Andres and Pablo Arroyo race to the finish at the 2019 Southlake Carroll Inv.
-Contributed by John Turek and Jason Yaffe
On a beautiful Saturday morning, at Spring Creek Park in Tomball, TX, led by some of the top private schools in the state, the SPC state meet produced many outstanding individual times and team results.
Once the dust settled from the girls race, the boys toed the line at 9:30 am. Similar to the girls race, the boys team title resulted in a new conference champion as Dallas St. Mark's placed five runners in the top twelve to easily win their first title since 2013.
That was the product of some dominant pack running. First there were the Arroyo twins, Pablo Arroyo (3rd) and Andres Arroyo (4th). They raced stride for stride with each other while at the front of the race, stars Sam Bass (the 2018 Oklahoma Gatorade XC Runner of the Year from Casady) and Julian Baeza (St. Stephens) dueled for the lead until Baeza pulled away in the last 400 meters for the win in 15:28.
The twins' finished in 15:49 and 15:52 respectively to lead their St. Marks team to the championship going away with a score of 40 points. They were supported by Sahil Dodda (10th), Tyler Nussbaumer (11th) and Julian Ivarra (12th), Fisayo Omonije (34th), and Trey Stager (38th).
St. Mark's, arguably the best private school in Texas after having defeated San Antonio Antonian (TAPPS 6A Champion) in a meet earlier in the season, boasts 2 runners under 16:00 and the next 3 runners under 16:44.
The SPC Champion was Baeza in a very good time of 15:28. Second went to Bass in a close 15:35. Runner-up boys team was Houston St. John's, which is comprised of 3 runners under 17:00 and the next 3 under 17:17.
