London Culbreath (L), Brynn Brown (C), and Natalie Cook (R) could make the season's first big Individual match up at the MileSplit TX Inv
The first year of the MileSplit TX Invitational is shaping up to create some top notch match ups. The meet is on September 14, 2019, which fits right in between two of the biggest meets in the state each year. The meet will be two weeks after Marcus I and two weeks before the McNeil Inv.
There are already some big time match ups potentially shaping up for the meet. Potentially, the most intriguing individual match could be on the girls side. With Denton Guyer hosting the meet and Flower Mound and McKinney North attending, we could see the first major clash of the year with three of the top distance girls in Texas.
Denton Guyer junior Brynn Brown will make her 2019 season debut at the MileSplit TX XC Inv. Brown finished her 2019 cross country season with a 16:41.13 5K PR and 2nd overall at the UIL 6A state meet. She qualified individually for both National Championship meets finishing 18th at the Foot Locker National Championship in 18:08.70 and 50th at Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) in 18:05.70.
Brown continued her outstanding sophomore year on the track when she won the Texas Distance Festival Elite 5K in 16:25.47 as she crushed the previous meet record. She later added two UIL 6A state titles in the 1600m (4:48.37) and the 3200m (10:09.91) and a state meet record.
Mckinney North senior London Culbreath could also be making an appearance. Last year, Culbreath won her third UIL 5A state cross country championship. She also qualified for the two National Championship meets collecting both Regional championships. Culbreath then finished 39th at Foot Locker (21:33.20) and 49th at NXN (18:03.90).
On the track, she continued to add to her Texas lore by
The key third piece to the potential individual match up for the girls is Flower Mound sophomore Natalie Cook. Cook finished her freshman cross country season as the seventh fastest 5K girl in Texas for 2018 with her 17:03.91 PR. Cook's fifth place UIL 6A finish and her 60th place finish at NXN (18:13.10) ended her season in grand fashion.
Cook continued during track season by qualifying for state in both the 1600m (4:50.09) where she finished third and the 3200m (10:24.96) for a second place finish. Two medal finishes at the state meet as a freshman could propel Cook into her sophomore year where her confidence could lead her to challenge to be the state's top runner.
This could be the tell tale sign for the 2019 season and could lead to the post season with some answers for the cross country season.
