Allison Austin

Did not race. Second at the Buchholz Bobcats Classic on September 12 in 19:10.4, 33 seconds behind Camila Giles of Bishop Kenny 3A, and ninth at Cecil Field in 18:56.0; Buchholz reads about even for girls. Thirteenth to ninth without running: Delaney ran Katie Caples, a fast-reading course, and her figure slipped, and Austin had beaten her at Cecil Field anyway. Duffell, Hartley and Brown beat her there, and that order holds until they meet again.

18:56.0 at Cecil Field, four seconds better than her state time, and nothing since. Tenth on one race.

Idle in week two, holding on the 18:56.0 from Cecil that was four seconds faster than her state time, in August, in the deepest field available. Nothing new to report, and at the front of this class nothing new means holding your spot, because the newcomers all landed below her.

Ninth in the Cecil Elite race in 18:56, four seconds faster than her state time of 19:00.0, which was good for 17th in 4A last fall. Against a field that gave back 28.8 seconds on average, running faster than November in August is worth about a 33-second improvement.

Atlantic Coast does not rank as a team. Austin is a sophomore who has now beaten her state mark twice over — once by finishing 17th as a freshman and once by opening ahead of it — and there is no obvious ceiling in sight yet.