Holloway Park with no state mark to compare against and was quick doing it.
Avery Carvell (Westminster Academy, So.) is the hard one. She was tenth in 1A at state in 19:35.2 as a freshman, the sixth-fastest returning mark in the class, and ran 21:37 at Cecil, two minutes off. Her teammate Noelle Richardson is ranked fourth out of that same race. Nothing about one August evening says a runner is finished, and if the state meet were tomorrow she would still be a scoring threat. But we do not rank anybody on a mark they had a chance to defend and did not.
Abigail Cooper (Tampa Bay HEAT, So.) was 16th at state and opened about 25 seconds slow at Jim Ryun. Also close: Kelly Geraghty (Holy Trinity, Fr.) and Taylor Geraghty (Holy Trinity, 8th grade), the top two on the best team in 1A; Ayla Tobias (Southwest Florida Christian, Fr.) out of Lemon Bay; and Sara Palmer (Providence, Sr.), 19th at state, who ran 21:02 at Cecil.
How we ranked them
- Courses do not all run the same speed, so we do not compare raw times. Cecil Field is the yardstick, since most of the state's best runners were there. For the other meets we look at girls who raced both that course and last year's state meet and use the gap to work out what a time was worth.
- The girls' fields ran noticeably slower in August than they did at state in November, so an opener that looks like a step back usually is not one. That gap is built into every number here, and it is why the 1A girls list reads so differently from the boys'.
- Girls who have not opened are ranked on last November and marked (P). It is a stingy way to do it, since it gives them no credit for the summer, and half of this top ten is still sitting there.
- Lecanto is the one course we could not pin down. Only seven girls ran both it and the state meet and they disagree with each other badly. Mary Summers ran there, and she is first under any reading of it, so nothing on this page hangs on it.
- Ragin' Storm, Lehigh and Jim Ryun all check out cleanly against the state meet.
- 259 Class 1A girls have a mark on the board, either an opener or a state time. 171 of them ran the state meet last fall.
- Class is the 2026-27 FHSAA classification, not last year's.
Week 2 is when a lot of these projections turn into results, and there are five girls above who can move this whole list by racing once. Check back for the updated top ten, and the full opening weekend recap with all eleven meets is right here.
Mary Summers races Saturday at Whispering Pines, against ranked girls from 3A and 4A — the full meet preview is here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How were these Class 1A girls cross country rankings calculated? expand_more
Every opening-weekend time from August 21-22, 2026 is converted to a Cecil Field equivalent using the runners who raced both a given course and the 2025 FHSAA state meet. Runners who did not open are entered at their 2025 state time plus 28.8 seconds, the measured August-to-November gap, and marked (P). Schools use their 2026-27 FHSAA classification.
What is the 28.8-second conversion and why does it matter? expand_more
173 girls ran both the 2025 state meet in November and Cecil Field in August, and they averaged 28.8 seconds slower in August. That is a calendar tax, not a course tax, and it applies to everyone. Without it, a girl who raced in August would look worse than a girl ranked on a November time she has not had to defend.
Who is the top returning Class 1A girls runner in Florida for 2026? expand_more
Mary Summers of Seven Rivers Christian in Lecanto. She was third in 1A at state as a freshman in 18:27.9, the fastest returning 1A mark in Florida by nineteen seconds, and she won the Lecanto Invitational in 18:32.9. She was also seventh in our overall Florida girls top ten across all classes.
Why is the Lecanto course conversion flagged as unreliable? expand_more
Only seven girls ran both Lecanto and the 2025 state meet, and they disagree. Their own median implies the course is worth about three seconds against Cecil Field, while the boys' offset scaled across implies twenty-seven. Mary Summers ran there, so her converted mark falls somewhere between 18:06 and 18:30. She ranks first under either reading.
How many of the top Class 1A girls skipped opening weekend? expand_more
Five of the ten fastest returning 1A girls did not race, including Rachel Judy, Adelyn Lubke, Jacquelyn Perrin, Naeha Akella and Reese Allen. They are ranked on projection and marked (P), which credits them with no summer improvement at all.