Girls Class B Preview
Team Snapshots - Individual Snapshots - Section by Section - Top Team Breakdowns
Class B is in a state of flux as 2021 champ East Aurora moves down to Class C while Cornwall drops back down to B to assume the role of preseason favorite. Two other top contenders Pearl River and Honeoye Falls-Lima have won 15 States titles between them, but the Pirates are seeking their first win in 23 years and the Cougars are hunting their first in 18 years.
2021 Recap
East Aurora and Honeoye Falls-Lima had a great tussle last year in a matchup of the two programs that won all of the Class B titles from 1998 to 2010 as first HFL ran off a 7-year streak and then the EA followed with a 6-year run. This time the Blue Devils had a little bit more than the Cougars at the top and repeated their 2019 triumph by a 55-67 margin to pick up an eighth B title to go along with two from Class C, where they are competing in this year. Pearl River, Burnt Hills, South Side, Goshen, and South Side captured the next five spots.
EA freshman Emilia O'Leary ran well ahead of the field to win the race for the Blue Devil champs. Seniors took the next four spots, as Miller Place's Sierra Gray, Pearl River's Una Boylan, Camden's 2019 Class C champ Elizabeth Lucason, and Miller Place's Danielle Cirrito followed before Mohanasen freshman Rachel Miller claimed the 6th spot.
Teams
With East Aurora headed to Class C in 2022, a new team will be taking over as the lead team. Perhaps that squad will be the last non Blue Devil team to win a B title, 2018 champ Cornwall. The Green Dragons return to Class B after spending the last two championships up in A, where they finished 4th last year. A title is not a given for Cornwall even though senior Federation champ Karrie Baloga leads the team since they lost three of their top 6 to graduation and need a fair amount of development work to shore up the ranks behind Baloga.
The problem for the rest of the returning top four B teams from last year is that they also took serious hits at graduation, and indeed ten of the top 15 and seventeen of the top 30 runners in last year's States race were seniors. All three teams need some big help at the back of the lineup, and after losing three of its top 5, last year's 4th-place team Burnt Hills has dropped out of the list of preseason top 5 teams even though frontrunner Mia Paolino returns for her junior season.
Last year's 3rd-place team Pearl River lost top runner Una Boylan but have four of their top 6 back headed by 29th place finisher Madyson Moroney. Honeoye Falls-Lima lost three of its top 6 including lead runner Ann Brennan, so the Cougars have some major rebuilding work ahead of them behind senior States medalist Alia Spaker.
The three teams with the most intact squads from last year are 2021 5th-place team South Side and the S2-B teams that finished behind Burnt Hills last year, Scotia-Glenville and Mohonasen. South Side has its top 5 back from last year's States 5th-place team and are led by senior 24th place finisher Cameron Coletti, though depth is a concern here. Scotia-Glenville returns its entire varsity squad and is led by senior States finalist Stephanie James. Mohonasen's very young team has its top 5 back with the big kick at the top of sophomore sectional champ and States 6th-place finisher Rachel Miller, so the Warriors could be poised for a big leap this year.
Individuals
Feds champ and Nationals 4th-place finisher Karrie Baloga brings a state-best 153 TR speed rating into the season, meaning she is expected to run way ahead of any other Class B runners. Baloga was also the Manhattan Eastern States champ last year, so she should be piling up highlights early in her final season. The next best rating goes to Moho's Rachel Miller, and the sophomore may be closing the gap a bit from her outstanding freshman year.