Nike South Statistically Best In Bear Branch Park History

2022 Nike South Girls Elite Varsity Race

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Some of Texas' best runners have competed at Bear Branch Park over the last 25 years. With the Nike South Invitational and the Team Nationals South Region both being run at the venue, It annually draws some of the best runners in Texas, the South region, as well as from across the nation.

Names like Jochen, Hofstad, Johnson, Raines, Heymach, Kriegshauser, McClelland, and more have all ran at Bear Branch Park. Despite the names and the talent they possessed, very few have run what we now consider fast times on this course.

The park isn't particularly known for being a fast course. In fact many times, it is also presented with it's weather challenges. It's often times is hot and humid. As we've seen in more recent years, it can get rainy or cold.

This year, the running conditions were near perfect. Oct. 1, 2022 brought cool temps with low humidity. The results were some of the fastest times in the history of Bear Branch Park. Only Sophie Atkinson (Katy Cinco Ranch) was able to run faster than the top four finishers at this year's Nike South Invitational.

Atkinson ran 17:00.40 in 2020. Before this weekend, that was nearly 17 seconds faster than the next fastest runner in the history of Bear Branch Park.  

Madison Peters (Pearland) ran 17:06.10 on Saturday morning to take the meet win. The Junior led a group of three other junior class girls to crack the all-time top-five in this park. Isabel Conde De Frankenberg (Cedar Park) was runner-up in 17:08.50, Nicole Humphries (Flower Mound) was third in 17:09.60, and Samantha Humphries (Flower Mound) was fourth in 17:11.10

That placed all four girls on the top-5 all-time list. Denton Braswell freshman Macy Wingard also joined the a-t top-10 list with her time of 17:30 and the fastest freshman on the course.

Not only was it a great individual race, but Flower Mound had a solid day as a team. Jon Walk made the point that the Lady Jaguars had the best team performance in Nike South history.

On the boys side, Kevin Sanchez (Austin Vandegrift) also entered the all-time list. His 14:57 was the third fastest time making him the second fastest person in the park behind Craig Lutz and his 15:53.10 and his 14:55.50 from 2010.

Earlier in the season, Sanchez won on the same course at the Friday Night Lights 4,000m race. His next race could be to earn a trip to nationals.

Also running top-10 all-time performances were Oliver Maldonado (Atascocita) and Nicholas Grams (Conroe Oak Ridge). Maldonado finished runner-up behind Sanchez by running 15:07. That makes him No. 4 all-time and Grams' 15:10.90 was good enough to earn him third place, but more importantly No. 8 all-time in Bear Branch Park.