Adeline Bennett (L) and Caden Leonard (R)
Flower Mound (FM) has won four consecutive UIL 6A state team title and winning the fifth is their primary goal. Winning the Woodbridge Inv. is a nice feather in the cap though.
They became the first Texas team to win the Sweepstakes race, which is the one always littered with nationally ranked teams.
With the growing trend of Texas teams heading out west to race in the meet, it was only a matter of time that the meet win went to a team from the Lone Star state.
The top ranked Jaguars scored 96 points, 22 points ahead of second place Ventura (CA). Alexandra Fox has been a major piece of the program for three years and her in the fourth, she is trying to leave her indelible mark.
Fox was the first runner to finish for FM in 14th place and a time of 16:23 for the three mile course; she had reinforcements though who were close by. Ava Cole and Adeline Bennett who were both only four seconds back from Fox in 16:27 a piece.
FM has had two versions of powerful "big three" runners who have helped them to their success. In 2020-21 it was Natalie Cook and the Humphries twins. In 2022-23 it was the twins and Fox and now it's Fox, Cole, and Bennett.
Their winning team average was 16:40 with a 53-second spread.
Also finishing in the top ten of 27 teams was Southlake Carroll and The Woodlands.
The Carroll girls were ninth with 280 points scored. Abigail Perez led the Dragons with a time of 17:01. Their team average was 17:20 with only 33 seconds separating the number one through five runners.
Stoya Laydevant led The Woodlands girls with her impressive 16:45 run. They also ran a 17:20 team average with a 1:10 gap.
On the boys side, it was Caden Leonard who was heavily involved in the outcome of the race.
Leonard was the overall fourth place finisher with an outstanding time of 13:41 and only 11-second away from the winner. Mixing it up with some of the best individual runners in the country was a good sign for the Dragons overall team finish.
That finish was a runner-up position with 187 points scored behind Herriman (UT) and their 63 point total.
The top ranked Texas 6A squad ran their first full team race of the year. After meeting UIL transfer guidelines and rules, they were finally able to insert transfer Jaxon Glenn who moved in from Granbury, Texas.
The overall team average for the three-mile course was 14:20 with a 60-second gap. Blake Bullard ran 14:17, Griffin Cords went 14:22, Alex Severson ran 14:39, and Glenn 14:41.
The Woodlands ran their third race of the season and finished in 21st place out of the 40 team field. Sophomore Elton Martin continues to lead the way for the Highlanders. He finished in 14:26 to guide his team to a 14:52 team average and a 46-second spread.
When they get back here to Texas, we'll see how these performance are actually applied to 5,000m courses.