The uber-efficient organizers of the Flower Mound Marcus meet did something no one else in Texas has pulled off this season—putting lots of fast kids on a fast track. Over 1,700 runners posted times on one of the few dry Lone Star courses to be found to date. The hundreds of tightly packed fans in the narrow finishing stretch urged the runners on, making Southlake Carroll’s Neal Smith feel like he “was in the Alps finishing the Tour de France.”
The 5-A girls race was the day’s most interesting but not because of the 5-A girls. Instead, 4-A powers Highland Park and Fort Worth Boswell and private school kingpin Greenhill stepped up in class, joining Coppell, Hebron and a host of others to create an all-star game atmosphere. Not surprisingly, Greenhill’s Chelsea Sveinsson finished on top, winning by almost thirty seconds at 10:45 over the two mile track. Here is a scary thought: Chelsea’s time is over a minute better than she started with last season at the same meet. After the race Sveinsson remarked that she “was happy, very happy” with her time given the forty miles she had put in this week. Nothing about the race put a wrinkle in her plans for the year which are pretty clear. Asked about her goals, Chelsea had a singular focus. “The goal is to win Footlocker. That is it.” If Saturday was any indication it is going to take a herculean effort to keep her away from the trophy.
Coppell’s Kim Kirby and Boswell’s super sophomore Maggie Escobar finished second and third at 11:12 and 11:23, respectively. But the biggest story of the race may have been Sara Sutherland leading her “flock of Scots” to the overall team title. Sutherland, the ’07 4-A individual state champion, lead the charge with her fourth place finish. The Scots’ depth was telling as their top five finished at12:19 or better. The Scot stars rested up by watching their Junior Varsity take second in the 4-A division and a barrage of even more Scots dominate the junior varsity race. It is pretty clear that there is no deeper women’s program in the metroplex. Still, the Scot victory was only round one of their year round bout with Fort Worth Boswell who finished fourth overall and well within striking distance. For the “true” 5-A schools, Kirby’s time paced Coppell to second place with Southlake Carroll in third and Hebron in fifth.
Craig Lutz’s summer was a little bit different than Sveinsson’s given a late track season stress fracture. Saturday was his first day to test the leg under race conditions and he liked the results. Lutz’s 15:13 gave him a three second victory over Arlington Lamar’s Jeff Arnier and a twenty-one second margin over district rival Neal Smith. It turns out that the leg was the least of Lutz’s concern as he had to battle an upset stomach at the two mile mark. He credited the strong finish in the face of adversity to plenty of runs with his team. As a group the first place Marauders were buoyed by their finish. The team was unanimous with the thought that the win sets them on their way to a repeat regional title. Hebron, McKinney Boyd, Southlake Carroll and Montwood rounded out the men’s top five.
Lamar’s Arnier served notice, however, that the area will not be Lutz’s personal domain without a fight. Arnier chopped twenty-five seconds off his best time from last year, a feat he attributed to ultra high mileage base work and early evening tempo runs in the summer heat with his Metroplex Striders track club. Smith was also satisfied with his effort and thinks his own hard training will keep him in contention through the year.
In the smaller school divisions, Tess Lackey and her Ardmore Plainview teammates made their trip south count with a win in the 4-A girl’s division. Lackey had the day’s most exciting finish barely edging Richardson Pearce’s Megan Siebert for a photo finish win in 11:57. Individual winner Jake Hervey paced the Lovejoy men to a team title with a 16:13 time that would have placed him in the top four in the larger schools’ bracket. ERA ISD won the women’s 2-A grouping and Krum took the 2-A crown on the men’s side.