It has been an up-and-down season for Elizabeth Leachman. Coming off one of the best prep seasons in high school running history, the Boerne Champion junior has experienced both sickness and injuries throughout the 2024 season.
After being unable to finish the Region 4 championship race, it wasn't a sure thing that she would win the 2024 UIL 5A state title. Personally, she wouldn't even commit to race beyond the state meet, instead giving a 50% of it happening at best.
Some how, she went from unknowing if she'd run and then how she'd run week-to-week to winning the longest held high school cross country championship race in the country and owning it.
Today, the back-to-back UIL 5A state champ won her second consecutive Foot Locker championship. She owned the second half of the race to put herself in rare air in winning this event two-times.
Leachman has modified her race strategy this year from her front running to a gradual find her way to the lead.
At the beginning of today's race, Leachman was approximately six-seconds off the lead and in 27th place through a half-mile. Her strategy would see her move up and at the halfway point she was in the lead chase pack and at two-miles she has assumed her usual leading position.
A week ago, at the Nike Cross Nationals, this same race plan had only allowed her to move all of the way up to a third place overall finish. However, with no rain or mud, the conditions perhaps allowed her to execute better as she would pull away for a time of 17:31 for her historical Foot Locker defending win.
Elizabeth Leachman competes at the 2023 Foot Locker National Championhips
Photo Credit: Jonathan Halterman
On her newly found strategy, Leachman weight in, saying "the focus was to have something on the second lap. This is a tough and unforgiving course and contrary to what feels natural to me when you're up against a stacked field, racing from the front isn't always the best strategy."
The Balboa Park course is perhaps a model having a stong likeness to Leachman's 2024 cross country season. The course is hilly and has several ups and downs. It also has many turns and curves.
Those descriptions are adjectives to exactly what this season has been like for Leachman. It has been a challenge that many student-athletes at her age wouldn't have the maturation to handle the pressure or expectations along with the challenges and tests that she has.
Leachman shared, "it's been hard not knowing where I stand week-to-week, but just remembering my freshman self and the opportunities I didn't have that year and keeping myself grounded and remembering I'm still super blessed to get to be a part of these amazing things."
The South team also had two other Texas girls competing. The UIL 6A two-time champ Macy Wingard (Denton Braswell) finished 10th overall with a time of 18:06 and two-time UIL 3A champ Sophia Bendet (Universal City Randolph) was 11th with a time of 18:08. The three Texans helped the South team beat the other four regions in the overall team race.
The championship season began as a set of unknowns for Leachman, but today, with another national championship on her resume, it is looking like she owns it all in the end.