Standout Boys Performances From This Past Weekend

This weekend brought us yet another slate of great meets as the season begins to kick into full swing. So far we've been able to get our first look at how the race for the individual state title will shape up, but the team side isn't quite as clear. As we know from last week's coverage, we got our first chance to see how Bridgeland and Southlake Carroll stack up against the rest of the 6A division.

On top of this, we also got to see Caden Leonard debut this weekend at the much anticipated Southlake #1 XC Invite where he went up against freshman phenom Ruel Newberry. This weekend brought us a ton of action to be excited about so let's not waste any time and dive into this weekend's standout performances.

Photo by Jan Smits

It's no secret that Caden Leonard comes into the 2024 season as the favorite to defend his state title on the grass. He's proven to be a generational talent through two years of high school, and that's brought anticipation for what he can do this year. Given these factors, Leonard came into this weekend expected to kick off his season with a win at his home race and that's exactly what he did, even with a tougher challenge than would've been expected a month ago.

The emergence of Ruel Newberry over the last month brought new intrigue to this race than we would've thought in the preseason. Yes, the Southlake #1 XC Invite has proven to be one of the state's best opportunities to run fast but the results felt predictable until the emergence of Newberry. The race got out hot as it usually does with Leonard quickly grabbing the lead at the front flanked by several challengers, most notably Newberry.

The freshman hung tough with Leonard for the first half of the race, but Leonard's poise and experience reigned supreme as he gradually began to pull away. He looked smooth and efficient, and his race was executed perfectly as he crossed the line in 14:37.10 and won the race by seven seconds.

While Leonard was the favorite heading into the weekend, there's something to be said for his perfect execution in the face of a serious challenger. The pressure to defend your position as the state's top runner from a freshman would get to some people as we saw last week, but not Leonard. He ran the exact race that you would've expected a runner of his pedigree to execute and that shows just how high of a level he's competing at.

Leonard looks to be in prime shape to start the 2024 season and we would've expected nothing less from the defending state champion. Set the scoreboard to 1-0 in terms of facing the expected challengers to his throne. Look for Leonard to use this race as a confidence booster as he begins to round into midseason form and attempt to lead this Southlake Carroll squad back to the state title for the sixth consecutive year.

Photo by Mylene Cannon

Naturally, the state's number one and two teams chose to debut their squads on the same weekend, albeit on vastly different courses. While Southlake Carroll opened up on a flat course for their first race, Bridgeland chose to keep with their tradition of journeying up to Brenham to run the infamous Hillacious Invitational. This race isn't known for producing fast times or team averages that light up the stat sheet, but we knew Benjamin Montgomery would challenge that notion this weekend.

Montgomery came into this race off the back of a strong 9:10.98 performance that came at Bridgeland's 3200m time trial in mid-August. Montgomery is of course the bronze medalist from last year's UIL State Championship on the grass and holds the denotation of being the only man to take a state title from Caden Leonard last year, that one coming over 3200m. As mentioned, Brenham isn't exactly known for producing fast times. Sure, we've seen the occasional performance like Emmanuel Sgouros running 15:13.30 in 2021, but that's not the expectation heading into Brenham.

However, Montgomery must've had different expectations heading into the weekend as he took home the win in a new course record time of 15:12.90. This performance was not only impressive because of the time, but also because Montgomery didn't immediately run away from the pack. Instead, he chose to run his race and expertly navigated the difficult course, pushing where others would break and that's why he was ultimately able to produce this great performance.

Another thing that makes Montgomery's performance impressive is the amount of improvement he found on such a difficult course. We said on Wednesday that Brenham isn't a place where one can hope to knock a ton of time off last season's performance but Montgomery proved that opinion wrong. He ran 15:56.00 in 2023, meaning he found a remarkable 43.1 seconds of improvement on his way to a historic win.

We already knew Montgomery was a contender for the state title heading into this weekend. But, this performance gives us even more reason to say his name a bit louder in the conversation. He's proven time and time again that he's one of the state's best, and if he can keep this trend of improvement he may find himself standing on the top step of the podium in November.

Photo by Jessie McCabe

One of the teams that came into this season ranked despite not making it to Round Rock last year was Northwest Nelson. The Region 1 outfit had proven to be strong throughout the year in 2023 but ultimately didn't make it as far as they would've hoped. However, with the number of key returners they had coupled with several good races in 2023, Northwest Nelson looked prime to make a run at the state meet this year and they proved that sentiment correct this weekend.

Because they missed out on the state meet, some could say that Northwest Nelson cracked under pressure last year. While this thought may not be entirely fair, Nelson missed out when it mattered and that feeling stuck with them. That makes the choice to compete at a big meet like the Southlake #1 XC Invite to open the year feel intentional for two reasons. The first is because this quickly exposes them to tough competition, but the second is because it forces them to compete under pressure right out of the gates.

Over the weekend, the team proved this to be the correct decision as they came out and put on one of their best performances of the last year. As expected, Matthias Peterson led the way finishing third in a time of 14:57.60, and once again showed why he's one of the state's best. After Peterson, Northwest Nelson got four key performances in succession from the likes of Jackson Bellm who ran 15:35.70, Liam Bengtsson who ran 15:37.50, Jason Wade who ran 15:40.60, and Chase Hope who ran 15:45.80.

Every member of the team's top-five showed up when it mattered and that's the confidence boost that this team needed to start the year. They proved they can hang with the state's best under pressure and that will only serve them well as the season continues to go on. This squad has lived up to their No. 7 ranking to start the season and it will be interesting to see how they build on such an important performance mentally as the season goes on.

Photo by Gabriel Nieland

It can be easy to miss talented runners in a division as stacked as Region 1, but McKinney Boyd's Joaquin De La Cruz has made himself impossible to miss over the last two years. The lone remaining front-runner from last year's bronze medalist team, De La Cruz has had a hot start to the 2024 season and he added yet another impressive performance to his growing tally this weekend at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede.

De La Cruz's accolades should be well-known up to this point. He comes into this season as the No. 9 ranked individual and the bronze medalist from last year's 1600m at the UIL State Championship. He recently opened up his season at the Marcus Coach T Invitational where he ran a personal best of 14:52.00 and he looked to build on that heading into his home race this weekend. De La Cruz won this meet last year, and he'd have been looking to defend that position this year, especially on his home turf.

That's exactly what he'd go on to do as De La Cruz put in yet another impressive performance, winning the race in a time of 15:12.00 and showing yet again why he's one of the state's best runners. He runs with a relentless style and has great speed for a guy that's this fast over 5000m. Another thing to note about De La Cruz's performance is the fact that it was run at Myers Park, the same venue as the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival. This course is a great representation of a true cross-country course, making De La Cruz's performance as legit as they come.

It's clear that De La Cruz has carried all of his momentum from last season and then some into the fall. He's been rapid throughout the calendar year and I think he's a dark horse to be on the podium in Round Rock this November. He's the full package when it comes to an elite distance runner and that's an area that he doesn't necessarily get as much credit as he deserves. Look for him to continue making noise in Region 1 and don't be surprised if you begin to hear his name more as October approaches.