Annabella Tomasic did not race and still holds No. 1. Arabella Duffell was the only girl in Florida under 18:00. And once every opening-weekend time is converted to a common course, a 19:00 in Lakeland turns out to be the fourth-fastest run in the state.
Florida girls cross country, after opening weekend: August 21-22, 2026
Same method as the boys list. Every opening-weekend time has been converted to what it would have been worth at Cecil Field, using the returners who ran both the 2025 state meet and a given course this August. Cecil is the reference because Cecil is where the deepest field ran, not because it is fast.
It was not fast. The 175 girls who raced both the state meet and Cecil Field averaged roughly 30 seconds slower in Jacksonville than they had in Tallahassee, which is what a 107-degree heat index does to a 5K in August. That is a calendar tax, not a course tax, and it applies to everybody. Worth noting only because the boys did not pay it: their Cecil field ran essentially even with state.
The course taxes sit on top of that. Thirty girls ran both state and the Jim Ryun FCA Invitational at Holloway Park in Lakeland, and they gave back another 46.7 seconds beyond what Cecil cost. Twenty-three ran both state and the Ragin' Storm XC Challenge and gave back 34.8. Lehigh and Ocoee both graded slightly quick. Two meets we are not pricing at all: only seven girls at Lecanto and ten at Spikes & Spurs had a 2025 state time on file, and ten results scattered from 60 seconds fast to 210 seconds slow is not a measurement.
If you want the full account of how the weekend went, we wrote it up here: the best runner in Florida didn't race, and Belen Jesuit won anyway. The companion list is here.
1. Annabella Tomasic, Bishop Moore, So., 3A
Did not open, and holds the position anyway.
Tomasic won the 3A state title as a freshman in 17:35.5, the fastest returning time by any girl in Florida and 2.2 seconds clear of the 4A champion. Exactly one returner in Florida is within fifteen seconds of that mark, and she is ranked third on this page. She is a sophomore, which is either terrifying or exciting depending on which side of the 3A bracket you sit on. Bishop Moore projects third as a team in 3A behind Bishop Kenny and Chiles.
2. Arabella Duffell, Lake Nona, Jr., 4A
The only girl in Florida under 18:00 this fall, and the biggest single-race statement of the weekend.
Duffell was ninth in 4A last November in 18:36.6, which put her 13th on our returner list. At Cecil Field she let Avery Hartley go, spent the second half closing a thirty to forty meter gap, took the lead with 800 to run and won in 17:53. That is a 43.6-second improvement on a course that needed no adjusting, in air that deserved one. She ranks above two state champions because she is the only girl near the top of this list who has actually done something in 2026.
3. Madison Muller, Riverview (Sarasota), Jr., 4A
The 4A state champion at 17:37.7, two-tenths off Tomasic and the second-fastest returning mark in the state. She sat out opening weekend.
Like Will Moss on the boys' side, she is ranked on last November because last November is all anyone has, and she is the name most likely to force a rewrite the first time she pins on a number.
4. Avery Hartley, Bartram Trail, So., 4A
Runner-up at state in 18:00.3 as a freshman, runner-up at Cecil Field in 18:13 as a sophomore, and runner-up at this same meet the year before that.
Hartley went to the front and held real daylight through halfway before the heat and Duffell caught her. Giving back 12.7 seconds on a night when the average returner in that field gave back thirty is a fine August, and she owns the best resume in Florida belonging to anyone who is not a state champion.
5. Natalia Gaona-Zelaya, Wiregrass Ranch, Sr., 4A
Third in 4A at state in 18:06.9, fourth-fastest returning time in Florida, and she won the Ragin' Storm XC Challenge in 18:40.3.
That course cost the returners who ran it 34.8 seconds against Cecil, which prices her opener at roughly 18:06 Cecil-equivalent — dead level with what she ran in November, and quicker on the converted clock than Hartley ran on the raw one. Hartley stays ahead on the strength of the state mark and the depth of the field she ran in. This is the closest gap in the top five.
6. Katherine Eudaly, Plant, Jr., 4A
The Holloway Park adjustment does for Eudaly what it did for Jaxon Kiper on the boys' list.
She won the Jim Ryun Invitational in 19:00.9, by 44.4 seconds, which reads like a good-not-great time until you apply the 46.7-second correction and land at roughly 18:14 Cecil-equivalent. That would have been the fourth-fastest run in Florida on the weekend, and it is about 43 seconds better than the 18:57.4 she ran at state, where she was 13th in 4A and 22nd on our returner list.
All of which rests entirely on the conversion, and we will say so plainly. Get her on a fast course in October and we will know. Until then, thirty runners who ran both places say Holloway is slow, and we are not going to punish her for the venue her school scheduled.
7. Mary Summers, Seven Rivers Christian, So., 1A
Third in 1A at state as a freshman in 18:27.9, which makes her the fastest returning 1A girl in Florida by 18.7 seconds.
Summers won at Lecanto in 18:32.9, five seconds off her own state time in August. We are not converting that one — seven girls in the sample is not enough to price a course — but she and Lydia Vincent both ran within five seconds of their November marks there, which at least says Lecanto did not rob anybody. She did not run it alone, either: Vincent was 7.8 seconds back.
The only real knock is the one 1A always carries. She rarely has to race anyone, and that will not change until November.
8. Selah Vignier, West Shore, Jr., 2A
The 2A state champion at 18:14.7, fifth-fastest returning mark in Florida.
She ran 18:55 at Cecil for eighth, 40.3 seconds off her state time, which is ten seconds worse than the field average that night and the reason she sits behind a 1A sophomore rather than ahead of her. Ranked here on the title and the mark, with the opener treated as what it was.
9. Katelin Wilcox, East Lake, Sr., 3A
Third at Cecil in 18:35, 38.8 seconds faster than her state run, second only to Duffell among our top 50 returners.
Wilcox was 19th in 4A last fall and 34th on our list. East Lake drops to 3A for 2026-27, which puts her in Tomasic's bracket rather than Muller's, and puts a 19:13.8 runner who now runs 18:35 into a class she can podium in. Senior years that open like this one tend to keep going.
10. Lyla Hallick, Vanguard, So., 3A
Fourth at Cecil Field in 18:37, two seconds behind Wilcox, in the deepest field anybody in Florida faced this weekend.
That is 37.4 seconds faster than her state run, and it came in a Vanguard singlet for the first time after a transfer from Forest. Hallick was 20th in 4A last November and 35th on our returner list, so this is a large move off one race. It is also the only kind of race that settles anything: she beat every girl in the state on Friday except the three ranked above her who were there.
Just missed
Lainee Mercer (Springstead, Jr., 3A) is the closest call on the board and the one we argued about. Her 18:15.3 at state is the sixth-fastest returning mark in Florida, twenty-eight places better than either girl ranked ninth or tenth. Our own conversion flatters her Ragin' Storm run to roughly 18:37, level with both of them. By the letter of the method she belongs in the top ten.
She is out on the one thing the method cannot see. She ran that race beside Natalia Gaona-Zelaya and lost by 31 seconds, having finished within nine of her at state. Same course, same air, adjustment cancels, gap is real. If we are wrong about anybody on this page, it is probably her.
- Eva Delaney (Creekside, So., 4A) ran 18:21.1 at state and 18:57 at Cecil, which is a normal August for a top-eight returner.
- Alba Antunez-Perez (Spanish River, Sr., 18:20.3) and Taylor Lawhon (Bishop Kenny, Sr., 18:26.0) both sat out, and both anchor projected team favorites — Spanish River in 4A, Bishop Kenny in 3A.
- Emma-Claire Tanenbaum (Chiles, So.) was sixth at Cecil in 18:48, 14.3 seconds off the 18:33.7 that made her fifth in 3A.
- Elise Brown (St. Thomas Aquinas, So.) ran 18:50 after finishing 51st in 4A last November in 20:04.1. That 74.1-second drop is the largest by any girl inside our top 120 returners.
- Ashton Dahlem (Gulf Breeze, Sr., 18:35.8) and Kate Brice (Episcopal, Jr., 18:36.8) did not open. Brice anchors the 2A favorite.
- Lydia Vincent (Zephyrhills, Sr.) went 18:40.7 at Lecanto, 2.3 seconds off her state mark.
- Avalyn Thompson (Lake Brantley, Sr.) won at Ocoee in 19:04.8, 58.5 seconds faster than her state run and the second-biggest drop among ranked girls.
What moves this list
Tomasic and Muller racing, which settles the top three in an afternoon and is the single thing this list needs most. Vignier or Delaney running a normal time in normal weather. Eudaly getting on a fast course so we can stop extrapolating and start reading a clock. And Mercer getting another crack at Gaona-Zelaya.
Four of the top ten did not race, one is ranked on a converted time, and two moved up thirty places on a single evening. That is what an August list is. The course math does not fix it — it just makes a 19:00 in Lakeland and an 18:37 in Jacksonville comparable, which raw times cannot do. We will run it again after every weekend that gives us enough overlap.
The boys' version of this list is here, and the full opening-weekend recap, including all eleven meets, is here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How were these Florida girls cross country rankings calculated? expand_more
They start from the 2025 FHSAA state meet with graduating seniors removed and every school re-slotted into its finalized 2026-27 classification. Opening-weekend results from August 21-22, 2026 are layered on top, with times converted to a Cecil Field equivalent using the average gap between each meet and Cecil for the girls who ran both.
Why is Cecil Field used as the reference course? expand_more
Because 175 girls in the comparison group raced there, far more than any other meet on the weekend, which makes it the most reliable baseline. It is not the fastest course. Girls at Cecil ran about 30 seconds slower than their November state times in a 107-degree heat index, but that penalty applied to everyone in the field equally.
Who is the top returning girls cross country runner in Florida for 2026? expand_more
Annabella Tomasic of Bishop Moore. She won the 3A state title as a freshman in 17:35.5, the fastest returning time by any girl in Florida, 2.2 seconds ahead of 4A champion Madison Muller. She did not race opening weekend.
Who was the fastest Florida girl on opening weekend 2026? expand_more
Arabella Duffell of Lake Nona, who won the Cecil Field Summer Classic in 17:53 — the only girl in Florida under 18:00 on the weekend and a 43.6-second improvement on her 2025 state time.
Why is Katherine Eudaly ranked sixth on a 19:00 time? expand_more
She ran it at Holloway Park in Lakeland, which graded 46.7 seconds slower than Cecil Field across the thirty girls who raced both. Converted, her 19:00.9 is worth roughly 18:14 at Cecil, which would have been the fourth-fastest run in Florida that weekend.