The Southlake Carroll Invitational is this weekend and it will be another collection of elite talent. How elite do you ask? Well, some of the state's best and national level athletes will line up and run the 5K course for early season bragging rights.
On the girls side, it will be the season opener for London Culbreath of McKinney North. Culbreath has been one of the top distance runners for each of her first two high school seasons. She enters 2018 ranked #6 in the MileSplit50 Individual rankings. She will face TX #2 Isabel Van Camp of Keller, TX #3 Brynn Brown of Denton Guyer, and TX #5 Natalie Cook of Flower Mound, #6 Adoette Vaughan of Hockaday, and #7 Ava Peeples of Lake Highlands. All of those ladies have already dropped sub 18 5Ks on this short season and Culbreath, Van Camp, and Vaughan have all three run at either NXN or Foot Locker Nationals.
In addition to the sub 18 group, there are ten other girls who have run under 19 for the season in the 5K.
It will also be another North Texas girls team showdown. Last week, we saw the best teams run at the Marcus I Invitational, this week again will show which girls teams are the cream of the crop. Five of the top 10 MileSplit50 girls teams will compete in #1 Flower Mound, #2 Coppell, #3 Coppell, #4 Keller, and #6 Southlake Carroll.
On the boys side, it will be just as exciting as it will also provide an elite collection of talent. Some of the top runners who have run true 5K courses will compete. Jarrett Kirk of Flower Mound, Alex Maier of Flower Mound, Will Muirhead of Lucas Lovejoy, Pete Johnson of Plano West, Ryan Shumaker of Grapevine, and Christian Sanchez of Arlington Houston have all run 15:40 and under.
The boys meet entires also have Carter Cheeseman of Fort Worth Christian, Michael Abeyta of El Paso Hanks, and Camren Fischer of Fayetville, Arkansas. Cheeseman will be making his season debut and Abeyta and Fischer will be running their first 5Ks of the season. Cheeseman was both a Foot Locker and NXN finalist last season. He was joined on the NXN South team by Fischer with Kirk and Maier both running at NXN for their Flower Mound squad.
Team wise, it will be another spectacular competition as six of the top 10 MileSplit50 boys teams in Texas will be going head to head. TX #1 Flower Mound, TX #3 Southlake Carroll, #4 Wylie, #6 Grapevine, #9 Lovejoy, and #10 Plano West are all entered into the meet.
Bob Jones Park