It is the middle of September and that means the regular season is around the halfway point with district meets beginning in a little under a month. This week the three meets I am going to look at are the Texas A&M High School Invitational, the Cedar Park Invitational and the LCU Chap Invite.
Texas A&M High School Invitational (Boys)
For the second week in a row Bridgeland, #6 in the latest CCCAT 6A rankings, notched an impressive victory over a large field of 23 teams. They put together a dominating performance scoring a total of 23 points. Dean Rosales (15:47.5), Ilyes Benguedda (15:50.1), Patricio Navarro (15:53.5), Luke Willows (16:11.2) and Mark Jeffrey (16:13.7) posted a 27-second 1-5 split which was the best mark of the meet and they also averaged 15:59 for the 5K race which was over 20 seconds faster than the next best team.
Notable Performances
- Private Schools: St. Thomas (second) and St. John's (sixth) finished high in the standings while Isaac Knape (St. Thomas) was the individual champion in 15:08.9 and Ethan Garza (TMI) nabbed the bronze medal in 15:37.1. Knape's time was the third fastest in the state over the weekend.
- College Station: Ranked fourth in 5A, they finished in fourth place overall with a 0:36 1-5 split
- Aledo: Despite being unranked in 5A they continue to knock off higher ranked programs and this week they finished in third place. Thatcher Pettit (16:17.8) and Noah Lay (16:18.5) gave them two top-20 finishers.
- Atascocita and Brandeis: Two 6A programs that flashed a strong top three runners but still need two more scoring runners to really compete.
- Fast Times: Eight runners broke 16 minutes and their were a total of 46 runners under the 17-minute mark.
Texas A&M High School Invitational (Girls)
Another week and another big meet where the South Texas Heat nearly take down all comers despite being a team that consists of only five sisters. The Heat went head-to-head with Bridgeland, the #6 team in 6A and came up three points short in the team standings. Elin Latta won for the second straight week after taking the Southlake Invitational title last week. She enjoyed a comfortable victory in 17:15.4 over the 5K course and it was Iris Latta taking the runner-up spot. Bridgeland's Abigail Seale finished sixth in 18:39, just ahead of Remy Latta (18:40.8) and Reese Latta (18:45.4). Bridgeland's next three runners were Kate Garrison (10th), Brynlee Weston (13th) and Zoe Jaswani (18th). When Carleigh Conger crossed the finish line in 34th place it left the team title up to Addyson Latta of the Heat who ended up only five seconds away from securing the team title.
Notable Performances
- Edmond Memorial: One of the top teams in Oklahoma finished in third place thanks to three runners in the top-20 including Molly Missildine who finished third place in 18:30.4
- Katy: Ranked #9 in 6A, they finished a strong fourth place and received top performances from Vienna Fish (18:54.0) and Lauren Acopa (19:04.7).
- Bridgeland: Ranked #6 in 6A, won the team title despite running without top runner Hope Smith, who did not compete.
- Atascocita: Showed that their top three of Taryn Hogarth (18:35.8), Leah Lamb (19:46.1) and Brielle Hernandez (19:59.2) can match up with just about anyone.
- Prosper Richland: Ranked #10 in 5A, they finished in 10th place, one point behind unranked Aledo.
- There were 13 runners who broke 19 minutes in the race and only Elin and Iris Latta broke 18 minutes.
Cedar Park Invitational (Boys)
One week after finishing second to Vandegrift, Round Rock, the #7 ranked team in 6A, was back in the winner's circle at the Cedar Park Invitational. Leo Brasil led the way with a first place finish just ahead of Antonian's John Boland as the two runners were each credited with identical times of 15:37. Round Rock tallied a winning total of 54 points despite their #1 runner, Andrew Esparza, not competing this week. The pack running of Zeke Guerra, Gavin Shalem, Anthony Dumpit and Jackson Sanchez proved to be more than enough to garner the team title as those four runners all finished within 19s of each other and they all finished between 11th and 17th place.
Notable Performances
- Georgetown East View: They had three top-10 finishers in Kingston Wilson (16:14), Michael Castelo (16:26) and Brayden Lazenby (16:41) en route to a runner-up finish.
- John Boland, Antonian: The multi-time TAPPS gold medalist matched up against some of the top UIL 6A runners in Central Texas and came away with a photo finish for second place.
- The first 16 runners broke 17 minutes including three sophomores; Lincoln Sypniewski (Georgetown), Cyril Girgis (Antonian) and Aiden Rodriquez (Steele).
- District 24-6A: A clear pecking order is starting to form in the district with Austin Vandegrift at the top followed by East View, Cedar Park and Vista Ridge.
Morgan Nelsen, Henderickson
Cedar Park Invitational (Girls)
Hendrickson
senior Morgan Nelsen remained perfect on the season with her fourth victory
taking the Cedar Park Invitational in 18:28. Nelson's performance prevented the
Brasil family from getting a clean sweep as Liz Brasil finished in second place
in 18:49 for Round Rock. Brasil's teammates followed in quick succession with
Ashley Talkington (fourth), Isabella Grace Sanchez (sixth), Lola Cope (ninth),
Emery Gutierrez (10th) and Talia Johnson (12th) giving
the team a miniscule 27 points and a 19:37 average.
Notable Performances
-
The race for second: Georgetown East View,
Georgetown, Cedar Park and Antonian were all in a tight competition for team
runner-up honors with East View taking the silver medal with 120 points while
Georgetown had 123, Cedar Park had 131 and Antonian finished with 137.
-
Justin Peterson, Round Rock McNeil: She was the
third member of the sub-19-minute club.
-
There were eight runners who broke 20 minutes
including three seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman.
-
Antonian: The TAPPS school posted the smallest
1-5 split in the meet with a time of 0:53.
Lubbock Christian University
Chap Invite (Boys)
The
LCU Chap Invite featured top teams from New Mexico and Texas as 42 total teams
took to the starting line. Three of the top four teams hailed from across State
lines with Hobbs (first), Carlsbad (third) and Clovis (fourth) taking home some
major hardware. The top Texas team ended up being Andrews, a UIL 4A program in
Region 1. Andrews finished as the runner-up with 138 points and a 17:44 average
for the 3-mile course. They finished 23 points behind Hobbs.
Notable Performances
-
Noah Holland, West Plains: The senior was 10th
last week at the Coach T-Marcus Invitational and this week he took home top
honors running 15:44.83 on the 3-mile course.
-
Arturo Rodriguez, Lubbock: In his first recorded
race of the season, he notched a strong second place in 16:08.59.
-
Chase Schumm, Ropesville: The 2A runner clocked
an impressive time of 16:45.25 to finish in eighth place.
-
Overall, there were 12 runners who broke 17
minutes and 36 runners ran a pace of faster than six minutes per mile.
-
Crane: The #3 ranked team in 3A finished in
sixth place with 217 points without their top runner, Steven Lozano. Ivan
Martinez led them with a time of 17:24.69 while Luciano Alvarez crossed the
line in 17:44.68.
-
West Plains: The #9 ranked team in 4A finished
in seventh place thanks to a pair of top-10 performances by Noah Holland and
Robert Vartabedian (16:44.92).
LCU Chap Invite (Girls)
The
3200m varsity girls race began with 32 teams on the starting line and ended
with West Plains, the #7 ranked 4A team in the State, winning the title with 75
points. In a similar fashion to the boys meet, there were plenty of teams from
across the border in New Mexico. West Plains used a fabulous 1-5 split of 1:08
to really separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Sophomore Charleigh
Jackson led the team with a fifth place finish in 12:58 while Hannah Smith (13:15)
and Danely Silva (13:29) gave them three runners in the top-12. Greenwood,
another 4A program, finished a solid second place with 122 points and three
runners in the top-20.
Notable Performances
-
Farwell: Ranked #10 in 2A finished in a solid 12th
place overall and they were led by Ava Jaime who grabbed seventh place in
13:12. They were without their #1 runner, Alexis Wade.
-
Emily Gross, Dumas: She won her second straight
individual title running 12:18 after winning last week at the Borger Jeep Webb
Classic.
-
Addison Armstrong, Seminole: One of only three
Texas racers to break 13 minutes in the meet.
-
Jayton: Ranked #7 in 1A finished in 14th
place with a 15:29 average and a 1:39 1-5 split.
- Roby: Ranked #8 in 1A finished in 19th place led by Saylor Smith who finished in 30th place in 14:11.
- Amelia Anderson, Lubbock: She ran in the 3-mile race that only had 29 competitors, but she won in a quality time of 18:04. She won by over two minutes!
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It is the middle of September and that means the regular season is around the halfway point with district meets beginning in a little under a month. This week the three meets I am going to look at are the Texas A&M High School Invitational, the Cedar Park Invitational and the LCU Chap Invite.
Texas A&M High School Invitational (Boys)
For the second week in a row Bridgeland, #6 in the latest CCCAT 6A rankings, notched an impressive victory over a large field of 23 teams. They put together a dominating performance scoring a total of 23 points. Dean Rosales (15:47.5), Ilyes Benguedda (15:50.1), Patricio Navarro (15:53.5), Luke Willows (16:11.2) and Mark Jeffrey (16:13.7) posted a 27-second 1-5 split which was the best mark of the meet and they also averaged 15:59 for the 5K race which was over 20 seconds faster than the next best team.