Flower Mound girls cool down and are joined by the Denton Guyer band
What was the distance of the course? Was it a real 5K?
That's what they're asking.
The kids ran fast, almost too fast.
Well, I assure you the course was 5,000m. It was set up to be fast as that was the whole point of the running the meet.
The South Lakes Park course had it's fair share of early race turns and a few muddy/soft parts, but for the most part, the course was flat, hard, had short grass, with some long straightaways.
In result, we saw the second fastest All-Time girls 5K time produced by Denton Guyer sophomore Brynn Brown and a US No. 2 for Flower Mound senior Jarrett Kirk.
Girls Elite Race
Brown exploded off the starting line with urgency. She ran to the front of the pack and kept pressing the race through the first mile. Starting off with the early lead that grew with each stride, Brown ran her way to a 4:54 1 mile split.
Although she settled in and slowed things down, Brown continued to press to pace on her way to a 10:26 2 mile split.
Brynn Brown breezed through the South Lakes Park course
Brown was just two seconds off of the pace of 16:05, the US No. 1 All-Time mark by North Rockland HS star Katelyn Tuohy, which was set just last year on September 22, 2018. Tuohy's paces were 4:53 and 10:25 through the first tow miles. This weekend, Brown finished in 16:12, which overall was six seconds behind Tuohy's No. 1 mark.
The 16:12 is the second low 16 minute 5K race of Brown's career. Last March at the Texas Distance Festival, she ran 16:25 on the track. "It's kind of surreal, I've been putting in the work this summer and I was expecting a fast time out of the gate, but to already be at this point at this point of the season it feel pretty incredible."
As mentioned in our meet preview, the Elite Girls field was fast and deep. Heading into the meet, there were five girls who had sub 18 minute performances in their careers. By the end of the meet, that number was improved to eight girls with 18:00 and under marks. Dallas Greenhill School senior Maddie Hatfield ran to a runner-up finish in 17:30, which was an improvement from her 17:47 previous PR.
"It's kind of surreal, I've been putting in the work this summer and I was expecting a fast time out of the gate, but to already be at this point at this point of the season it feel pretty incredible."
Brynn Brown - Denton Guyer junior
The girls team race was as much of a bird in the hand for Flower Mound as the individual race was for Brown. Flower Mound ran a SB 18:06 team average with a 1:06 split. They were led by their sophomore trio who each ran under 18:00. Natalie Cook led they way with a third place finish and a 17:37 SB. Right behind her in fourth place was Allison Buemi in fourth place with a 17:57, and Virginia Knight added a ninth place individual performance and a time of 17:59.
Flower Mound girls also won the Girls Varsity Open race.
Boys Elite Race
Flower Mound senior Jarrett Kirk had the break out race of the season. Kirk dropped the fastest 5K of his career. The 2017 UIL 6A state cross country champion (15:02) took control of the race early as he ran to the lead pack. Kirk, eventually ran away from the group on his way to his 14:40 win and PR. This weekend's 14:40 narrowly eclipsed his previous PR of 14:40.97 from the Texas Distance Festival, last fall.
This race continues Kirk's outstanding senior season and saw this coming, but perhaps he has more room to run better. Kirk said, "I feel like I have a lot more potential to improve."
He started things off with a 12:24.30 4K win at Friday Night Lights. Two weeks ago, he followed that up at the Marcus I Invitational, Kirk ran to a runner-up finish in 15:05, and now a new PR for the win.
The boys overall race saw other runners take advantage of the fast course. Both, the runner-up finisher Thomas Romanow (14:53) and third place finisher Victor Neiva of Keller Central (14:59) ran sub 15 minute PRs. There were a total of 31 boys to run 16:00 or under.
"We knew going in that our team had a chance to place all of our guys in the top 10, so we all just went out kind of guns a blazing and got a lot of our guys in the front,"
Jarrett Kirk - Flower Mound senior
The boys team race was similar to the girls race. Jarrett's big individual run also had huge team implications. He was the low stick for his Flower Mound team who dominated the race going for a 15:09 team average and a 1:02 1-5 split.
"We knew going in that our team had a chance to place all of our guys in the top 10, so we all just went out kind of guns a blazing and got a lot of our guys in the front," Kirk said. While they didn't quite accomplish that, they did place four of their top guys in the top 10 overall.
Flower Mound flexed their muscle in each race. They won the Boys Open Varsity, the Elite JV, and the JV.