Texas Homeschool
Texas Homeschool Individual Girls Rankings
Texas Homeschool Individual Boys Rankings
Texas Homeschool Team Rankings
Texas Homeschool Boys Team Rankings
It isn't a new thing that homeschool teams and runners are good. We've seen strong teams for several years like San Antonio Homeschool Spartans, San Antonio FEAST/Patriots, Austin Champions, Houston Homeschool and more.
There have also been some individuals have been some of the top ranked runners in the past like Joy Gill, Krianne McBride, Lauren Bettancourt, Farrin Mangelson, Judah Alexander-Macias, and Aiden Carlson just to name a few.
However, this year seems to be on a higher level for both individual athletes and teams. Some of the athletes and teams you might not know about, it reminds me of a line from the great American poet Beyonce' Knowles, "You must not know 'bout me."
We found out from the first weekend of the season that the Home School Athletic Association (HSAA) team in the Dallas area would be a strong team. At the Waxahachie Woodhouse Invitational, freshman Graham Hummel (2nd, 15:10), junior Jonah Grein (4th, 15:17), and junior Beck Fournet (9th, 15:27) all dropped top ten and sub 16-minute performances to lead the team to a third place finish.
Photo Credit: A1 Media
The only teams to be HSAA were ranked UIL 6A teams Coppell and Waxahachie. HSAA put together such a good run that it was evident beyond their top three runners, but illustrated by their 15:52 team average.
That wasn't a fluke as the team has continued to run fast at some of the biggest meets in Dallas and San Antonio.
There is a new home school entity in the San Antonio area and it has some runners to reckon with. The South Texas Heat Homeschool is mainly made up of one family, but they have some damaging genes to competitor runners.
If you haven't heard of the Latta family, you soon will.
Elin Latta, Iris Latta, Remy Latta, Reese Latta, and Addyson Latta formerly of the Patriots Homeschool team now form the South Texas Heat. At the Texas A & Mhey finished fourth behind ranked squads like Bridgeland and Aledo.
Prosper was third place ahead of them, but with a 19:18 team average, the home school team was ahead of a couple of other ranked 5A teams and a host of many other UIL teams.
Photo Credit: Christine Langford/MileSplit TX
Elin was the runner-up behind Sophia Bendet with a 17:45 performance and Iris was fourth in 18:18. Elin ran 17:58 last month to win the City Auto MEMPHIS TWILIGHT XC CLASSIC and was second again to Bendet at the Unicorn Invitational. Iris was second in Memphis with a 18:11 and ws third at the Unicorn Inv. going 11:17.
Both of these two homeschool teams are some of the best overall in Texas. You will not find them competing throughout the UIL championship season, but you should see them and several runners in the post season.
Homeschool athletes are not allowed to compete as a team, but are allowed to compete individually at the Nike Cross Regional and National races as well as at Foot Locker.
These runners and other homeschool runners have already and will be impactful throughout the rest of the season.