Ethan Gonzalez Goes Sub-15, Lovejoy Back On Top Of 5A Boys

Ethan Gonzalez (Richland Hills North) runs the 2023 5A boys state title

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Senior Ethan Gonzalez of North Richland Hills may not have been as big a favorite as Elizabeth Leachman, but he was a heavy favorite coming into the State meet and he made good on that prediction with an outstanding performance. In the team race, the Lucas Lovejoy boys matched their girls team in taking home a State title with 56 points after finishing as the runner-up in 2022.

Gonzalez led the race from wire-to-wire although he hit the first mile in "only" 5:11.8 but he pushed hard covering the second mile in 4:29 and he kept that pace up for the final 1.1 miles to win by nearly 25 seconds in 14:55.80. It was an amazing season for Gonzalez who came from seemingly nowhere this year to become a State champion after running 17:02 as a junior.

It was a race dominated by the senior class. In addition to Gonzalez, the first 10 finishers all hail from the class of 2024. Only Joseph Wienen (Georgetown) was a back-to-back top-10 finisher. The rest of the top-5 included Andruw Villa (Abilene), Edwin Rotich (Leander Rouse), Logan Tauch (Melissa) and Judah Alexander-Macias (Frisco Memorial). Each broke 15:30 for the 5K.

In the team race, the Lovejoy boys followed the same script as the girls team. They had a 1-7 split of 0:12 for the first mile and then all seven ran at least 28 seconds faster over the second mile and they were able to hold their positions over the final stretch. They were led by Nick Yarad who finished 12th in 15:37.8 and Caden Gary who was right behind him in 14th place in a time of 15:46.6. Joseph Reid (15:56.6) William Carlson (16:03.6) and Aaron Wimbish (16:15.90) were the other scoring runners for the team and their 1-5 split ended up being only 0:38.

Georgetown earned runner-up honors with 109 points. The top-heavy team featured Wienen, Nolan House (15:31.40) and Zachary Mangum (15:48.60) who all finished in the top-20. Boerne Champion took third with 133 points thanks to a strong 1-5 split of 0:30.