Formality and Surprises At District 9-5A

William Grundy

UIL 5A - District 09

The UIL 5A-District 09 meet doubled as a résumé-polisher for one of Texas' flagship programs-Lucas Lovejoy, and a pressure test for a deep boys field. Lovejoy's girls (last year's 5A runner-up) came in as the CCCAT No. 1, and they raced like it, rolling a ruthless 18 points with a 19:18 average and a razor-thin 1:21 split. The Leopard front ran from the gun and never gave the race back.

On the boys' side, the defending 5A state champions found themselves in a three-way scrap with McKinney North (CCCAT No. 3) and a surging Prosper Walnut Grove. North's low compression-five in 40 seconds won the day by just two points over Walnut Grove, while Lovejoy's high-powered 1-2 punch still carried the Leopards to third.

Times weren't flashy by this group's absolute ceiling, but the results were loud, all three boys' teams looked like true Region II finalists, and PWG-unranked coming in made a strong case to enter the poll.

Lovejoy's girls were the story from the first kilometer. Senior captain Camryn Benson set the tone at 18:28.80, followed by freshman Emily Armstrong (18:51.60) and veteran Talia Orshalick (19:36.30).

The Melissa duo of Diem Casselberry and Grace Vuong broke up the pack, but Lovejoy simply kept sending scorers: Cailee Horinek (5th), Sofia Dominguez (7th), and Lily Fogle (8th) all finished inside the top eight.

McKinney North methodically stacked their five inside the top 16 to lock up second and push Melissa to third for the final regional berth. Behind the team qualifiers, ten individuals, led by PWG junior Chloe Cudd, punched their tickets to the Region II-5A Championships.

Girls - Individual Results (top 3 teams + 10 individual qualifiers)

PlAthleteSchoolTime
1Camryn BensonLucas Lovejoy18:28.80
2Emily ArmstrongLucas Lovejoy18:51.60
3Talia OrshalickLucas Lovejoy19:36.30
4Diem CasselberryMelissa19:39.30
5Cailee HorinekLucas Lovejoy19:47.90
6Grace VuongMelissa19:48.90
7Sofía DomínguezLucas Lovejoy19:49.90
8Lily FogleLucas Lovejoy19:55.10
9Leila BaileyLucas Lovejoy20:16.90
10Avaya PerkinsMcKinney North20:22.50
11Chloe CuddProsper Walnut Grove20:32.20
12Melissa MomenyiMcKinney North20:43.60
13Marlo BensonMcKinney North20:44.10
14Isabella GarayuaMcKinney North21:09.50
15Haleigh IveyProsper Walnut Grove21:19.40
16Hannah DrueckhammerMcKinney North22:00.10
17Addison SheeranMcKinney North22:07.50
18Sarah LoganProsper Walnut Grove22:08.10
19Natalia QuirozSherman22:09.50
20Payten GutierrezMelissa22:12.40
21Lilah SmithSherman22:29.40
22Evelyne OhlmeyerProsper Walnut Grove22:41.00
23Avalon SitzProsper Walnut Grove22:50.40
24Allison SuttonProsper Walnut Grove22:55.60
25Paige JessenMelissa23:02.50
26


Vidhi Bhardwaj



McKinney North


23:20.80
27Emily SalazarSherman23:26.40
29Marisol CastanedaSherman24:08.90

Girls team takeaways:

  • Lovejoy (18 pts) was surgical: 19:18 avg, 1:21 split-title form.

  • McKinney North (65) leaned on depth: 20:59 avg, 1:37 split-high floor at regionals.

  • Melissa (83) grabbed third: 21:44 avg, 4:19 split-top-two duo plus enough support to advance. PWG narrowly missed but qualified an army of individuals; Sherman moved four in the top-29, two among the individual qualifiers.

Girls - Team Scores & Splits

PlTeamPtsTeam Avg1-5 Split
1Lucas Lovejoy1819:181:21
2McKinney North6520:591:37
3Melissa8321:444:19
4Prosper Walnut Grove8921:542:18
5Sherman12823:363:40
6Anna17427:054:26


On the boys' side, the storyline was parity up front and compression deciding the trophy. McKinney North, currently No. 3 in the CCCAT poll, won by two points over PWG thanks to a ruthless 1-5 of 16:40/16:41/16:59/17:15/17:20 for a 16:59 average and a 0:40 split.

Prosper Walnut Grove matched North's punch with podium finishes from Jaxson Hart (3rd) and Andrew Miles (4th) and landed five in before 17:48 for a 17:04 average, an outing that should put them on the statewide radar. Lovejoy (CCCAT No. 4) went 1-2 behind Tristan Arceneau and Joseph Reid and still took third despite a wider 2:09 gap; the Leopards' ceiling remains obvious as their 3-5 tighten for Region II.

Boys - Individual Results

PlAthleteSchoolGradeTime
1Tristan ArceneauLucas Lovejoy1115:56.70
2Joseph ReidLucas Lovejoy1216:12.90
3Jaxson HartProsper Walnut Grove1116:31.20
4Andrew MilesProsper Walnut Grove1116:35.80
5Rhett HulinMcKinney North1116:40.00
6Aiden TrustyMcKinney North1216:41.00
7Elijah TrustyMcKinney North1216:59.50
8Christopher Riley CaseProsper Walnut Grove1017:11.70
9Drew HansenMcKinney North1217:15.00
10Chance TownsendProsper Walnut Grove1117:17.70
11Evan Santa MariaMcKinney North1117:20.60
12Miguel MataMcKinney North917:22.30
13Arjun SharmaLucas Lovejoy1217:23.90
14Adam RogersLucas Lovejoy1217:42.40
15Aaron VelazquezGreenville1217:46.80
16Nathan WrenProsper Walnut Grove1017:47.10
17Reef RevellLucas Lovejoy1118:06.40
18Carter EwingLucas Lovejoy1118:14.90
19Jaheim RileyAnna1218:15.70
20Britton BottomsMelissa1218:35.10

Boys - Team Scores, Averages & Splits

PlTeamPtsTeam Avg1-5 Split
1McKinney North3816:590:40
2Prosper Walnut Grove4017:041:15
3Lucas Lovejoy4617:042:09
4Sherman12519:240:28
5Melissa15119:512:46
6Denison15619:450:15
7Anna16719:482:40


Bottom line:

Lovejoy's girls looked every bit the 5A No. 1. The boys' outcome confirmed McKinney North's championship profile, revealed Walnut Grove as a real player, and showed why Lovejoy remains dangerous when their back end closes up. Region II just got even more interesting.