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Gatorade 2020 - 2021: Player of the Year

Girls Cross Country - North Carolina

athletes playing Girls Cross Country
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GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Carmen Alder

Distance Runner
PINECREST HS
SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA
SENIOR
Height: 5-FOOT-8
Press Release

Peak Performance

1st - 17:47.30

Sandhills Athletic Conference - individual championship

5th

National XC Town USA Meet of Champions
“Carmen has proven herself as one of the most decorated distance talents in North Carolina history. She was 2.4 seconds off medal pace at the national USA Meet of Champions, then won her next six races to grab a third state title.”
Erik Boal
editor at Dyestat.com
excellence star

Athletic Excellence

The state’s two-time returning Gatorade Runner of the Year, the 5-foot-8-inch senior distance talent led the Patriots to their 29th straight Sandhills Athletic Conference title this past season and a seventh-place finish at the state meet, where she captured a third consecutive individual championship by breaking the tape in 17:47.30. Just the fifth girl in state history to three-peat at states, Alder clocked North Carolina’s fastest girls 5K time—and the only mark under 17 minutes—with a 16:58.90 back in September. She was unbeaten against in-state competition in 2020 and took fifth at the National XC Town USA Meet of Champions to earn First Team All-American status. A four-time All-State selection in cross country, Alder now owns 11 individual state titles between cross country and track and field. She finished 11th nationally in the final 2020 MileSplit50 girls cross country rankings, and her state meet speed rating according to Dyestat and TullyRunners.com ranked No. 10 nationally. Both of her parents ran competitively at Brigham Young University and her mother, Janeth Alder (née Caizalitin), competed in the women’s 3000-meter event for Ecuador at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.

a graduation cap

Academic Achievement

Alder has maintained a 3.79 weighted GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at BYU this fall.

first place ribbon

Exemplary Character

President of her local Venture Crew youth service chapter, Alder has donated her time to multiple community service projects, including the beautification of Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve and an equine-assisted therapy program for military veterans. An active member of her church community, she has volunteered on behalf of special needs peers, a summer camp and the Special Olympics Moore County Spring Games.