2015 Brenham Hillacious Div 1 Race
The Brenham Hillacious Invitational is not for the faint of heart. In fact, I think it should be renamed; let's just say, if I was playing The Wheel of Fortune game show, I'd be replacing the vowel "i" with an "e" in Hillacious.
Personally, it's in the top five most difficult courses I've seen in Texas, has the third most difficult hill I've seen in Texas, and has perhaps the highest level of competition I've seen on a difficult course In Texas.
To save myself some emails, this isn't a dig on meets or athletes in Texas, it is just a known fact that the majority of courses are either flat, lacking several inclines, or their conducive for fast times.
With that said, the Brenham course tests ones fitness, ability to run hills, mental fortitude,and the entire team's ability to collectively handle uncomfortability.
This weekend's weather throughout the entire state was perhaps better than any of the runners will see until possibly late October.
Nevertheless, this year's results show that a couple of teams handled the course extremely well and that might be a sign of their fortunes this season.
I will compare some of this weekend's results to past performers on the Brenham course and their eventual state meet outcomes. Even though my thoughts associate the present with the past doesn't mean the comparisons are transitive properties and the current runners will have the same or similar results of past runners.
Here are my takeaways from this weekend's results.
Girls 5,000m Race
Despite the difficulty of the course, and some of the state champions and state meet medalists who have competed at Brenham, this year's meet had three of the best times on this course in its history.
Rowan Saacke (Bridgeland) won the 5A-6A girls race with a time of 17:55. That is the second fastest time on the course only behind a 16:59 set by Sophie Atkinson (Katy Cinco Ranch) in 2020 who eventually finished runner-up at the state meet that year.
That would have been the third fastest time at the Southlake meet, which definitely presents far less challenges than Brenham.
Lily Fawcett (Bridgeland) finished second behind Saacke with a time of 18:13 for the sixth best run on this course and Stoya Laydevant (The Woodlands) at 18:22 had the seventh fastest time in the Brenham course history.
This tells me that the fitness level of these three young ladies is high enough for them to compare against several past state meet medalists.
There were three girls teams that turned in exciting results and that is Bridgeland, The Woodlands, and Houston Episcopal.
Bridgeland and The Woodlands are ranked No. 4 and No. 5 in the state and Episcopal is without doubt the best SPC team over the last four years.
The addition of former Katy Tompkins transfer Saacke to Bridgeland was thought to be epic. Saacke ran a time we knew is within her wheelhouse, but just maybe not on this course.
The effect on the team was what was I thought. I thought it might be a mutually beneficial training relationship for Saacke and Fawcett. While this is just one meet, it looks like a 1-2 punch from these two for Bridgeland will be key to watch.
Bridgeland finished with a 18:47 team average, again on a more difficult course than Southlake, it tied for the third fastest average in Southlake.
While it was over 19-minutes, The Woodlands produced a 19:10 average. they also were the recipient of a high level transfer in former Southlake Carroll runner Vanessa Vezga.
Episcopal has won three consecutive SPC Championships and look good for the second straight year at Brenham. They were third behind the two ranked UIL 6A girls teams with an average of 19:24 with a 1:20 spread.
Houston Memorial transfer Huntley Buckingham (18:49) along with Georgia Bass (18:59) and Olivia Kiefer (19:09) led Episcopal.
Madison Morgan who is a top runner on the Episcopal team was their number four runner. She finished in 19:57, but just last year she ran 18:34 at this same meet. Look for her to return to form and to make this team even more formidable.
Boys 5,000m Race
The boys race was just as historical as the girls race was.
Benjamin Montgomery (Bridgeland) ran the fastest all-time performance on this course with is 15:13.00. That includes Emmanuel Sgouros (Houston St. Johns) and his 15:13.30 from 2021. Sgouros went on to win the SPC title that season.
Of the UIL runners on this list, Daniel Golden (The Woodlands) was a state champion, Gavin Hoffpauir (The Woodlands) and Noah Wells (The Woodlands) both finished runner-up at the state meet, Connor Meaux (College Park) was third.
So, Montgomery who was third at last year's state cross country meet is in good company.
It is difficult to actually compare a race at Brenham to some of the meets where 14-minute runs were performed. What I do take away from this is that the result for Montgomery was 15:13.
There was a time (not too long ago) when that was a rarity. It is still the case that is extremely difficult to do in Brenham. Look at the list below to see who ran what. Now, consider how close he was to the 15-min barrier on this course.
This was the anticipated opening 5,000m race for both the Bridgeland and The Woodlands.
It packed the punch as I thought it would.
Griffen Saacke's transfer from Tompkins to Bridgeland was a no-brainer huge impact for the Bears who were already one of the top teams in the state. He was a state track meet finalist last year for Tompkins and this weekend he ran the 11th fastest all-time race on this course.
However, teamed with Montgomery, and Kyle Pawlak (15:58) it showed a very powerful top three runners for Bridgeland.
That led to their 15:51 team average. The Woodlands was second with a team average of 16:13.
While those would have only been the fifth and 10th best averages at Southlake, the level of difficulty would boost them both in comparison to those teams.
I think it is clear that to challenge for a state title, teams are going to have to possibly run faster than 15:40 averages.
Bridgeland ran 15:51 and what we can compare that to is The Woodlands' 2015 UIL 6A Championship winning squad; they ran a 15:55 average on this course. That team was the possibly catalyst to all of these sub 16-minute averages we see today.
However, the speed of that team was more than fast, they showed their ability to run tighter than most teams can dream to run with their 0.25 second split in that race.
That will be the key for Bridgeland. So far this year, Austin Vandegrift has run a 43 team spread and Southlake ran a 1:02.
While we'll have to see how The Woodlands' time compares when they race on non-Brenham courses, their split will be the key. They ran 0.44 seconds this weekend and behind Bridgeland they look to compare well against Region 2-6A teams like College Park, Waxahachie, and Mansfield Legacy.