The Southlake Carroll XC Invite had some of the big names missing that we were looking forward to, but that didn't stop the show. Some of the best teams from across the state still met up in Southlake, Texas for a battle royal.

In the boys race, we saw Grapevine senior Trey Leathers do the heavy lifting when it came to pacing the race. The elite group followed Leathers around Bob Jones Park soccer fields step for step.

In the last 1,000m it was Austin Vandegrift junior Kevin Sanchez who began to separate from the field with Wylie senior Nathanael Berhane close in tow.

Sanchez' initial move was so subtle the rest of the group didn't react and that bought him the time and the space that was just too much to overcome.

Berhane and Leathers made a huge push to try to close the gap, but Sanchez, the 2020 UIL 6A 9th place finish was too strong to lose his lead. "Going down that final stretch, I was thinking oh God, because I kept hearing they're coming...they're right behind you. Just as soon as I started going down the home stretch I was like just finish out, you gotta go," Sanchez said.

He would finish with a new cross country 5,000m PR of 15:05, which is slightly behind his 14:59.24 5K  PR on the track from the The Outdoor Nationals in July.

Berhane had a good track season by going 4.22.26, 9:35.13 dropping chunks of seconds from the previous track season. He continued to drop time with his 15:10.96 this weekend, which was almost a full second better than his previous 16:09.63 PR.

Leathers also PRed by going 15:13.09. That is just faster than his 15:17.85 from the UIL 5A state meet last fall. That time enabled him to finish 11th overall at state and helped Grapevine win the team championship. Already ahead of that time in week one of this season is big news for both Leathers and his Mustangs squad.