Some have said the decision for the best high school girls athlete in Orange County should be about as close as most of a certain record-breaking runner's races.

After all, Woodbridge's Christine Babcock won the award last year as a junior and only has gotten better.

But she still has to go out and race, right?

And there were plenty of other top candidates this year to give fans tempting choices.

One of the few rules we had in our selection process for the final eight is that there only could be one candidate per school. That means we had to make some tough choices, such as picking between Foothill's Emily Klug and Christina Marinacci and San Clemente's Kristen Riley and Alex Dunne.

So check out the matchups, which were determined by a random draw. And click on the following links to find comments about the athletes and cast your votes.

Kennedy's Jamia Reid vs. San Clemente's Kristen Riley.

Foothill's Emily Klug vs. Aliso Niguel's Zaneta Wyne.

Troy's Alison Ramos vs. Corona del Mar's Shelby Buckley.

Woodbridge's Christine Babcock vs. Mater Dei's Melissa Bates.

Contact the writer: preps@ocregister.com