- Submitted by Jason Yaffe
The month of August includes many annual openings, namely the usual start of school in Texas and the beginning of the competitive xc season. Another mainstay has been the Greenhill/Luke's Locker 6 Mile Relay race. Teams have come and gone over the years, with hundreds of state champions kicking off their season at Norbuck Park. This year's event, the 38th annual edition, is set for Saturday, August 26, 2023. Luke's Locker and HOKA are once again teaming up to help Greenhill host the event. It's August and true to form, the hay bales will be in place when the starting gun goes off at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
In the girls competition, Highland Park will be looking to defend their 6A/5A girls title. Last August they went 1-2 at the 6 Mile Relay. The Lady Scots raced well last weekend in the Waxahachie Woodhouse Invitational, averaging 19:05 for their top five as they won the elite varsity girls race. They were paced by sophomore Madeline Heckler and senior Kayla Dickerson. Look for the Ursuline Bears to be in the mix, along with Flower Mound, schools from the north Dallas region and Norman High School. Sanger is returning as the defending champions in the 4A and under race, with their second team placing 4th overall, too. It will be interesting to see how they compete against the larger schools since the varsity race is combined, as it has in the past.
The boys competition is wide open with Norman, Dallas Jesuit, and Flower Mound likely to be leading the way. Defending champion McKinney Boyd won't be at the Relays this year, so a new champion is ready to be crowned. St. Mark's returns a strong, senior based crew, having nearly won the 4a and under varsity race last August.
Due to the intense heat, this year's Relay schedule combines the JV A and JV B races for each gender. The updated schedule is as follows:
6:15 a.m. - Registration
7:30 a.m. - Varsity 6a/5a Boys and 4a and under Boys (2 relay teams per school)
7:35 a.m. - Varsity 6a/5a Girls and 4a and under Girls (2 relay teams per school)
8:30 a.m. - JV A Boys (2 relay teams per school) and JV B Boys (unlimited relay teams per school)
8:30 a.m. - JV A Girls (2 relay teams per school) and JV B Girls (unlimited relay teams per school)