CLASS 4A GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNERS TO WATCH IN 2025
 

 
AVA CLAYTON, HOLTON

Clayton had an impressive freshman season serving as a strong complement to returning state placer Eva Cortes last fall. While Cortes still held down Holton’s lead spot, Clayton pushed her throughout the season and ended her freshman campaign with six top 10 finishes. Clayton took second at the Holton Invitational and was third at both the Hiawatha and Osage City Invitationals before finishing fourth at the Big East League meet. After placing sixth at regionals with a career-best time of 19:47.00, Clayton finished strong with an 11th-place showing at state, one of three Wildcats to finish in the top 20. Clayton is the only one of those that returns and she was the second-highest freshman finisher at last year’s Class 4A state meet behind only Paola’s Ella Needham, who finished third.
 

 
ISABELLA FRIESEN, BUHLER
 
Friesen played her part in helping Buhler win its second Class 4A girls cross country title last season, finishing 14^th as one of three Crusader individual medalists. That helped Buhler unseat 2023 champion Eudora by an 11-point margin. Friesen finished the rainy state run in 21:03.85 at Wamego, and was one of three 4A freshmen in the top 20. Friesen had a strong lead-in to state, finishing fourth at the Sterling Invitational, sixth at the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail III meet and third at the Crusaders’ home regional. Her Sterling time of 20:10.10 ranked ninth in Crusader program history. Friesen also came within one second of Buhler’s school record in the 3,200 last spring, running 11:46.51 at regionals.
 

 
SHEA GRIFFITH, BALDWIN
 
Griffith opened some eyes when she placed fifth at the 2023 Class 4A state meet as a freshman, running a then-career-best 19:44.10. With expectations perhaps ramped up last fall, Griffith didn’t disappoint. Running a strong No. 2 behind junior Irelyn Kennedy for the Bulldogs, Griffith only had one meet last year where she finished outside of the top 10, that coming at the prestigious Rim Rock Invitational. Her highest placing was a third at the Sabetha Invitational and she placed fourth at the deep Frontier League meet, which boasted ultimately the top three finishers at the state meet. Though she couldn’t match her fifth-place finish from her freshman year at state, she still managed to place ninth to help Baldwin take third as a team. Griffith is one of six returners for Baldwin off last year’s state squad as the Bulldogs look to return to their customary position at the top of 4A.
 

 
BRETT JACOBSON, CIRCLE
 
Jacobson has been one of Class 4A’s top runners since she was a freshman, when she won the first of three Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail III individual titles and a regional crown. After a rough state cross country debut in 2022 in which she was unable to finish the race, Jacobson posted her second consecutive top-10 finish in 4A last November, taking seventh. The Thunderbird senior entered state on the heels of four consecutive top-3 finishes. An Emporia State commit, Jacobson ran her personal-best and school-record 5K of 18:01.60 as a sophomore at the Olathe Twilight. Jacobson is coming off a track season in which she placed third in the 4A 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200. She also won the 2,000-meter steeplechase at the Kansas Relays.
 

 
IRELYN KENNEDY, BALDWIN
 
Kennedy has been a force for Baldwin since her arrival as a freshman in 2022, earning state medals each of her first three seasons for the Bulldogs. Kennedy placed seventh at state as a freshman and then moved up to a fourth-place finish as a sophomore in 2023. Last year, she finished as the state runner-up, coming in 33 seconds behind Frontier League rival Hanna Keltner of Eudora in the chase for the 4A state title. Kennedy also finished second to Keltner at regionals and at the Frontier League meet. She had four career victories, three of those coming at the Sabetha Invitational as she won that meet crown each of her first three seasons. Kennedy, who ran a career-best time of 18:31.10 at the Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regionals the week after state last year, will be one of the top favorites for the state title this year with Keltner now running for Kansas State. She also will look to get Baldwin back on top of 4A as a team for the first time since 2020 as one of six returners from last year’s third-place state team. Kennedy is the program’s all-time record holder, which given Baldwin’s rich history, speaks volumes.
 

 
ELLA NEEDHAM, PAOLA
 
Competing in a Frontier League that’s been dominated by Eudora and Baldwin for pretty much the past two decades, Needham struck a blow for Paola by thrusting herself right to the contender tier last year as a freshman. Needham never finished lower than third at any of her meets a year ago and ripped off three wins in a four-meet stretch early in the season with titles at the Lyndon, Wellsville and Perry-Lecompton Invitationals. She finished third at the league meet behind Eudora’s Hanna Keltner and Baldwin’s Irelyn Kennedy and then finished behind only that duo at both regionals and the 4A state meet. With Keltner and Kennedy going 1-2 at all three meets, Needham turned in a career-best time at regionals with a 19:11.00 and then finished eight seconds behind Kennedy at state with a 20:00.97. Though Keltner has graduated, Needham will still have to contend with Kennedy and Clay Center’s Kylie Pfizenmaier (fourth at state last year), among others, for the individual title this season.
 

 
LUCIA NIPPERT, ROCK CREEK
 
It wasn’t complete deja-vu, but Nippert’s 2024 Class 4A state meet sure had a familiar finish to it as for the second straight year she came across in 20th place to secure the final state medal. Her time of 21:26.35 last fall was nearly a minute slower than the 20:32.70 she ran in 2023 to place 20th, but muddy, rainy conditions made the Wamego Country Club course a tad more challengning. Nippert placed top 10 in six of her other eight races last fall, including a fourth at the Silver Lake Invitational and sixth at the North Central Kansas League meet. Twin sister Livia spent most of the year right with her, even beating her once, but Livia’s 22nd at regionals denied her from joining Lucia at state last year after she had placed 15th at state in 2023. 
 

 
KYLIE PFIZENMAIER, CLAY CENTER

Having spent her first two seasons somewhat in the shadow of teammate Lauren Smith, who captured three straight North Central Kansas League titles from 2021-23 and was a four-time state placer in her career, Pfizenmaier found the spotlight last fall. After finishing runner-up to Smith at the season-opening Concordia Invitational, Pfizenmaier beat her senior teammate in the five other races in which they both ran as Smith missed time with an injury. Pfizenmaier got her first career win at the Clay Center Invitational and then dethroned Smith at the NCKL meet before again beating her in a 1-2 Tiger finish at regionals while posting a career-best time of 18:56.75. Pfizenmaier, who took 14th at the 4A state meet as a freshman and then was seventh as a sophomore, capped her junior season with a fourth-place finish at state, a spot ahead of Smith. She won’t have her running partner this season as Smith has grauated.
 

 
CORBIN STARKWEATHER, BUHLER
 
Starkweather collected Buhler’s school record in the 5K last fall with her first career cross country victory, winning the Sterling Invitational 19:09.00. That propelled the rising junior to a strong finish to the season, which culminated in the Crusaders’ second Class 4A team championship. Starkweather finished second to Circle’s Brett Jacobson at the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail III meet, then posted a 2.6-second victory over Andale’s Arwyn Hennessy to win the Buhler regional title. Starkweather, who finished 19^th in 4A cross country as a freshman, paced the Crusaders to the team title last November with a 13^th-place finish at Wamego, crossing the line in 20:55.41. Last spring, Starkweather set Buhler’s school record in the 2,000-meter steeplechase (8:01) at the Kansas Relays. 

NOTE: Classifications for the 2025-26 school year had not been released at the time of publication. Runners featured could potentially fall into a different classification once those have been determined.