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In the girls' 5,000-meter TAPPS Performance List, it's hard not to notice that amongst this year's leaders through the end of September, heading into the season's final push, there are three freshmen within the top six.
Madison Larsen (Fort Worth Southwest Christian), Harper Counts (Brentwood Christian), and Sophie Smith (Colleyville Covenant Christian) have all run between 18:22 and 18:31.
While each competed at the middle school level and upped their mileage over the summer to prepare for high school competition, all three have embraced success with the confidence that their hard work has paid dividends. In fact, their times place them in the Top 60 in all of Texas, regardless of conference.
Their bright futures are also predicated on the fact that each girl is down-to-earth in knowing what it's going to take to improve their times, from running mechanics to competing more often against great competition.
TAPPS has a long and illustrious history of female distance running, and it appears that Madison, Harper and Sophie, in time, will add their names to this growing list.