Madison Muller won Venice for five wins in five starts, Emma Balaban was the first Floridian in the Great American Race of Champions, and Alba Antunez-Perez and Stella Krueger come in after beating the IMG pair in Cary.
Florida girls cross country, through seven weeks: August 21-October 3, 2026
Madison Muller won again. She took the Venice Invitational by 96 seconds in 18:41.8, five starts and five wins, and she is still unbeaten by a Florida girl. Emma Balaban was the first Floridian in the COROS Race of Champions at the Great American XC Festival in North Carolina, 15th of 324 in 17:42.9. Lyla Hallick won the Craig Speziale Invitational by 43 seconds.
Two girls come in off the Cary race. Alba Antunez-Perez of Spanish River was 32nd in 18:05.0 and beat both IMG girls who were on this list, Rashida Reinhardt and Sydney Johnson. Stella Krueger of Episcopal beat them too. Reinhardt and Johnson come out.
Avery Hartley stays in. She won Bale-N-Trail a week ago, then ran 21:17 at Speziale on Saturday, almost three minutes slower, without a teammate near her. That one looks like an off day, not a measure of her, and we are keeping her at tenth.
Every time is weighed against where it was run, using runners who raced both that course and last November's state meet, with Cecil Field as the yardstick. A runner is ranked on her whole season, with the most recent race counting most, and a race she won never counts against her. We use the data and our own eyes, and we will get one or two wrong along the way. The boys' list is here.
1. Madison Muller, Riverview (Sarasota), Jr., 4A
Won the Venice Invitational in 18:41.8, 96 seconds ahead of Kayla Hawk of Parrish. It was her slowest time of the season, and the whole field was slow with her. Five starts, five wins, and her 17:52.6 at Wellen Park in September still ranks her. She and Balaban have not met; Muller has been first since week 3 and stays there until they do.
2. Emma Balaban, IMG Academy, Jr.
Fifteenth of 324 in the Race of Champions in 17:42.9, the first Florida girl across, ahead of Antunez-Perez, Krueger, Reinhardt and Johnson. Won the Southern Showcase in 17:45.2 in September, and her 17:14.1 at the IMGA Summit is the fastest time by a Florida girl this fall.
3. Natalia Gaona-Zelaya, Wiregrass Ranch, Sr., 4A
Did not race. Won the Stampede Sprint in 17:34.6 on September 26, five starts and five wins. She has beaten Tomasic, Hallick and Mercer this season and has lost to nobody.
4. Arabella Duffell, Lake Nona, Jr., 4A
Did not race. Second of 271 in the Championship race at PR'ville in Huntsville on September 26 in 17:33.5, the fastest race of her season. Won Cecil Field and St. Cloud. She and Gaona-Zelaya have not met.
5. Katherine Eudaly, Plant, Jr., 4A
Did not race. Won the North Port Invite in 17:37.3 on September 19 by 46 seconds, four wins in five starts.
6. Annabella Tomasic, Bishop Moore, So., 3A
Did not race. Won her last two: the Katie Caples Invitational in 17:24.0 on September 19 and the Hagerty Invitational in 17:24.8 on September 26, by 96 seconds, with Bishop Moore scoring 24. Those are two of the three fastest times by a Florida girl this fall. Hallick beat her at the Horse Park on September 5, and that race no longer orders anybody.
Recovery
What a lot of runners put on after the finish.
Three of the girls on this list spent Saturday on a bus or a plane on either side of a 5K. The OOFOS OOahh recovery slide is the one you see in team tents: a soft, thick foam footbed that takes the pressure off sore feet after a race or a long workout. Unisex sizing; they run a little big between sizes.
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7. Lyla Hallick, Vanguard (Ocala), So., 3A
Won the Craig Speziale Invitational at Ponte Vedra in 18:40.8, 43 seconds ahead of Piper Ross, with Hartley 11th. Won the Rockledge Raider Classic in 18:10.8 two weeks earlier. Vanguard was second to Ponte Vedra in the team race.
8. Alba Antunez-Perez, Spanish River, Sr., 4A
Thirty-second of 324 in the Race of Champions in 18:05.0, within two seconds of her best, and the second Florida girl across, ahead of Krueger, Reinhardt and Johnson. Won her own school's Race of Champions in 18:03.2 on September 18. Two races this season, and she was just off the list a week ago.
9. Stella Krueger, Episcopal (Jacksonville), Jr., 2A
Eighty-second in the Race of Champions in 19:13.9, ahead of Reinhardt (19:20.7) and Johnson (19:37.7). Her season figure is lower than theirs, and here is why we rank her above them anyway: most of the IMG girls' marks come from their own course at the IMGA Summit, which runs fast. When all three ran the same course on the same day, Krueger was in front. She is also the reigning Class 2A state champion at 3200 meters: she won it at UNF on May 7 in 10:54.29. This is our call. Several girls beat her at Katie Caples on September 19, and we will see where she stands when she meets them again.
10. Avery Hartley, Bartram Trail, So., 4A
Won the Bale-N-Trail Elite race on September 26 in 18:17.5. On Saturday she was 11th at Speziale in 21:17.4, in among a pack of Ponte Vedra girls with her nearest teammate 28 seconds back, almost three minutes off her Bale run. We are calling it an off day and keeping her in. Five girls beat her at the Showcase on September 19: Reinhardt, Sydney Johnson and Brooke Pelkey of IMG, and Lola Jackson and Harmony Holland of Niceville. Putting Hartley above them is our call. Hallick, Piper Ross and Reese Cartwright beat her Saturday.
Just missed
Lainee Mercer (Springstead, Jr., 3A) won the Wild Bulldog Invitational in 18:24.7, a personal best by 16 seconds, ahead of Lydia Vincent and Emma Poekert. She has not met Krueger since the Horse Park and has never raced Hartley, and she is first out. Rashida Reinhardt (IMG Academy, Fr.) and Sydney Johnson (IMG Academy, Jr.) were 90th and 117th in Cary, behind Antunez-Perez and Krueger; Episcopal's Holland McKinney and Whitney Morgan beat Johnson too. Eva McMenemy-Hoang (Viera, Sr., 4A) won the Race of Champions at the flrunners.com Invitational in 18:53.3, ahead of Emma Wilkinson and Emma-Claire Tanenbaum. Mary Summers (Seven Rivers Christian, So., 1A) has not raced since August 29.
Reader supported
Free to read, no paywall. Every pair of the state's top 60 girls gets checked against each other before this list goes up, from 46 new meets this week. If it helps your team or your kid, you can buy us a coffee.
Method notes
- A head-to-head loss stands until the two runners meet again. Where results form a loop, the most recent meeting decides. Every pair among the top 60 on the season board was checked.
- New this week: head-to-heads from September 12 and earlier no longer order runners. Those races are three weeks and more old, and the kids have changed since. The times still count in the season figure. Opening weekend (Cecil Field and Jim Ryun) expired last week. That is why Hallick's Horse Park win over Tomasic no longer puts her above Tomasic.
- Two calls that are not rule outcomes: Krueger ninth, ahead of Reinhardt and Johnson, whom she beat on Saturday, although several girls ranked below her beat her at Katie Caples; and Hartley tenth after a slow day at Speziale, although Reinhardt, Johnson, Pelkey, Lola Jackson and Harmony Holland beat her at the Showcase.
- Out-of-state runners at the Great American XC Festival and the Alexander Invitational are left out of the course readings and the rankings. Florida runners' places among the full field are printed as they finished.
- The Fletcher Nor'Eastern Classic is not rated: its runners finished 5 to 9 minutes slower than their usual 5K times, so it was not a standard 5K. Places there still count.
- Sixteen meets from September 22 to 26 that had not been in our numbers were added this week, among them the Hagerty Invitational, where Tomasic won by 96 seconds, and the NW Area Girls Championship.
- IMG Academy is an FHSAA Independent; its runners are ranked. A race a runner won never lowers her figure.
Every result behind this list is on the site in the rankings section, and the full weekend is in the weekend recap. Last week: the week 6 girls list.
Featured image: the Riverview Rams logo, the school's own mark, credited to Riverview High School (Sarasota).