Boys Meet Preview
Reed Brown was second last weekend at the Marcus I Invitational.
With Carter Blunt not racing again until districts, the Southlake Invitational is shaping up to be a battle between some top guys in the state. Southlake Carroll's Reed Brown and Colleyville Heritage's David Strome who finished 2nd and 3rd last weekend at Marcus 1, will definitely be in the mix again this weekend. This weekend we will see several more guys in that top pack including El Paso Socorro's Stephen Alvarez and Dallas Jesuit's Connor O'Neill. Alvarez ran a solid time of 15:36 last weekend to place 2nd at the Rudy Alvarez Invite, while O'Neill placed first at the Plano ISD Invitational running a 15:38. It will be interesting to see how this race will unfold with these top guys all having run right around that 15:20-15:30 mark. Southlake Carroll's second man Charlie Gardner will also look to be in the mix after he ran 15:39 to finish 4th last weekend at Marcus I.
On the team side of things, on paper Southlake Carroll is hands down the team to beat, if they run there top guys. Last weekend at Marcus I they dominated against some top teams in the state scoring 48 points (the next closest team had 112). Other teams that will be in the mix for a podium spot are Grapevine, Lewisville Hebron, Frisco Wakeland, and Dallas Jesuit. Last weekend Grapevine was runner up to Southlake at Marcus I. They will again look for leadership from senior Hayden Murphy. Last weekend Murphy helped lead the team to their second place finish running 16:10 to place 14th. Grapevine has a strong shot at a second place finish again this weekend if they can hold the same 47 second gap as last weekend. The team that will pose the biggest challenge to them is Lewisville Hebron, led by senior Drew Cummings who is only 8 seconds off breaking 16 minutes for 5k.
One other team that will look to break into the top three is Dallas Jesuit. The team has two strong front runners in O'Neill and Connor Garvey but will need stronger performances from their fourth and fifth men to have a podium finish. Another team who will be attending is Jenks coming down from Oklahoma. They are currently ranked U.S. No. 17 in the Saucony Flo50 rankings.