Another week of outstanding cross country running, another week of amazing stats to look into.
This weekend was aided by the outstanding cooperation with the temperatures throughout much of the state.
Full disclosure, there are some runners and teams who are flat out crushing it this season. Here are some from the first full weekend of September.
Freshman Girls Run 18:41 And Under At Mckinney Boyd
It is nothing to see freshman girls enter high school and begin to flourish from day one.
It looks like this year a couple of those youngsters will be Kenedy Card (Rockwall) and Finley Heckler (Highland Park). Card won the Boyd meet in 18:45 with Heckler not far behind in 18:41.
Related: McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede
The thing to take note of is that the two were the race leaders instead of having upperclassmen dictating the pace for them.
Although they're not freshmen a duo of soph runners contributed to the solid race. Ryan Sontag (Highland Park) was third in 18:46, Presley Robertson (Frisco Wakeland) was fourth in 18:53.
4A Boys Team Runs 15:53 Average and 59-Second Spread
This weekend, the Canyon boys traveled from the panhandle to the Southlake #1 XC Invite for their first 5,000m race of the season.
While Canyon did not finish 1, 2, or 3 in this big race their performance might go under the radar with their fifth place team finish. However, if you look further, you'll see how impressive their run was.
Related: Canyon boys team interview
There were there top ranked UIL 6A teams, three top five ranked 5A teams, Arkansas' 6A state champion and Oklahoma 6A state champion all in this race.
Yes, Canyon has won back-to-back UIL 4A team titles and they are ranked No. 1 in the CCCAT first poll of the season. However, they were in the DFW cross country whirlpool and not a comfy race somewhere else.
Coach Kirton's squad mixed it up well well with the big boys and ran a 15:53 team average with a 59-second 1-5 gap. That's four seconds faster than their 2023 state meet winning performance and the gap is 31-seconds better.
In their first 5K of the year, they look to be in championship form. Heck maybe this Canyon team is one of the big boys!
2A State Champions Plains Boys Runs 3A Race at Lubbock ISD Inv.
Plains was almost surgical at the 2023 2A state meet. They ran a 16:50 team average with a 48-second split.
This weekend in Lubbock, they were getting a preview of the Region 1 course. They decided to run in the 3A race instead of the 2A race that was set up for their 2A competition.
Related: Lubbock ISD Cross Country Invitational
All they did was outrun the larger schools. While their numbers were outstanding (nobody's was on this day at the meet) with a 17:32 average and 1:30 gap, their standing was.
Plains won the 3A race that did not include a loaded Holliday team, but the did beat 3A teams who will probably qualify again for the state meet.
7 Teams Average 16-min and Under and 5 Girls Teams Under 19-min At Southlake
No disrespect to anyone in the rest of the state, but DFW racing is just different. While this was a decent size meet, it was smaller than years past, but big time runners and teams showed up and the performances were impressive.
A total of seven boys teams ran averages of 16-minutes or faster and five girls teams averaged 19-minutes or better.
Related: Southlake #1 Invite
In the Elite Boys race, running 4:45 through the first mile had you in in 20th place individually with about 40 boys no more than 3-seconds right behind you. Going through the mile at 5:40 for the girls would have had you in 22nd place.
Not all of these kids were DFW runners, but it shows how serious of a fast pace is set from the gun. These races are definitely championship level type atmospheres and in this area you either roll with em or get rolled over.
Emily Orr (El Paso Franklin) helped lead the second race in the area with four or more sub 18-minute runs and there were four individual boys under 15-minutes led by Caden Leonard (Southlake Carroll).