Behind The Numbers: Texas XC Action On Labor Day Weekend

As we've already noted, this past weekend was the first true and meaningful weekend of the cross country season.

There were multiple big races throughout the Lone Star state and most of the top individuals and programs were in action.

That gave us meaningful data to evaluate.

Here are the top seven points we noticed based on the data from the results.

12 - Elizabeth Leachman 16-minute 5K Races 

With her 16:39 run this past weekend at the SA Patriots CC Invitational, Elizabeth Leachman (Boerne) has now gone under 17-minutes for the 12th time whether on the track or on a grass course since last August.

By far, this is the most by any Texas girl in the history of girls cross country.

This past June, Leachman ran 16:36 on the track at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. That was against professional runner and it was with women in front and behind her. 

Most impressively, only two of those races has the next competitors been within 20 seconds of her. The majority of her races she is almost two minutes ahead of the nearest competitor, proving she can consistently run the same high level.

We wondered how good Flower Mound would be this year after graduating the Humphries twins. There was no doubt that would be a really big cornerstone for any team to have to replace.

Ava Cole continues to impress with her running; she ran 17:43 for a third place finish, but sophomore Adeline Bennett added a 17:57 run to solidify a tough-to-beat 1-2 punch. The loss of two 17-minute 5K girls looks to have been effectively re-tooled.

Alexandra Fox is arguably one the most talented runners in the state and possibly the most consistent over the last four years. She is still generating her fitness level after taking time off from an injury at the state track meet, but a 18:04 first race back made the Jags just seconds away from having three sub 18-minute girls.

Keira Primer and Liana Cluley-Garza added their 18:22 and 18:24 performances to help the team run to a 18:04 team average.

Although just a freshman, but Ruel Newberry (Denton Guyer) is already the second best distance runner in Guyer history behind Brynn Brown.

However, that might change sooner than later. While it's very early into the season, Newberry already is ranked No. 2 in the state of Texas thanks to an unthinkable 14:46 run at the Marcus Coach T XC Invitational.

He outlasted last year's UIL 6A individual runner-up this past weekend.

More so, he has the fastest 5K run for a freshman of all-time in the MileSplit database. That includes the likes of state champions like Graydon Morris (14:58) and Caden Leonard (15:08).

As a freshman, Morris ran 15:32 on the North Lakes Park course where Marcus Coach T Inv. is held and Leonard ran 15:51 his freshman year. 

In the past two years, the Marcus Coach T Inv. has had a format/course change. It isn't quite the same as what Morris and Leonard ran on and not even the same as Marcus all-time great Craig Lutz who ran a Marcus I personal best 14:53 best on the previous course. 

However, the course is close to over 75 - 80% the same. The new course exchanged several turns on grass for gravel straight aways.

Nevertheless, Newberry is exhibiting greatness already.

This season is going to be a very challenging push for teams to get on the podium for the 5A girls.

The reigning consecutive three-time 5A state champs Lovejoy girls are looking to add a fourth consecutive title, but the difficulty level this year is probably as high as it has been for them since their first win.

A 19:12 team average has been a key number the past two seasons.

In 2022, 19:12 was the team average for Boerne Champion's runner-up finish and just last year, it was the team average for Georgetown's third place finish podium.

This past weekend, three teams surpassed that benchmark at the Marcus Coach T XC Invitational.

Lovejoy was second and blazed a team average of 18:43 and looks like they're again the favorites in 5A. Highland Park, is back in 5A after their attendance took them to 6A the past two years. They went for a team average of 19:03 for the second best finishing 5A team and Aledo, last year's runner-up team ran 19:02.

The push for the UIL 5A girls podium is already underway and we might have just witnessed the three teams this past weekend.

Austin Vandegrift was the team runner-up finishers at the UIL 6A state meet in 2023. 

This year, they are clearly gunning for a state title. The truth is, every year they improve their standing and their performances.

Somehow, this occurs after graduating some of their top runners.

The Capital City squad is already off to a flying start to the 2024 season and their 15:09 team average and 43 second 1-6 spit this weekend proves they are again contenders.

Vandegrift has a specific running style.

The team effectively executes their game play by hitting their first mile target pace and then attacking in the second and third miles.

As you can see in the table above, the first mile for the top five finishers for Vandegrift were solid if not impressive splits. Four of the five runners went on to negative split the second mile and the one runner who didn't negative split was able to even split mile two.

Vandegrift runners were not in the lead pack of runners as they race went through the 1K and 1600m. However, they picked runners off as the race matriculated.

This isn't a new strategy. In fact, it's a fairly old practice in the history of the sport. Where the Vipers excel is in their effective execution of the race plan.

As mentioned before, the North Lakes Park course for the Marcus Coach T Inv. had a layout modification in 2023.

This unfortunately disables the ability to gage performances to historical runs at this meet.

It has typically been a slow course due to it being an early season race, which prior to the past five years, it was one of the first big meets each year.

It's many turns right after the first mile marker on thick grass (or hard cracked ground if Denton is in a draught) also heavily contributed into no so fast times.

As you can see, this year, there were six boys who ran 15-minutes flat or faster.

At approximately 1K to the second mile is now mostly on gravel and mostly straight away running with the exceptions of a few turns.

Both Hudson Haley and Aleksandr Acuna had sub 14-minute runs on their resumes prior to this race and were 6A top 10 finishers last season.

But the speed of most of the other guys who broke 15-minutes allowed them to crush it on Saturday.

The 2024 Texas cross country season looks to be a barn blazer when the Texas boys get on either a short or fast courses.