2022 XC Preseason Articles

In this all-state article, we unveil the girls Preseason Third Team.

We have already dropped the fourth team and honorable mention for the girls and boys and the third team for the boys. Here we focus on seven girls who have mostly established themselves with a solid 2021-2022 season. On this list is an athlete who had barriers in the way last year, but already this season appears to be back to the level she was once on. We also have a SPC runner, a TAPPS runner, and a homeschool runner make this list.

Here is our Preseason All-State Third Team!

21.) Kristen McHugh (Klein)

This placement is an executive decision. In our Houston rankings, we had McHugh near the end of the first team. Despite that region ranking, we have bumped her up and put her at the 15 spot in the overall All-State rankings.

The Klein senior is coming off a trying 2021 cross country and track season, but it's not due to not trying. Sometimes life hits hard in athletics, academics, and all over. However, that just means the strong get up.

If we know anything about McHugh, it's that she is strong; her sophomore year showed us the athletic side of her strength as she ran herself to be considered one of the more intriguing recruits at the time with her low 18 minute performances and a 15th place finish at state.

Last year, she ran season bests of on two occasions, including a 19:01.30 at the UIL State Cross Country Championships.  During the outdoor track season, McHugh finished with SBs of 5:38.69 in the 1,600m at the Jack Sands Invite and 12:17.31, well behind her 5:12 and 11:10 PRs.

This could be a good senior season as we heard she ran 5:17 at a team time trial and then her legs on Kleins relay at the Cypress XC Relays against state track meet qualifiers is evidence she is rounding into good form.

20.) Micaela Villarreal (San Antonio Antonian College Prep)

One year was all it took for Villarreal to become the girl to beat in TAPPS for the years to come. Her racing schedule last fall was sparse, but she certainly made each race count. She opened her high school career with a third place finish at the Dripping Springs Invitational, then made her 5000 meter debut at the Cedar Park Invitational where she was firmly in the mix with some of the best runners from the Austin and San Antonio areas.

She came out third ahead of the likes of Kathryn Koonts, Lily Horvath and Caitlin Garrett. She then went up to the Chile Pepper Festival where she produced an incredible ninth place finish in the massive field of 388 in which she was also the top freshman in the race. Her final act of the cross country season was a runner-up finish at the TAPPS 6A State Championship as she was only beat by senior Leah Klenke.

After a four month hiatus, Villarreal got off to a flying start in the track season by throwing down two personal bests in mid march. The first came at the Alamo City Mile and Steeple where her 5:00 was good enough for third. A week later in Southlake, she ran 10:57 to finish fourth in the 3200. The middle portion of her season was filled with wins as she approached the TAPPS State Championship. Winning two gold medals her first time around, she was dominant in her 3200 meter victory and put five seconds between her and second place in the 1600. 

Her high school career has gotten off to a fantastic start and the most encouraging part of her season is the eagerness to compete against top competition and fearlessness in the elite races.

Edwards secured the 18th spot through a successful Homeschool State Championship campaign, competing extremely well at big invitationals as well as postseason championships and running very fast. She was second at the Homeschool State Championship and managed to secure the final spot in the NXR All South Region team with her 21st place finish in The Woodlands.

In a rather uncommon fashion for a Texas distance runners, Edwards set the world alight during the indoor season. Fit and firing on all cylinders, she crushed her 3200 meter personal best at the Texas A&M High School Indoor Classic by running 10:50 for the full two mile distance. She then tested her fitness over the 3000 meter distance at Liberty University in Virginia. Her personal best of 10:03 earned her third in the race and set her on her way to a great outdoor season.

Her first big performance in the spring was in the 1600 at the Texas Distance Festival where she ran a personal best of 5:05. Her fastest 3200 of the outdoor season came at Texas Relays where she finished fifth in 10:51. From there, she dominated the Homeschool State Championship as she cruised to the 3200 meter title with a 58 second margin of victory. She also put together a solid pair of performances at the TTFCA Championships with a fourth place finish in the 3200 and seventh place finish in the 1600.

Edwards' personal best over 3200 is among the state's best and she has finished highly in deep fields of high quality. There is really no telling how high she could finish at a meet like NXR South next fall.

Although her cross country season was limited to two postseason races, Stuart did more than enough on the track to land her in the preseason all-State team.

In her two cross country races last fall, she produced very respectable results in major championship meets given the absence of racing leading into them. The first was the Eastbay South Regional in which she finished 49th- just 13 spots outside of the All-South Region Team. She then went on to finish 53rd in the B race at the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships. While neither result jumps off the page, they were enough to set her on the path which led to a hugely successful track season.

In the spring, Stuart broke barriers and won medals in the 1600 and 3200. Only twice did she lose a 3200 meter race and both defeats were at the hands of state champions. For most of the season, she rattled off one win after another including district and regional titles. Though she lost the 4A 3200 at the state meet, it was without a doubt her best performance of the season. For seven laps, nothing separated her from 4As serial gold medal winner Abigail Bass. Stuart's silver medal came with a 13 second personal best of 10:51 and set the stage for an equally epic 1600 performance that evening. In a nearly identical fashion, Stuart hung onto Bass for as long as possible to claim another silver medal and dip under 5:00 for the first time. 

If she toes the line in Round Rock this November, look for Stuart to challenge for the state title.

Morefield went from 64th at the 2020 State Cross Country Championship to 12th in 2021. This 52 spot jump was a massive contribution to Lovejoy's title winning run and in the spring she gave no indication of regression or stagnation.

Her cross country races last fall were either championship meets or highly competitive invitationals. In the regular season, she never put a foot wrong as she placed between fifth and 13th in the state's premier meets. Consecutive top five finishes at the district and regional championships preceded her top 15 finish at the state meet. Her season extended through the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championship where she was 112th in a national championship field of 296.

A sub-18:00 5000 at the Texas Distance Festival was one achievement among many in a track season that brought personal bests in every event imaginable. Though she ran well over 800 and 1600, the events in which Morefield excelled were the 3200 and 2000 meter steeplechase. Her 3200 meter campaign included three sub 11:00 performances, a regional silver medal and culminated in a third place finish at the state track meet. If the steeplechase was contested in UIL Championship Meets, her personal best of 7:03 would have comfortably made her the favorite to win it. 

Morefield's sophomore year demonstrated that her strength is in the longer distances and her fitness is firmly on an upward trend. While she has aspirations of team title defense, Morefield could easily find herself in contention for individual glory. 

The SPC star from Hockaday earned the 16th spot on the preseason all-state team by sweeping up the conference's championships and racing well anytime she came up against the state's best athletes. Along with a commanding win at the conference championship meet, her best performances include a third place finish at the Jesuit XC Classic where she went toe to toe with Cameron Mcdonnell and Shewaye Thompson as well as a seventh place finish in a loaded field at the Garmin Milesplit XC Invitational.

Her track season largely emulated her cross country season as she won more conference titles, collected a wide range of personal bests and reminded the rest of the state of her ability at big invitationals and some postseason meets. She won every 3200 including the SPC title until the TTFCA Championships where she was narrowly second. She managed to run a personal best of 4:57 in a 1600 race that she won by nearly 20 seconds.

The most impressive aspect of her season was her performance in the 2000 meter steeplechase. Of the very limited steeple races offered to high schoolers in Texas, Thompson won two. The first was a victory at the Texas Relays where she edged Lovejoy's Sara Morefield for the title in an excellent time of 7:03. She returned to the steeple in dominant fashion at the end of her season, winning the TTFCA 2000 meter steeple title by nearly 30 seconds in a very admirable time of 7:05. 

With the limited opportunity to compete against the best girls from the UIL, she may fly under the radar for a bulk of the season. However, her personal bests and performances at meets like Texas Relays have earned her the respect of the whole state and leaves no doubt about her potential to continue rising through the ranks of the best runners in Texas. 

15.) San Juanita Leal (Edinburg North)

Leal's spot on the All-State third team was earned through consistency in cross country and excellence on the track. In the fall, She ran nine cross country races and was in the top 10 eight times. In October, she secured consecutive victories at the RGVCCCA Meet of Champions and the UIL 6A District 31 Championship. The conclusion to her season was a 23rd place finish at the 6A State Championship.

This in no way was an underperformance given that she was seventh at the Region 4 Championships and there was no point in the fall where her form suffered a dip. 

In the spring, she maintained a high level of consistency and took her performances to a new level. Of her 19 races over 1600 and 3200 meters, she won 15 of them; and her times were not slow either. Her 1600s mostly hovered between 5:10 and 5:00 while her slowest 3200 was 11:25.

For both events, she rose to a new level again and broke barriers in the championship season. She dipped under 5:00 and 11:00 to claim district titles and punch her ticket to state in both events at the regional meet. However, it was in Austin where her sophomore year reached an incredible climax.

In the 3200, she dropped her personal best to 10:51 and finished fifth in an exceptionally competitive field. In her final race of the year, she took one last step forward. Leal threw herself firmly into the mix of medal contention and pushed a pair of Flower Mound standouts to the end as her time of 4:53.85 left her off the podium by less than three tenths of a second.

If Leal carries the fitness she had from the spring into the fall and performs as consistently as she did in 2021, her fast times in championship races may begin to bring medals along with the personal bests.