This year's Southlake Carroll Inv. #1 will be a smaller event than usual, but it just might be the best one ever.
Not only are there some big time teams from Texas, but there are a couple of other state championship winning teams from other states.
Girls Teams To Look Out for
On the girls side, Flower Mound, who has won four consecutive Texas UIL 6A state title and Lovejoy who has won three straight 5A titles of their own will be both have nearly fully loaded teams in this race.
further making the the girl's team race a stacked field are the hosts No. 2 ranked Southlake Carroll who was second last year in 6A last year. No. 3 ranked Northwest Nelson was fourth at the state meet, and No. 10 ranked El Paso Franklin who placed ninth at state last year is back once again.
Joining Lovejoy, the other 5A state meet teams from last year will be runner-up finishers No. 2 Aledo, sixth place No. 10 ranked Grapevine, 10th place finishers Frisco Liberty, and 15th place finishers McKinney North.
Joining from out of state who also had success last season is Bentonville who was second at the Arkansas 6A state meet and fellow runners from the Natural State Fayetteville who was third behind them at the state meet.
One of Oklahoma's top program from Deer Creek was sixth at the OSSAA 6A state meet and they'll add to the surfeit of excellence.
Teams Entered | |||
| Aledo | Fayetteville High School (Arkansas) | Keller Timber Creek | N Richland Hills Richland |
| Argyle | Flower Mound | Lake Highlands | Northwest Eaton |
| Bentonville High School (Arkansas) | Fort Worth Boswell | Lewisville Hebron | Northwest Nelson |
| Brea Olinda - (California) | Frisco Independence | Lewisville Marcus | Plano East |
| Canyon | Frisco Lebanon Trail | Liberty Christian | Plano West |
| Carroll High School | Frisco Liberty | Lucas Lovejoy | Richardson Pearce |
| Coppell | Grapevine | Mansfield Legacy | Waxahachie |
| Deer Creek High School (Oklahoma) | Greenhill | Marble Falls | Weatherford |
| Denton Guyer | Johnson Ferry Christian Academy | McKinney North | Wylie High School |
| El Paso Franklin | Justin Northwest | Midlothian Heritage |
Boys Teams To Look Out For
If you think the girls elite race is going to be loaded, the boy's race should be considered having an excessive amount of talent for a regular season invitational.
The Carroll boys have won five consecutive boys 6A state titles and finished third overall at the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN). Arguably, they are the team to beat and who many will be keying off of this weekend.
However, they are not the only reigning state champions in this race. Lovejoy won the 5A state title last year and Canyon won the last two 4A state titles; both teams are in this race and have at least 95% of their best lineups.
For the seventh consecutive season, Bentonville was the Arkansas 6A state champion in 2023. The Tigers also qualified for NXN after finishing second at NXR South in The Woodlands.
It will be Deer Creek and instead of Zack Bryan bringing us the Oklahoma Smokeshow. Last year they added another Oklahoma 6A state title in 2023 and they finished fourth at last year's talented NXR South. Attrition took from both Bentonville and Deer Creek as they graduated key members of last year's championships teams, but are still very good.
Additional Texas state meet qualifying teams racing this weekend will be El Paso Franklin (10th at state and 6th at NXR), Wylie (7th at state), and Argyle (6th at 5A state meet). Fayetteville finished fourth at the Arkansas 6A state meet without one of their best runners.
This year, Northwest Nelson is ranked No. 7 and Waxahachie is ranked No. 8 with both teams competing this weekend.
Girls To Look Out For
Last weekend's race at the Marcus Coach T Inv. showed us that Ava Cole (Flower Mound), Adeline Bennett (Flower Mound), Remington Boone (Weatherford), and Camryn Benson (Lucas Lovejoy) currently all have good fitness levels.
Cole ran 17:43 to crack the top three last week. Her Flower Mound teammate Bennett was fifth (17:57), Boone sixth (18:00), and Benson eighth (18:03).
Elizabeth Smits(Southlake Carroll) will be running her first 5K this weekend. She placed 10th at last year's state meet with a time of 17:50. Other state meet finishers figuring to be front runners will be MJ Novelli (Northwest Nelson) who was 12th running 18:02 at state, and Emily Orr (El Paso Franklin) placed 27th with a time of 18:20.
Aledo has a couple of girls who will be dangerous and are already off to great starts. Micah Neal places seventh at the 5A state meet and Molly Garrison was 12th. Garrison ran 18:22 last weekend and Neal went for a time of 18:28.
Boys To Look Out For
In the boy's race, it will be our first official look at Caden Leonard (Southlake Carroll) who was second in this race last season with a 14:32 performance. That was en route to his eventual UIL 6A individual state title. Expect him to move swiftly around Bob Jones Park, a place he trains at fairly often.
Carroll seniors Blake Bullard and Griffin Cords won't only be big runners to their team aspirations, they should also be front runners in the overall race. Bullard, an elite level triathlete was fourth at last year's state meet and Cords recently strided eight laps in 9:20 two weeks ago.
It's not a surprise that freshman Ruel Newberry (Denton Guyer) is off to a great start to his career, but his 14:46 at Marcus Coach T last week means this is surely going to be blazing fast.
In middle school and on the club level, Newberry showed his knack for running solo and against the clock. However, last week was an exhibit of maturity and the ability the to handle the pace set by older and stronger runners.
Parker Noffz (Marcus) and Elijiah Rivera-Campos (Hebron) were also fast last weekend. A 15:00 for Noffz and 15:01 for Rivera-Campos will have them running with a lot of confidence this weekend.
Matthias Peterson (Northwest Nelson) will compete in his first 5K of the season and brings a 15:03 PR to the table; that might be lowered immensely on Saturday.
Canyon has a strong duo with Lathan Lewter and Ryan Fernandez who will be looking to get a fast run in. Lewter was fourth at last year's 4A state meet and has a 15:24 PR and Fernandez was seventh and has a 15:25 PR. They definitely want an early season gage against the top talent in the state.
One additional runner who already has an impressive run this season is Joshua Odums (Mansfield Legacy) who was a state meet qualifier last year; he ran 15:22 at Coach T last weekend. Then there is also Graham Scott (Waxahachie). He opened his season four weeks ago with a 15:28 and could looking to lower that SB with his improved fitness.
Lovejoy's William Carlson and Joseph Reid haven't competed at 5K this season, but they have seed times of 15:30 and 15:37. They'll connect with teammates Tyler Morefield and Tristan Arceneau who ran 15:38 and 15:46 last week.
Arkansas high flyers Matthew Shelly and Owen Kelley went 1-2 at last year's 6A state meet. The two top returners from Bentonville's NXN qualifying squad enter with 15:16 and 15:19 seeds.
To begin the boys individual preview, we started with last year's runner-up. We'll end the wrap this up with the third place finisher from last year's Southlake Inv #2 third place finisher Alan Gallardo-Lopez (Fayetteville).
Last year Gallardo-Lopez ran a 15:03 on this course. During the track he went on to run 1:54 and 4:09. He is just a junior, but that kind of speed will be dangerous on this course.