You've seen the results from this past weekend by now and I'm sure you've checked out the competition in your district, region, and classification throughout the state.
However, there is always more than meets the eye or more business beyond face value numbers.
This week, we narrowed it down to these four factors we'd like to share.
Sophia Bendet one of only 5 Girls To Run Sub 18-Min And 2:06 800m
There are some truly amazing girls who compete in Texas and some greats have been through the high school running ranks in the past.
Randolph senior Sophia Bendet is one of them.
The Texas girls distance scene and the depth has developed into a stratosphere like we've never seen before. It continues to go the next level
Bendet is one of just five girls to have ever run under 18-minutes at 5,000m and 2:06 in the 800m. She joins Isabel Conde De Frankenberg (2:05.61 and 16:56.62), Samantha Humphries (2:06.59 and 16:52), Nicole Humphries (2:06.24 and 17:07.52), and Kailey Littlefield (2:06.21 and 17:52.78).
She competes in 3A and it's unfortunate that some people in Texas don't fully know she is a runner to be reckoned with. Her career stats are nothing to sneeze at with PRs of 2:06.65 (2:09.03 indoors), 4:47.28, 10:35 (grass), and 17:23.20.
3 More Boys Teams run sub 16-min with sub 60-second spreads
This weekend three boys teams ran spectacular overall team performances. Vandegrift (15;31, 47), Bridgeland (15:52, 50), and The Woodlands (15:53, 35) all ran team averages under 16-minutes with sub 60-second splits from their number one runners through their number five runners.
It takes a lot of training and execution to be able to produce an average and compression combination like that.
It is now the standard in Texas cross country.
Last week, there were four other teams outside of the three this weekend to complete that feat (Northwest Nelson, Lucas Lovejoy, Canyon, and Waxahachie).
At the 2023 state meet, there were more teams than ever that did it. Six teams were in 6A and one in 5A.
That however was in November and this has being done by the middle of September.
Seven Girls Run Sub 18-Minutes
In 2023, there were a record number of girls who ran in the 17s for 5,000m.
This weekend alone there were seven girls to do it.
While there should be no surprise that girls would run fast after the type of track season where so many girls ran under 11-minutes in the 3,200m.
However in a weekend when Flower Mound and Southlake did not run, this is an even more impressive feat.
Macy Wingard (Denton Braswell), Maya Easterwood (Coppell), Sophia Bendet (Randolph), and Rowan Saacke (Bridgeland) all did it last year. However, a 3A girl and homeschool runner doing it in the same weekend (same race) shows how epic the rest of the season will be.
Macy Wingard And Maya Easterwood Part II Comes Down to Seven-Seconds
Macy Wingard won the UIL 6A state meet as a sophomore and she impressively ran 16:57 to do it. On her route to last year's win, she also had to defeat a couple of girls who had already won individual 6A state titles.
This year, many of those girls are competing on the NCAA Division-1 level, and Wingard has the chance to defend her title and add two more titles before she graduates.
Winning the state titles, one should expect everyone else to come after them. The are no longer the hunter and they become the hunted.
Maya Easterwood is one of those girls coming for Wingard and she has made it known. She has informed one of the Coppell Athletics sites about her goals. One of them was to specifically beat Wingard.
Easterwood is a baller and has serious about playing basketball. However, I've been informed she still takes running seriously and she isn't afraid of competing. Last year, Easterwood ran a 18:08 season best at the state meet where she placed 18th.
She has improved immensely and her ability to compete is not lost on those who have seen her race this year. She has three sub 18-minute runs this year and has only lost twice this year. Both losses came to the same person .... Wingard.
Wingard won the Marcus Coach T XC Invitational by five-seconds and this weekend's race at the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival by seven-seconds.
In basketball, they play five-on-five, one-one one, and man-to-man. Either way you slice it, you must go through the team/person to get the win and that looks to be the approach Easterwood takes in running.
Despite having to also take on every other girl in the state, if she can beat Wingard, she can probably win state.
Beating Wingard is easier said than done and we've all witnessed that since her freshman year. However, in two races this year, only 12-seconds have stood in the way of Easterwood's goal so far.
There will be at least two more races between the two and possibly three. Those will be the most important three races of the season. They'll face off at the Region 1-6A championships, UIL state meet, and possibly NXR South.