14 Seasons: Fresh Meat II, Cutthroat (2nd place), Rivals (2nd place), Battle of the Exes, Battle of the Seasons, Rivals II (2nd place), Free Agents, Battle of the Bloodines (Win), Invasion of the Champions, Dirty 30 (2nd place), Vendettas (Win), Final Reckoning (4th place), War of the Worlds (5th place), War of the Worlds 2 (Final)

13–6 Elimination Record

43 Challenge Wins

Daily Challenges: 8.5/10

Eliminations: 9/10

Finals: 8.5/10

Politics: 7.5/10

Who would have ever thought that the girl who had a breakdown in her first (and only) episode on Fresh Meat II would become one of the greatest females in Challenge history?

At her peak, Cara Maria might not be a top-five female of all time. But nobody has a resume as stacked as Cara.

She’s made the most finals appearances in Challenge history with nine. She has the most elimination wins for a female ever with 13. She’s the second player to make five consecutive finals, only behind Kenny with six. Cara was the first solo winner of a season on Vendettas.

Cara Maria is not only the female face of the franchise, she has become one of the best competitors in the history of the show.

But Cara wasn’t always top dog. She started her run on the show as the underdog, constantly battling both with the house and with her own self-confidence. She was bullied by Laurel on Cutthroat, and by Wes, Paula, Jenn and CT on Rivals.

I think there’s two halves of Cara’s career, and there’s a pretty clear dividing line.

From Fresh Meat II to Rivals II, Cara was an above-average competitor, but by no means was she elite.

I think sometimes people exaggerate how bad of a competitor Cara was in her earlier seasons. You don’t make three finals by accident, and she was usually in the upper-middle class of female competitors.

Still, she was clearly behind Laurel and Sarah on the gray team on Cutthroat and was more or less carried to the finals by Abram. She wasn’t as good of a “number two” partner for Laurel as Paula was for Evelyn on Rivals. On Rivals II she held back Cooke in several daily challenges, although she came through in eliminations and in the last mission.

But Cara clearly started coming into her own on Free Agents. She drew the kill card three times, impressively taking out Nia in Looper, beating LaToya in Oppenheimer and defeating Jessica in Balls In.

She injured her hand against Jessica, then had to face perpetual frenemy Laurel in Wrecking Wall, where she was sent home.

After Free Agents, Cara reeled off one of the greatest runs by a female in Challenge history, making six of seven finals and earning two victories.

On Bloodlines, she and Jamie were in the rookie alliance with Thomas/Stephen, Dario/Raphy and Cory/Mitch, but that fell apart when Abram entered the game.

Jamie and Cara were forced to go into the final three eliminations. Cara solved the puzzle to take out her longtime rival Bananas in Through Thick and Thin, then she defeated Aneesa in Mine Not Yours to reach the final. She and Jamie were able to beat Cory/Mitch and Jenna/Brianna, as Cara captured her first championship in her eighth season.

After losing to Laurel in Balls In on Invasion, she finished second in Dirty 30, winning six daily challenges and beating Veronica, Aneesa, Jemmye and Britni to get out of the Redemption House.

Despite only making one troika, Cara cruised to the final of Vendettas without seeing an elimination. She was the top finishing girl in the first part of the final, then became the first individual winner in Challenge history by completing the final puzzle first.

Paired with Marie on Final Reckoning, Cara didn’t have much of a chance to win her third championship. Still, the duo made it most of the game without seeing an elimination before losing to Shane/Nelson in Meet Me Halfway.

But they were able to get out of the Redemption House by beating Kam/Kayleigh in That’s the Ticket, then made it to the final.

Cara had one of her best seasons from a physical standpoint on War of the Worlds. Partnered with Theo, the duo made four tribunals.

She reached the final by winning the Crash Landing mission, allowing her to skip the final mission. Cara just missed out on making the top four, as she was unable to complete the math portion of the final before Theo.

Still, Cara made the most tribunals of any girl on War of the Worlds despite competing against one of the top female casts in Challenge history.

Her excellent political game continued on War of the Worlds 2, as her and Paulie completely controlled not just their own team, but also the UK team. Once again she skipped into the final without having to see an elimination, and was one of the final four players from Team US after the purge after the first day of the final.

Cara Maria is extremely difficult for me to rank, because you could easily argue that she should either be higher or lower. As a competitor, she’s clearly not in the top-five all time, and she’s never been considered a great political player.

However, in terms of what she’s accomplished, she could debatably be number one. But there are a couple of factors that keep her out of my top three.

First, Cara has been extremely lucky with partners. With Darrell, Laurel, Abe, Cooke, Jamie and Theo, she has probably the best partner luck in Challenge history outside of Johnny Bananas.

Cara also benefited tremendously from most of the top girls of her era leaving the show. She has seen girls like Evelyn, Laurel, Emily, Sarah, Camila and Paula come and go, leaving her as the top female competitor (at least before the influx of new castmembers on War of the Worlds).

And while she has done an impressive job staying out of eliminations in four out of five seasons in a row, Cara hasn’t always been the best political player.

There’s a reason she’s been in 19 eliminations (although to be fair, she has only been in five since Bloodlines).

She was unpopular with the rest of the cast early in her career (and still kind of is), and has often relied on others like Abe, Laurel and Paulie to make strategic decisions for her.

I honestly think you could argue for Cara to be anywhere in the top five.

Of the girls in my top-seven rankings (Rachel, Sarah, Camila, Emily, Laurel and Evelyn), I would rank Cara as the worst competitor.

But in terms of what she’s accomplished in her career, she’s arguably done more than any girl in the history of the show.

I think Cara earns her spot at three because her resume is borderline impeccable. She has made finals in 9/14 seasons, the highest percentage of any woman who has done more than six seasons.

The only times she has been eliminated, it’s been at the hands of Jill/Pete, Ty/Emily, Sarah/Chet, Shane/Nelson and Laurel (twice), all very strong teams/competitors. The only times someone beat Cara and didn’t go on to make the final was Shane/Nelson on Final Reckoning and Laurel on Invasion.

And while I’m not factoring the Champs vs. series in my rankings, it should at least be noted that Cara won Champs vs. Pros with Darrell, as the former Fresh Meat II partners were able to avenge their early exit by defeating Kamerion/Lindsey and Wes/Camila.

Cara is probably at the lower end of the top-10 females of all time at her peak, but her laundry list of accomplishments in the game speaks for itself.

Rankings

25. Tonya Cooley

24. Holly Shand

23. Ruthie Alcaide

22. Theresa Gonzalez

21. Jenna Compono

20. Jillian Zobroski

19. Diem Brown

18. Tori Deal

17. Dee Nguyen

16. Kam Williams

15. Jenn Grijalva

14. Tori Hall

13. Jodi Weatherton

12. Ashley Mitchell

11. Veronica Portillo

10. Paula Meronek

9. Susie Meister

8. Coral Smith

7. Rachel Robinson

6. Sarah Rice

5. Camila Nakagawa

4. Emily Schromm

3. Cara Maria Sorbello

2. Evelyn Smith