South girls taking a course preview on Friday afternoon Photo By: Jeff George
Texas had three individuals represented at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in San Diego! Abby Gray, Juila Heymach, and Reed Brown all ran for Foot Locker glory Saturday in Balboa Park.
The girls race was the first race of the day, and it got out to a blazing fast start! Virginia's Weini Kelati started pushing the pace from the gun going. She took the lead group through the mile in 5:13. The other girls in the lead group kept challenging her but every time they came up on her shoulder she kept pushing harder. The lead group was broken down to four at two miles with Kelati leading the charge followed closely by Maryjeanne Gilbert form Illinois, Nevada Mareno from North Carolina and Judy Pendergast form Illinois.
Gilbert, Mareno, and Kelati took it down to the wire! The three battled it out with 500m to go Kelati began to pull ahead, with 200m to go it was down to Kelati, and Gilbert. Kelati made a final push pulling ahead to take the win running 17:09!
Abby Gray the Alamo Heights senior and University of Arkansas commit finished in the top 20 placing 18th running 18:09. This was her second Foot Locker nationals appearance in 2014 she placed 36th. This was Houston Lamar junior Julia Heymach's first time ever running the Foot Locker National Championships after running only NXN last year. She placed 36th the same place that Gray did when she was a junior. It was an impressive race by both girls against the best in the nation!
The guys race wasn't as close of a battle as the girls. Virginia's Drew Hunter took the race at 800m in and never looked back! When Hunter went he opened up a :17 second gap from the rest of the pack. He continued to hold almost course recored setting pace, all on his own. He ended up wining the race running 14:55, Phillip Rocha form California finished 2nd running 15:07, and Ben Veatch finished 3rd running 15:09.
Southlake junior Reed Brown ran another impressive race running 15:33 placing 19th! This was his first ever Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, after an already very busy post season. Brown was the NXN South winner and 4th place finisher at Foot Locker South. He then earned All-American honors just last weekend at NXN placing 14th. The 19th place finish adds to his impressive post season resume.
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