Griffen Saacke (R) formerly of Katy Tompkins will compete at Cypress Bridgeland in 2024
We've reached the final spot of our preseason individual rankings as the season feels closer than ever. This year's field is unique in that many of last year's top individuals return to provide what's expected to be one of the closest fields we've ever seen.
This creates an interesting landscape in the battle for both state titles this fall as it's fairly easy to analyze the race for the individual crown, but the team title is much more difficult. With some of the top squads returning similar lineups, they'll be hoping to see improvement from within to boost their chances at glory this fall.
That being said, our final entrant on this list presents a unique situation that we don't see very often. He'll be returning to help his team fight for the podium, however, it'll be a different podium-contending team this time around.
This unexpected shift is huge for the team battle, but also for this individual's prospects this season. Coming in at the No. 10 spot and closing out our rankings is newly minted Bridgeland star Griffen Saacke.
Over the last half-decade or so, the Saacke family has made a habit of putting themselves in the conversation over the top distance runners in Texas. Gavin Saacke evolved into one of the state's best runners in 2019 where he finished sixth at the state meet for Katy Tompkins in a time of 14:57.57 before going on to run at the University of Alabama. Now, after a few years, Griffen and twin sister Rowan Saacke are in the process of elevating the family name back to the top of the conversation.
Griffen Saacke came into Katy Tompkins with very high expectations, an understandable situation given his brother's success. This would normally be a huge task for anyone to clear, let alone a freshman, but Griffen took to the task and quickly established himself as one of the state's top young runners.
His real breakout came in the spring of 2023 when he opened up his freshman track season by running 9:38.57 over 3200m at the Katy ISD Bubba Fife Relays. Saacke didn't race a ton that season but he gave himself a great baseline for the fall. He came away from 2023 with personal bests of 4:33.77 over 1600m and 9:38.57 over 3200m which built a lot of excitement for what he could do on the grass in the coming season.
Coming into the 2023 cross-country season, Katy Tompkins had high expectations for themselves as they had a great team to contend for the podium. Naturally, Saacke was slated to play a big role as his performances in the spring had built both hype and expectation for the fall. Despite the pressure, Saacke started the season off well with a big personal best of 15:51.40 at the Seven Lakes Showcase XC Invitational. He then followed this up the next week by running his current personal best at the Strake Jesuit XC Invitational in the form of a 15:32.80 which earned him second place.
Running these times to open up his sophomore season was impressive for several reasons. First, it demonstrated that Saacke's performances on the track translated to success in the fall, a characteristic that's vital and prevalent with elite talent. It also showed comfort with running at the front of races which is something that athletes can often struggle with as our sport is about a lot more than just running fast. Lastly, it showed that Saacke could maintain consistency even when making big jumps in performance, something that's become a theme for him and a big reason why he ranks on this list.
As the season went on, Saacke continued to be one of the state's most consistent runners despite the variation in courses and the tough competition he faced. He ran 0.2 seconds off his personal best at the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival on a difficult course and then followed this up with a strong 15:44.10 at the Nike South Invitational against some of the state's best.
By this point, it was time for the championship season and the trend of consistency continued for Saacke. He ran 15:36.90 for third place at the UIL 6A-District 19 championship and followed this up by running 15:45.20 at the UIL 2A-6A Region 3 Championship on a sneakily difficult Sam Houston course. Now it was time for the state meet where Saacke would go on to have arguably his best performance of the season. In a tightly contested and tough race, Saacke came away 25th in a time of 15:36.00 to help Katy Tompkins finish fourth in his first appearance in Round Rock.
Coming into the spring, Saacke had established himself as one of the best young runners in the state. His consistency and quickness on the grass made him an interesting watch for the 2024 season as he'd historically performed even better on the track in his short career. He quickly proved this sentiment correct as he opened up his season by running 9:16.15 and 9:17.16 over 3200m in early February.
Next, it was time for some big meets and Saacke started this tough slate of the schedule well by running 9:11.89 for third place at the Texas A&M Bluebonnet High School Invitational. After this, he made a quick switch indoors for New Balance Nationals where he'd run a seasonal best of 9:11.54. Saacke then went down in distance just a few days later at Texas Distance Festival where he'd run a huger personal best over 1600m in 4:19.02 to cap off one of the best weeks we saw in the spring.
After TDF it was time for the championship season and Saacke once again started well as he ran a strong 4:24.51 1600m and 9:12.01 3200m, winning the ladder. He then went on to cruise through the area meet, winning both races and setting a new 4:16.51 personal best over 1600m to go along with a 9:16.88 over 3200m. By the time regionals rolled around, Saacke looked in prime shape to contend for the state meet as only a sophomore.
He started off regionals perfectly, winning the 3200m in a time of 9:14.69 to advance to his first state meet in a race that came down to the wire. While the 1600m would prove to be a tougher race, Saacke still finished fifth in a time of 4:21.20 to round out his season over the distance. At the state meet, Saacke would run a strong 9:14.90 to finish 8th in one of the tightest and fastest races we've seen in years.
However, he wasn't done yet as just three weeks later he'd go on to lower his personal best by nearly ten seconds by running 9:05.91 at the RunningLane Track Championships. This performance rounded out one of the best sophomore track seasons we saw last year and surely sets up Saacke to continue his evolution into one of the state's best this fall.
Coming into this season, Saacke will have to adjust to some changes as joining a new program brings a new environment with new training partners. That being said, Bridgeland and Tompkins aren't drastically different programs and have had similar success over the last few years. Coach Waters is a great coach who knows how to develop elite talent and this is undoubtedly going to help Saacke continue evolving into one of the state's best alongside Benjamin Montgomery. Bridgeland comes into the season ranked at #3 and Saacke's addition may help them take the fight to Southlake Carroll and Austin Vandegrift.
As for what we can expect from Saacke, I think it's reasonable to assume that we'll see him at the front of races near Benjamin Montgomery this year. He improved greatly last fall after his impressive freshman track season and I think we're going to see that replicated this year given the success he had in the spring. While the margins are smaller given how fast he's running, I think Saacke is going to move into that highest tier of running this season with many of the guys we've covered throughout this series.
When you look at his results he's arguably the most consistent guy in the state and that's going to help him a lot. Running in the mid-9:10s every week is anything but easy, and I think we'll probably see him in the 15:20s at that same frequency given his progression trends. Keep in mind that Bridgeland does run a lot of hard courses so the times may not jump off the page, but if he's anywhere from 10-15 seconds off Montgomery he's in a prime spot to finish in the top group at the state meet.
So that rounds out our preseason individual rankings for the 2024 season. Be sure to stay tuned for the conclusion of our team rankings coming next week. This season is set to be one of the closest and most exciting that we've seen in a long time and you're not going to want to miss any of it.