On Tuesdays, we are highlighting team performances throughout the season and week by week. Highlighting the same team in consecutive weekends is not the idea, but this week it was unavoidable with the performance of a certain team last weekend.
The Garmin MileSplit TX XC Invitational hosted by Denton Guyer was an outstanding meet with multiple elite performances. What can not be lost or overlooked is the way in which the Grapevine boys dominated.
Grapevine Boys
The defending UIL 5A state champions ran their complete squad for the first time this season and they lived up to the wait and the expectations that were in our minds.
As a team, they ran a 15:28 team average while only having a 46 second split between the first and last scorers. The Mustangs dropped three individual in the top 10 and ran a team speed rating average of 177.6 according to Tully Runners.
To get the team win, Grapevine scored a mere 41 points to beat other strong Texas teams as well as out of state teams from Arkansas, California, and Oklahoma.
Lucas Lovejoy Girls
We wrote about Lovejoy's girls team last weekend after their home meet win over some dynamic UIL 5A teams as well as 6A teams.
As aforementioned, it wasn't our intention to highlight a team in consecutive weeks. Nevertheless, it is hard to overlook the Lady Leopards' performance this week.
Coach Littlefield's squad won on a tough course last week and then demonstrated their team speed on the flat and fast course. They went from a 19:04 team average and 1:35 split to a 18:27 team average and a 1:40 split while jostling the line up a little bit.
Scoring only 64 points in a huge meet like this was impressive, but equally so was the way they dismantled some very good state wide and national teams. Behind Lovejoy were five teams across three states who were at their state meet last season and four of them who were trophy winners at their state meet.
Next week, we don't plan to talk about the Lovejoy girls again, but if they keep this level of running up. . . who knows.
Dallas St. Marks Boys
St. Marks has one of the top runners in the state as well as nationally. Having a low stick like they do is an easy way to help bolster a team and make them a challenger.
Well, this week, their number one runner was gone on a recruiting trip leaving the rest of the boys to fend for their own. St. Marks did more than do well for themselves.
They finished the Garmin MileSplit TX XC Inv. with a 16:54 team average and a 55 second split for 14th place overall, not gaudy numbers until you look beyond that.
Without their top runner, the perennial SPC powerhouse competed with full strength UIL 5A and 6A teams as well as state championship teams from Arkansas, California, and Oklahoma.
A 16:54 average isn't bad for a SPC team, but it's not elite either, but this St. Marks squad is trying to be the best in the school's history. They might have just ran that way over the weekend. If you factor in not having their top runner, Sahil Dodda who could have won the race or easily finished in the top three, that could have changed the trajectory of their weekend race.
Add a win or top three finish from Dodda and you go from 359 point to 245 points and that would have placed them eighth as a team. The team average easily could have gone from 16:54 to 15:57 and that would then make them elite and one of the top teams in the state based on average.
The top three St. Marks runners this week finished within 1.10 second of each other. That will make them hard to beat with a low stick like the one they have.
The Woodlands Boys
The Woodlands boys didn't win the Garmin MileSplit TX XC Inv. and they lost to a UIL 5A team. Before you go blasphemously thinking this squad is underachieving or a subpar Highlanders squad, look a little deeper.
They didn't win, but they did finish second with a very good stat line. How good? Well, they ran a 15:50 team average and had a 48 second 1-5 split. Yeah, that good.
Their top three runners were under 15:54 and their four and five runners were separated by 0.20 of a second with the sixth runner two second behind them.
The Woodlands should be optimistic coming off of last weekend's performance. Reason being, they ran a 16:04 team average last year at the state meet. They also did that with only two runners currently on this year's squad.
Last weekend is the typical time of the year that TWHS usually breaks out their full squad, this year was no different and they started off faster than last year's squad ended.
Watch out for The Woodlands!