With July now upon us and cross-country training beginning for many of the state's top teams, we finally get to dive into analyzing each team and what they can do this year.
While last year may have seen the continuation of Southlake Carroll's dominance, it wasn't the usual runaway performance we're used to seeing. Austin Vandegrift only finished 21 points behind the Dragons at the state meet and given the makeup of the two teams heading into the 2024 season, we could be on for another exciting battle.
While the battle for the team title was closer than usual last year, the bottom line is that Southlake Carroll was yet again able to come away with the championship for the fifth straight year. They showed a continued ability to pack up significantly further up in the field than anyone else and continually ran smart races that even some of the best teams in the nation couldn't match. In addition to their fifth successive state championship, the Dragons also took home third place at Nike Cross Nationals making them one of the highest-finishing Texas teams over the last decade.
The Dragons return their two top-four finishers from last year's state meet as defending champion Caden Leonard and fourth-place-finished Blake Bullard will headline the Dragons' lineup this year. Returning this one-two punch is critical for the Dragons as they lose Jude Alvarez who finished 14th, Zach Troutman who finished 19th, and Ryan Van de Berghe who finished 28th.
While the loss of three experienced guys surely won't feel good for Carroll, they've shown an ability to churn out good runners year after year that make up for and sometimes exceed their losses.
To understand why Southlake Carroll is slated to win their sixth straight title, we first must understand the individual accomplishments that make up their team. It's no secret that Southlake Carroll has a long history of national-level talent in their program but this year's team may have the best of them all in the form of returning state champion Caden Leonard.
Leonard is one of those guys who is considered one of the state's top runners the moment he enters high school. He immediately proved to be a key contributor on the 2022 title-winning team where he ran 15:08 as just a freshman and went on to place sixth at the state meet and was the team's top performer.
Naturally, performing this well in your first season warrants very high expectations and Leonard met these expectations by returning to lead the team in 2023 where he ran 14:55.80 and led the team to another state title while winning the individual title in the process.
Following up his impressive fall campaign, Leonard went on to narrowly miss out on the 3200m state title where he ran 8:51.57 although he later took home the title in the 1600m in 4:09.39. Coming into this season, he currently holds personal bests of 4:04.02 over a full mile, 8:51.57 over 3200m, and 14:55.80 over 5000m making him the state's top runner.
Photo by Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
Behind Caden Leonard, senior Blake Bullard will hold down the number two spot for the Dragons heading into the 2024 season. Normally, a runner who finishes fourth at the state meet would clearly be the best on his team, but that's just not the case when you run for Southlake Carroll.
That being said, Bullard has proven to be a supreme distance talent over the last year as he's made a significant leap in performance over the last year from being another one of Carroll's strong depth pieces into one of the state's top runners on the grass, not to mention the fact that he's an ELITE triathlete.
While Bullard didn't compete on the track this spring as he was on the triathlon circuit, his results from the fall give us plenty of insight into where we can expect him to be this season. He consistently ran in the low 15:00s and finished the season with a personal best of 15:09.40 at the state meet which isn't easy to do.
Bullard will undoubtedly be the key to Carroll's efforts to repeat this fall as his proximity to Caden Leonard at the front of the field creates a 1-2 punch that nobody else will be able to replicate. While his individual talent may be vastly underrated because of the team he's on and the guy he runs next to, don't count out Blake Bullard from having a mega 2024 season.
After the returning 1-2 punch of Leonard and Bullard, Southlake Carroll's status becomes a little bit more murky as they lose their 3rd-5th runners which are big pieces to lose in such a competitive classification. That being said, "murky" is relative when talking about Southlake Carroll as their 6th and 7th runners from last year's state meet would likely be in just about any other team's top 3 on any given day.
Griffin Cords was the team's sixth runner at the state meet last year where he finished 41st in a time of 15:53.50. Cords has been a guy who made big leaps in performance each year and no season demonstrated that better than his 2023-2024 campaign. Going into the 2023 cross-country season, Cords had a personal best of 16:04.30. However, he finished the 2023 season with a new 15:21.60 personal best and placed in the top twenty at the NXR South Regional Championships which is often considered more competitive than the actual state meet.
He then carried this momentum from his strong finish into the spring where he consistently impressed over 1600m and 3200m. Cords broke the 4:20 barrier twice, running a personal best of 4:19.33 at the Carroll Invitational. In addition to this, he ran 9:07.54 over 3200m at the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays to further showcase his talents.
Given the big gains that he made in the spring, I think we can expect for Cords to be a top-twenty guy in the state heading into the fall. Look for him to be a key contributor to this year's team as his continued progression will play a pivotal role in their success this fall.
The final returning member from last year's state championship team is senior Alex Severson who presents as yet another improved depth piece to help the Dragons to their sixth consecutive title. Much like his teammate Griffin Cords, Severson served as a solid depth piece for Carroll throughout their state title run last season. However, the improvement that we saw from him on the track in the spring sets him up to be a pivotal part of the team's push for a sixth straight title.
Severson finished his fall 2023 campaign with a personal best of 15:38.30 which he soon built on in the spring. While he didn't compete in many races, the main takeaway from his performances was all-around improvement and consistency. He routinely ran under 4:25 and 9:30 which set him up well to be a key player in the fall.
He comes into this season with personal bests of 4:24.14 over 1600m and 9:18.45 over 3200m. Severson's continued improvement will be key to Carroll's chances to win this November, and his consistency is a quality that will surely play a big factor in their success.
Photo by Christine Langford/MileSplit TX
The key for Southlake Carroll's success this fall will undoubtedly be whether or not they can make up for the loss of three very talented runners. Losing three top-thirty finishers at the state meet in such a tightly contested division is a massive loss that would be hard for any team to recover from. That being said, the Dragons have been in this position before, and based on their returning talent, I don't see this being a big issue for them.
They have the defending state champion leading the way with last year's 4th place finisher right behind him, followed by a slew of guys who will easily run in the 15:20s-15:30s consistently. This team is built to win in November, and on paper, you just can't go against them.
If there's one thing we know about this program it's that coach Justin Leonard routinely reloads and positions his runners so that multiple guys can quickly cover any loss. This revolving carousel of depth with runners that would lead most of the state's teams is what makes this team such an enigma and so difficult to beat. They're the perfect example of how a cross-country team should be built as they have the best individual runner in the state but also the support to ensure that any bad day is minimized.
It will be interesting to see if this year's team starts off as dominant as last year's team did given what they lost. Losing three big contributors can often be difficult to adapt to when the season first starts but it's nothing this team hasn't dealt with in the past. Consistent improvement in the 3-5th runner range throughout the year is really what's going to determine this team's prowess on a national level.
Ultimately, while it may feel repetitive to continue ranking Southlake Carroll No. 1 in every form of prediction, ranking, or poll, how could you not? Year after year they simply continue to cement themselves as the state's best team and until someone knocks them off the top spot, they're gonna stay right where they are. The Dragons ended last season on top, and for now, that's exactly where they'll remain headed into the 2024 season.
With July now upon us and cross-country training beginning for many of the state's top teams, we finally get to dive into analyzing each team and what they can do this year.
While last year may have seen the continuation of Southlake Carroll's dominance, it wasn't the usual runaway performance we're used to seeing. Austin Vandegrift only finished 21 points behind the Dragons at the state meet and given the makeup of the two teams heading into the 2024 season, we could be on for another exciting battle.
While the battle for the team title was closer than usual last year, the bottom line is that Southlake Carroll was yet again able to come away with the championship for the fifth straight year. They showed a continued ability to pack up significantly further up in the field than anyone else and continually ran smart races that even some of the best teams in the nation couldn't match. In addition to their fifth successive state championship, the Dragons also took home third place at Nike Cross Nationals making them one of the highest-finishing Texas teams over the last decade.