By the time this weekend, the majority of the state will have run a race this cross country season at some distance. With most of the big dogs getting their legs going, we thought it was the perfect time to give our thoughts on who the elite distance runners in the state could be.
View out top-10 Texas boys for the start of the 2023 cross country season.
No. 1 Adam Burlison (Amarillo)
Burlison made a commitment to his running last season; he stopped playing football and trained, which led to tons of progress.
Transferring to Grapevine also helped Burlison's development; he was able to train in a great environment. He was the UIL 5A state meet runner-up in cross country and won the 1600m and 3200m on the track. Burlison was a sub 15-minute 5K runner and he qualified for NXN.
Even though he isn't scheduled to run for the team this weekend, he is rumored to have enrolled at Amarillo for his senior year.
No. 2 Angel Sanchez (Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis)
The Fort Worth senior had a very good cross country season last fall. It ended with a UIL 4A state title and a Champs National Cross Country Championships. The race in San Diego didn't go the way he would have liked and his motivation is to improve on that this year.
Sanchez will be a top candidate again this year. Health derailed his junior track season, but Sanchez is a sub 15-minute 5K runner when he is healthy and if he stays healthy he'll be one of the country's best harriers.
No. 3 Marcelo Parra (San Antonio TMI)
Parra is without a doubt one of Texas' best and he can run with the best in the country. He is fast when he needs to be and can turn it on when he has to, which is a trait not many have.
Parra has a 14:54 run on record from last year at FEAST and a 15:01 5K season best at the Champs South Regional on a challenging course. He was a Champs and NXN qualifier last year and his national level running continued in the track season where he ran 4:11 and 9:04 at the RunningLane Track Championships and 9:08 at Nike Outdoor Nationals.
Leonard showed how big time he is when he beat the "coches kid" monicker and had the best races in high pressure situations.
He began the season as Carroll's No. 3 through No.4 spots and then ran as their top scorer at the state meet to lead the team to the state title again. Leonard ran a 15:08 at district and finished sixth at the state meet.
His track season exhibition was even more impressive; he qualified for the most difficult state meet through the toughest regional meet. He will be a top runner again thanks to his 4:15, 9:06, and 14:33 performances....oh yeah and because Carroll needs him to be.
No. 5 Jude Alvarez (Southlake Carroll)
Alvarez has been like a ninja. He is in every race and you don't always know it until the end. However, at the Texas Distance Festival he was anything but unassuming or sneaky. Alvarez ran a 4:14 in the 1600m giving the eventual state champion a serious late race push. Less than an hour later, he was back on the track in the Elite 5K and he ran a 14:52.
The remaining track season would see him run PRs in both the 1600m and the 3200m, which led to a state meet berth in both from the toughest region in the state.
During the cross country season, Alvarez placed ninth at the state meet and helped lead Carroll back to NXN.
No. 6 Noah Strohman (Holliday)
Strohman was everything he was billed to be in his freshman year. He had a 15:19 best run last season and won the UIL 4A cross country state championship. At the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships, he finished 30th overall and the top overall freshman finisher.
On the track, the Holliday speedster had a record year. He became one of the fastest freshmen ever in the mile when he ran 4:07.84 in the 1600m and 4:09.23 in the mile.
In his second year in high school, expect things to go a bit further for Strohman, especially if his track exploits transition to the grass.
No. 7 Dylan Schieffelin (Austin Vandegrift)
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has very few freak out moments. There was one, where his phobia of snakes was evident. So, when he said, "Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?" Texas runners can relate. Schieffelin is now the main Viper in the snake pit.
He ran a 15:21 PR last year at the Nike South Invitational and finished eleventh at the UIL 6A state cross country meet. Schieffelin then placed ninth at the Teams South Regional Championships, once again proving he was one of the top runners in Texas.
That was last year and we figure him to be even further at the top of the state in 2023. His 4:17 and 9:19 PRs from last track season further cements our confidence.
No.8 Franco Parra (San Antonio TMI)
Parra won the TAPPS Cross Country Championships last fall. He placed sixth at the Teams South Regional Championships on to qualify for NXN.
Parra is a proven stud on the track. The only TAPPS runner who could beat him is his twin brother. He is one of the few Texas runners who have run under 9-minutes in the 3200m. With 4:14 and 14:43 capability, look for Parra to be a sub 15-minute runner on grass this year.
No.9 Benjamin Montgomery (Cypress Bridgeland)
Montgomery is one we expect to use his track season improvement to his advancement on the grass this fall.
The junior ran a 15:22 PR at the Nike South Invitational and was the 22nd place finisher at the UIL 6A state meet. Even though he was a sophomore, that's not very elite, but his track season is why we have him here. He ran 4:16 and just missed cracking 9:00 at the state meet; a fifth place finish at the UIL 6A state track meet is another projection to ranking Montgomery as a top runner in the state.
No. 10 Caden Thurman (Wolfe City)
Thurman was one of the top runners in the state last year. He was runner-up at the Garmin MileSplit TX XC Invitational, third at the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival, and fifth at the Chile Pepper Festival. One of the only races he didn't win was the UIL 2A state meet. The state meet was the worst race of the year, he didn't even finish.
However, a 14:57 makes him one of the few Texas returners under 15-minutes in a true 5K and his 9:08 at the Texas Relays for ninth place last year is proof 10 boys in Texas couldn't beat him last year, let alone this year.