Region 1A Girls
Taytum Goodman is no longer crushing the hopes and dreams of girls who want to win a state title. She graduated from Springlake Earth and is running well at Texas Tech.
Now Coach Goodman gets to plan, plot, and strategize her girls and boys teams into the post-Taytum era
But wait, there's more....
Jayton is no longer in Region 1...they're now in Region 2. So, the individual champ is gone So that means now the individual runner-up from last year is also gone (and two other top ten finishers from Jayton).
The defending championship team is heavily impacted and the runner-ups racing in Grand Prairie, the field is wide open both individually and in the team race.
Texline sophomore Jada Clay was the third place finisher last year at Region 1-1A and she went on to finish in sixth place at the state meet; she has a 12:44 season best (SB) run this year.
Springlake Earth returns five girls from their fourth place state met finish. But they took a big hit with their low stick runner graduating.
At No. 2 in the state rankings is Clyde Eula and they return their entire line up from their fifth place state meet finish.
Lazbuddie is ranked No. 3 and they're led by senior Madison Tyler who was 29th at the state meet.
Madison Brockman leads No. 4 ranked Nazareth. She finished 16th at the state meet and they have all of their girls back from a sixth place state meet finish.
No. 7 ranked Lenorah Grady brings back their full lineup from their seventh place state meet finish last year. Emma Parker and Macie Stack combine to lead Grady.
Garden City is ranked No. 8 in the state. Emy Schwartz was a state meet qualifier last year and she leads the team.
This will again be a tight race as Nazareth was only four points behind Clyde Eula at state and Lenorah Grady was just 11 points behind them.
Whiteface is a sleeper who could challenge for a spot.
Region 1-1A boys
Last year's Region champ Wiley Gaskins (Sands) graduated after going on to finish 7th at state.
Individually, Brance Ferguson (Happy) was the runner-up behind Gaskins and is the first of six top ten runners who return this year.
He has the second fastest time of the entire region going into the regional championships with his 16:48 district winning time.
Another Happy runner and with the last name Ferguson is J'Lond Ferguson. With his 17:08 run at last week's district 4 race, the freshman is a top three performer entering this race.
It was Texline, Wellman-Union, and O'Donnell qualifying for state last year.
Texline was young last year with freshmen and sophomores. They are a year older but their weakness in 2023 is their weakness in 2024.
They only have 5 runners on their team and they have to perform well/consistently.....heck, they have to finish the race.
Wellman-Union didn't graduate anyone from their 12th place state meet finish, but O'Donnell lost three from last year.
Boys Ranch has the second best regional 5K team average this year with a 18:42, Happy has the third best with a 18:40, and Booker has the fourth best with a 19:24.
Booker is ranked No. 5 in the state and Petersburg is ranked No. 7. So figure them to possibly look to win the regional title.