As the 2025 cross country season approaches, it brings a familiar cycle seen each fall-graduated seniors moving on to the next stage of their lives and teams working to rebuild and replace key scorers in their top seven. But this year comes with added intrigue as a wave of emerging young talent looks to make its mark-some stepping into varsity competition for the first time, others returning after gaining valuable experience during last year's cross country and track seasons.
What makes this season especially compelling, though, isn't just the usual turnover or rising stars. It's the absence-and potential return-of one of the sport's biggest names. If you've followed Texas high school cross country for any length of time, you're used to transitions and breakout athletes. But never before have we seen the state's top runner, and a national record-setter, completely miss an entire season like Elizabeth Leachman did this ...
