6A Boys Preseason Team Preview: No.5 The Woodlands

Tyler Hedgepeth competes at the 2023 UIL Region 2-6A Cross Country Championships

We're back this week with more team rankings, so far, we've established the top-four teams in the state who we believe have the best shot at taking home the state title and ending up on the podium.

However, from this point forward the field is truly wide open. Whether it be the emergence of young talent or the number of graduating seniors, this year's field is wide open outside of the top four.

Naturally, with such a wide-open field, these rankings can be very difficult to make as the difference between ending up fifth and tenth is so small.

For this writer at least, one of the most important things to look at is a historical ability to perform under pressure and produce the expected results at the right time. As much as a team may be faster on paper if they don't perform at the right time and live up to expectations then their times on paper don't mean that much, do they?

With that being said, no team fits the combination of historic success, performing under pressure, and showing up when it matters more than The Woodlands.

For years, head coach Juris Green has built a distance-running factory off Research Forest Drive and this year looks to be the first step towards getting this storied program back to state title contention. Coming in at the No. 5 spot in this year's preseason rankings are The Woodlands Highlanders.

To anyone in the 6A division, the history of The Woodlands is well known as they've been a routine contender on the state and national level for over a decade. They have one of the best coaches in the state's history and they routinely produce phenomenal individual talent that's backed by great depth.

The Highlanders have finished on the podium multiple times since the start of the 2010s and took home the title for four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018. Since then, they've finished on the podium twice along with a near miss fourth-place finish in 2022.

When a team is consistently good for as long as The Woodlands, there's an inevitable drop in form that comes as nobody stays elite forever. Many people thought this drop finally came last season in 2023 as the Highlanders finished ninth at the state meet, their lowest in over a decade.

However, this is a premature judgment on a program that's consistently shown an ability to reload and regroup after a loss of talent and this year looks to be the first step in that process.

Leading this year's team will be returning senior and their second-highest finisher at last year's state meet Tyler Hedgepeth. Hedgepeth has had what I would consider a classic Woodlands career, meaning he didn't start out as the fastest guy but eventually evolved into a great talent who helps lead the team in his latter years. His results gradually improved throughout his freshman and sophomore seasons, however, his breakout year came last fall.

Hedgepeth came out of the gates with a huge personal best and his first sub-16:00 performance at the Strake Jesuit Invitational where he ran 15:48.10. As the season went on, consistency was the name of the game for Hedgepeth as he ran between 15:51 and 16:04 in remaining six races of the season. Arguably the best performance of his season came at the regional meet where he ran 16:00.06 in very bad conditions to finish sixth overall.

Notably, Hedgepeth also had an impressive track season where he clearly built off the momentum he'd built up in the fall.

He went down in distance to run 2:00.83 in his only 800m of the season while also going up to run 9:37.02 over 3200m at the district meet.

The priority in his season was the 1600m where he excelled greatly in what I believe will be the best indicator of his improvement this fall. Hedgepeth ran a new personal best of 4:18.96 at the UIL 6A-District 13 meet, showcasing the true extent of his improvement across the 2023-2024 season.

Look for Hedgepeth to continue his improvement this fall and expect him to be in that 15:20-15:30 range consistently for The Woodlands.

Coming in at the number two spot for The Woodlands this year, not so much behind Hedgepeth but beside him is senior Bryson Meredith. Hedgepeth and Meredith had similar seasons last fall as both dipped under the 16:00 mark, with Meredith running 15:41.10 at the Strake Jesuit Invitational. 

Meredith didn't have the finish to his 2023 cross-country season that he would've wanted as he only ran 16:30.10 at the UIL State Championship, however, his incredible track season more than atoned for this and means far more for his trajectory this fall.

He showcased incredible range from 800m to 3200m, a quality that will help him this fall. He ran 1:58.43 over 800m, 4:17.68 over 1600m, and 9:19.62 over 3200m.

His most impressive results were also his most consistent results over the 3200m distance as he routinely ran in the low 9:20s. This not only allowed him to finish fourth at the regional meet, but it also signals that he's become more comfortable over longer distances which makes us excited to see his improvement this fall.

While it's hard to predict exactly what he'll run, I'd expect Meredith to be in the mid-15:30s and 15:40s consistently this year, rather than that being his season's best.

Outside of Hedgepeth and Meredith, this year's team continues the tradition of Juris Green's teams having great depth to backup a strong 1-2 punch.

Grayer Bates and Gavin Ripa lead this pack of depth with personal bests of 16:06.10 and 16:07.50 respectively.

Bates comes into his junior year off a sophomore campaign that saw him run in the low 16:00s consistently so expect him to dip under the 16:00 mark several times this year.

As for Ripa, he heads into his senior campaign under similar circumstances as his teammate so look for him to hover right around that 16:00 mark as well.

Rounding out the top five for this year's team is sophomore William Bishop who is really a name to watch for this team.

He ran 16:17.70 in his first race as a freshman and had a great track season which saw him run 4:25.94 over 1600m. He comes into his sophomore campaign with a great base over 5000m, but his performance in the spring makes his forthcoming improvement an exciting thing to watch for.

The sixth and seventh spots for this year's Woodlands team are also extremely close as Elton Martin and Christian Greyling round out the top seven for this year's team. They ran 16:24.50 and 16:28.80 respectively last year so look for them to potentially score points and contribute to the team this season as well.

While jumping from ninth to fifth may seem like a large jump for The Woodlands, I think they're being overlooked heading into this season.

They have a strong team on paper, but every crucial member of this team had stark improvements over key distances in the spring and that's easy to miss when just looking at state meet results or cross-country seed times. Each member of this comes into this season with a wealth of experience and a strong base to improve upon and that's what makes them an underrated and exciting watch this fall.

If everything goes perfectly this fall, I could see this team finishing fourth or even third in Round Rock if one of the team's ahead of them has a bad day. While I believe their likely peak is fourth to fifth, I've been thoroughly surprised by the days that teams have had at the state meet before and I don't anticipate it not happening again.

Ultimately, this year's Woodlands team comes in with a solid foundation and a whole lot of potential coming off a string of strong showings in the spring. For now, it's the No.5 spot in the preseason rankings, but don't be surprised if they're ranked higher as the season goes on.