Yannick Broos (L) and Charles Hall (R) cross the finish line at the 2023 Region 2-6A Cross Country Championships
We're back again this week to resume our coverage of the upcoming 6A Boys team title race. This year promises to be one of the closest years we've seen in the last half-decade as several teams look poised to challenge Southlake Carroll's dominance at the front of the field. This week, we'll dive into the No. 4 team on our list, The Woodlands College Park, and see how they stack up against the state's best.
Historically, the several-mile stretch of road that runs right through The Woodlands has been governed by the Christmas-colored singlets of the Highlanders and Juris Green's teams have brought home several team titles and a host of individual accolades throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
However, by no means is the success of The Woodlands High School a mark against College Park. Even though the Michael Gibson led Cavaliers have been crushing the sprint events and relays in track and field, the cross country program has qualified for the state meet multiple times and are known to be one of the most consistently talented teams coming out of Region 2-6A.
MileSplit TX Preseason 6A Boys Top 3 Teams
While The Woodlands has had its way over the last decade, it feels as though the tide is beginning to turn as College Park has narrowed the gap to the historically dominant Highlanders. College Park outperformed The Woodlands consistently in 2023, coming out on top in 2 of the 3 meetings the teams had.
You may be wondering how winning out against your cross-town rival correlates to being one of the best teams in the state. However, the changing tide in the battle for supremacy over The Woodlands signals a shift in a College Park program that's always been good but rarely seen as a top challenger.
Camden Gibson competes at the 2023 UIL 6A State Cross Country Championships
Photo Credit: Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
However, the emergence of last year's team and the anticipated return of this year's squad show that College Park is a team that means business and is ready to take the fight to the front of a congested region.
So, let's dive into the guys that make this team as good as it is, and make their case for the podium this November.
Similar to the team leading the pack heading into this year, College Park is also led by the son of its coach, this time in the form of incoming junior Camden Gibson. Gibson didn't begin competing for the Cavaliers until last year, however, his standout campaign as a freshman at Klein Cain put him on everyone's radar the moment he stepped on campus.
Gibson had a brief but effective cross-country season his freshman year, he ran 16:04.00 over 5000m and was near the front of every race he ran. His freshman track campaign however was a different story as Gibson competed often and when he did he was very impressive.
He ran in the mid to low 4:20s very consistently while also regularly dipping under the 2:00 mark in the 800m. He finished his freshman campaign with personal bests of 1:56.14 over 800m, 4:16.72 over 1600m, and 9:47.17 over 3200m. These times made him a name to watch, and his move to College Park made his upcoming races in the fall all the more intriguing as an improving program generally means an improving runner and that's exactly what we got.
Photo Credit: Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
Gibson started his sophomore cross-country campaign with a strong 5th-place finish at the Texas A&M High School Invitational where he set a new personal best of 15:58.50. He had a tough race at the Nike South Invite but then bounced back to take second at the UIL 6A-District 13 meet in 15:59.00. Gibson then placed 7th at the regional meet and helped College Park to finish second as a team.
While Gibson had had a solid season up to this point, it felt like he was due for a big result and that's exactly what he got at the state meet. He ran the best race of his career on the biggest stage and placed 9th in a time of 15:19.00 to help College Park to 4th in the team standings.
Most recently Gibson had yet another impressive track season in the spring which saw him set new personal bests of 1:53.07 over 800m, 4:11.55 over 1600m, and 9:37.32 over 3200m. He also qualified for the state meet in the 1600m and if his improvement across the board is any indication, he'll be up at the front at the state meet this fall.
College Park returns a host of talent to bolster their 2024 lineup, however, the fastest of these returning support pieces is junior Yannick Broos who had a very impressive 2023 season which he followed up with an even more impressive spring campaign.
Broos didn't race a ton last fall as College Park took a more measured approach to their schedule, however, he improved week after week in his race results and ended up being a key difference maker for this team. He placed 17th at the Region 2 Championship and then followed this up by running 15:55.10 at the state meet to score pivotal points for the team. His best performance of the season came at the NXR South Regional Championships where he ran 15:44.70 and knocked nearly 11 seconds off his personal best from two weeks prior.
Following up on his impressive fall season, Broos showcased further improvements in the spring. He came away with new personal bests of 4:16.74 in the 1600m and 9:26.70 in the 3200m. Broos was already a key piece for College Park last fall but his improvement in the spring in particular signals that he's ready to play a much bigger role for the Cavaliers in the fall.
Photo Credit: Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
Outside of Gibson and Broos, College Park returns several key depth pieces in the form of John McKenna, Everett Kuhn, and Maxwell Chan. All three of these guys ran in the mid to low 16:00s and will play a pivotal role for this team in the fall. Couple this with strong improvements in the spring as well as the injection of confidence that's surely come from last year's result and we have a team here who could be staring at a spot on the podium.
When looking at the makeup of this team, it's clear that their best shot at outperforming the perceived top three teams is by packing up their depth and maximizing their points in the 30th-50th range. I say this because while they have a good one-two punch of Gibson and Broos, they're the 5th and 13th fastest returners in the state. For comparison, Southlake Carroll possesses the 1st and 4th fastest returners, Bridgeland has the 3rd and 8th fastest returners, and Vandegrift sits with the 2nd, 9th, and 10th fastest.
This means that it may be difficult to make up points in this range because the margins are so fine and the level of talent is so high. However, the fact that College Park has such tightly packed depth in the midfield is where I see them being able to make up big points and make a run at the podium.
Another thing that'll be interesting to see with College Park is if they race more than they did last season. While their runners were obviously in peak condition for the state meet, the fact that some of them were able to make sizable improvements two weeks later signals that maybe they could've raced more and peaked earlier so that they could've snagged a few more points at the state meet.
Ultimately, the finer details regarding when and how often College Park races remain to be seen, however, one thing is for sure and that's that this team has earned every bit of their No. 4 ranking heading into this season. They have two incredibly talented guys at the front backed by several consistent and tightly packed guys to pick up big points. This team is surely one to watch in the battle for the podium but for now, they'll start the season just one step off it at No. 4.