Lovejoy XC Fall Festival Meet Preview And Virtual Meet

William Grundy

Lovejoy XC Fall Festival Virtual Meets

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Are you excited for the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival on Saturday, September 4th! Well you should be!  The meet will be held at Myers Park and Event Center in McKinney, TX. 

Meet info, course maps, parking info, etc. can be found at the meet webpage: www.lovejoyxcfallfestival.com. 

The meet is genuinely a true festival with high school and middle school races, meet apparel, concessions, snow cones, and one of the best timing companies in the business.

What it will also have is some of the best competition in the state. Some of the top teams in the Dallas-Forth Worth area will compete, but also Houston area schools (Klein Oak, Conroe, Houston Episcopal, Magnolia West and Friendswood), the Texas panhandle (Amarillo Tascosa, Canyon Randall), Austin area schools (Leander, Burnet, Austin Vista Ridge, Leander Home School, Georgetown, and Dripping Springs), and Boerne Champion,  College Station, and McAllen as well.

The individual and team races in both elite races will be outstanding with several state championship individual and team podium finishers littering the fields. Here are some athletes and teams to watch for. 

Elite Girls Preview

The girls race will include several UIL 5A teams that blitzed through the 2020 season and who all have plans to do so and better this year. This weekend, host school Lucas Lovejoy, Colleyville Heritage, Canyon Randall, Georgetown, Highland Park, and Dripping Springs are all strong again this season and will measure themselves against the defending back-to-back UIL 5A team champions Boerne Champion this weekend.

Individually, there are 10 girls who have run sub 18:00 either last year or already this season. Gabbie Love is fresh off her win last week at the Southlake Carroll XC Inv. She'll have top runners who medaled last year at the UIL 5A state meet to compete with like Anastacia "Chachi" Gonzales (Boerne Champion) who was third, McKenzie Bailey (Georgetown) who was fourth, Allie Love (Colleyville Heritage) who was seventh, Kailey Littlefield (Lovejoy) who was eighth, and Kate Williams (Boerne Champion) who finished 10th last year.

Other top runners to watch for are Amy Morefield (Lovejoy) third at the 2019 state meet and 12th last year, Brighton Mooney (Frisco Independence) who was 15th last year and has already run18:07 this season and Erin O'Brien (Frisco Memorial) who was ninth last week at Southlake Carroll with a 18:12 PR.

Canyon Randall runner and Colorado state cross country runner-up transfer Cameron McConnell already has a big invitational win under her belt with her 17:44.50 run at the Waxahachie Woodhouse Invitational on August 21st. Houston Episcopal star Kat Kwiatkowski was runner-up at Waxahachie to McConnell in 17:50 and will also compete this weekend. Cedar Park Vista Ridge freshman Emma Wade and Klein Oak senior Gabrielle Hoots who ran 17:59.80 last year and was second at The Woodlands Friday Night Lights will also be in the running for a top spot. Celina's Adele Clarke is another threat. It depends on which race she enters a shorter distance race or the 5,000m elite race. Either way, she will be a front runner in whichever race she is entered in. Melissa junior Abigail Bass ran 18:32 last season and kicked her season off with a 11:09.20 2 mile race. She also competes in the 2 mile distance during the championship season, bur she can also be a front pack runner in whichever race she enters.

5000 Meter Run

PLACEATHLETEGRADETEAMTIMEPOINTS
1Allie Love2024Colleyville Heritage17:14.90 1
2Gabbie Love2023Colleyville Heritage17:23.01 2
3Mckenzie Bailey2023Georgetown High17:28.80 3
4Anastacia Gonzales2022Boerne Champion17:32.42 4
5Amy Morefield2023Lucas Lovejoy17:43.79 5
6Cameron McConnell2022Canyon Randall17:44.50 6
7Kat Kwiatkowski2022Houston Episcopal17:50.00 7
8Kailey Littlefield2024Lucas Lovejoy17:52.78 8
9Kate Williams2022Boerne Champion17:54.71 9
10Gabrielle Hoots2022Klein Oak17:59.80 10

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Elite Boys Preview

In the boys race, Denton will be the premiere team to watch for. They were third last season at the UIL 5A state meet and they already started the season off in a record breaking manner.

Denton High was second last week at the Southlake Carroll XC Invite where they ran 15:57.14 as a team; they are extremely talent and driven. However, things won't come easy this weekend with Lovejoy, Friendswood, and Wylie who are all strong teams and area all competing this weekend.

The individual race will be an entertaining one. Sahil Dodda is arguably the best distance runner in Texas and should be the front runner this weekend. The St Marks senior ran 15:04 during cros country last season and his track season was equally as phenomenal. This will be his first 5K and he'll be competing against Wylie senior Nathanael Berhane who ran 15:10 last weekend for a runner-up finish at the Southlake Carroll Inv. Denton trio of Drew McLaughlin, Wyatt Athey, and Matthew Norton have all run 15:30s and better this season and will help for a solid front pack.

Adding to the lead pack should be junior Hunter Jackson (Wylie), Zade Kayyali (Friendswood), Hudson Bennett (Burnet) who won the Vista Ridge meet, Jace Poole (Leander) runner-up at Vista Ridge, Ricardo Lopez (College Station), and Aiden Gonzalez-Rodiles (Frisco Reedy), Tre Hudson (Rockwall), and Devon Judelson (The Colony) who have all run 15:50 and under.

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