Texas Girls XC Team Rankings Week 6

Team Rankings

Texas Girls XC Team Rankings

Week 6

The state's top 10 girls cross country programs as of Oct. 12

For the first time this fall, the order didn't change. None of the ten ranked girls teams raced last weekend, so this edition looks back at each team's season to see how it got here and what that says about the regional meets coming up.

Several of these teams have already raced each other. On Sept. 5 at the Southlake 5K XC Invite, Flower Mound, The Woodlands, Southlake Carroll, Lucas Lovejoy, and Northwest Nelson all ran in the same Elite race, and the last three finished within one point of each other. That race is the reference point for a lot of what follows.

District meets are Oct. 14-16. The 6A regionals start Monday, Oct. 26, and the 6A state meet is Friday, Nov. 6, in Round Rock. Region I is the toughest. Carroll, Keller, Northwest Nelson, Flower Mound, and El Paso Eastwood are all there, competing for four state spots, and the first three also share District 4-6A. The Woodlands and Bridgeland are both in Region II. Vandegrift is the only ranked team in Region IV. Highland Park and Lovejoy compete in 5A, which runs state on Saturday, Nov. 7.

No. 1

Dallas Highland Park

No. 1 Dallas Highland Park (Highland Park, TX) Prev. No. 1 - No change

Analysis: Highland Park has won three of its four races. On Sept. 5, it won the Coach T - Marcus Invitational Elite race by 49 points. A week later at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede, it lost to Keller by four points. It hasn't lost since, winning the HOKA McNeil Gold by seven over Flower Mound and the Byron Nelson Invitational by 47. One thing stands out: Highland Park's only loss came on the one day Adelaide Wortman (So.) didn't run.

Wortman and Ryan Sontag (Sr.) have finished side by side all season. They were one second apart at Marcus, 3.4 seconds at McNeil, and 1.1 seconds at Byron Nelson. The fifth runner hasn't changed much either. Anne Cooper (Sr.) ran 19:44 at Marcus and 19:54 at Boyd, and freshman Orsella Hooks ran 19:45.2 at Byron Nelson. The front of the lineup has gotten better, and the back has provided a very consistent floor at around 19:45.

On the 5A side, Lovejoy is the comparison that matters, and the two teams haven't raced. They have one common opponent. Highland Park beat Northwest Nelson by 47 at Byron Nelson. Lovejoy tied Nelson at Southlake and beat it by two at the Byron Nelson Last Minute meet. That favors Highland Park clearly. 

No. 2

Carroll High School

No. 2 Carroll High School (Southlake, TX) Prev. No. 2 - No change

Analysis: Carroll was fourth at its own Southlake meet in September, without its top runner, and has climbed steadily since. Without Abigail Perez, the Dragons finished 66 points behind Flower Mound and one point ahead of Northwest Nelson. At Woodbridge, they were 23rd out of 36 teams in the Sweepstakes. At the Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 3, they were third out of 49.

The steady part of Carroll's lineup is the group behind the front two. At Southlake, Grace McIlvain (Sr.) led a five-runner spread of 44 seconds. At Chile Pepper, Landry Lambert (Sr.), Megan Bergman (Sr.), and Nora Farden (So.) finished 79th, 84th, and 92nd, six seconds apart. With Perez back up front, the result has improved. Carroll's spread has stayed between 1:12 and 1:17 in both of its big meets.

District 4-6A comes first. Carroll edged Nelson by one point in September, and Keller is the third-ranked team in that district. Then comes Region I, where Flower Mound's 66-point win at Southlake is the result Carroll will get asked about, even though Perez didn't run. Carroll is ranked ahead of Flower Mound because of what they have done since. The regional meet will decide whether that's right.

No. 3

Flower Mound

No. 3 Flower Mound (Flower Mound, TX) Prev. No. 3 - No change

Analysis: The only race Flower Mound has won this season was its first one. At Southlake on Sept. 5, the Jaguars scored 45 points and beat The Woodlands by 34, Carroll by 66, and Lovejoy and Nelson by 67. Liana Cluley-Garza (Sr.) was second in 17:29.9, and Eliana Rivera (Sr.) was fourth, 22.5 seconds behind her.

Flower Mound's case for a Region I spot is still better than most, with the head-to-head wins over Carroll and Nelson in September and a seven-point loss to Highland Park. But all of those results are three to five weeks old. The Southlake lineup, with Rivera within 25 seconds and the third through fifth runners in the teens, would be a contender for the region title.

No. 4

The Woodlands

No. 4 The Woodlands (The Woodlands, TX) Prev. No. 4 - No change

Analysis: The Highlanders were third at Southlake with 79 points. At the Woodbridge Sweepstakes in California, they placed 21st out of 36, against a national field. Then they won the Nike South by 22 points over Vandegrift. The back of the lineup is a big part of why.

Naomi Weller (Sr.) has been the No. 1 runner all season, finishing fifth at Southlake, 37th in the Woodbridge Sweepstakes, and third at the Nike South. Behind her, freshman Emma Harder went from 18:55.5 at Southlake to 18:41.0 at the Nike South, and Kaitlin Delzer (So.) took over a fifth spot that cost them points at Woodbridge. The spread went from 2:05.3 in California to 1:34.3 a week later.

The Woodlands and Bridgeland share Region II and haven't raced each other. The closest comparison is Klein Oak. Bridgeland lost to Klein Oak by 14 points on Sept. 5 with only part of its lineup. Bridgeland has the traditionally stronger frontrunner in Hope Smith, but The Woodlands has more depth. Both should finish in the top four. The region title and who takes it home affects the outlook of the race in Round Rock is the real question.

No. 5

Lucas Lovejoy

No. 5 Lucas Lovejoy (Lucas, TX) Prev. No. 5 - No change

Analysis: Through the first half of September, Lovejoy didn't look like a top-five team. The Leopards tied Nelson at 112 points at Southlake and placed fifth on the tiebreaker. Two weeks later, they were third at their own Fall Festival, behind Bridgeland and New Braunfels. Since then, they've won twice: the Cowboy Jamboree in Oklahoma by seven points and the Byron Nelson Last Minute meet by two.

Emily Armstrong (So.) has improved steadily, from 13th at Southlake in 18:35.6 to third at the Cowboy Jamboree to second at the Last Minute meet in 18:26.1. The bigger change has come from freshman Bronwyn Vaughan. She was Lovejoy's sixth runner at Southlake and its third scorer by October. She went from 33rd to eighth.

Lovejoy doesn't have one standout result. What it has is a steady trend and the tightest spread of any ranked team in its last race, 43.4 seconds. The Leopards beat Nelson by two points in their last meeting, while Highland Park beat Nelson by 47 in its last meeting. Lovejoy needs a big race from Armstrong to close that gap on Highland Park in 5A.

No. 6

Bridgeland

No. 6 Bridgeland (Cypress, TX) Prev. No. 6 - No change

Analysis: 3:38. 2:27.7. 1:30.6. Bridgeland's spread from first to fifth has dropped by about a minute in each of its three big races. At the Region III Preview in Huntsville on Sept. 5, Hope Smith (Sr.) won in 17:26.5, but the next Bridgeland runner was 11th, more than two minutes behind, and the Bears finished second to Klein Oak. Three of the runners who scored for Bridgeland at Gans Creek weren't in that lineup.

Once the full group raced together, things changed quickly. Smith won the Lovejoy Fall Festival in 16:46.2, and Bridgeland won the team title. At Gans Creek, Abigail Seale (Sr.) finished 45.7 seconds behind Smith. Freshman Zoe Jaswani, who was Bridgeland's second runner in Huntsville, finished third, with Weston and Garrison within 14 seconds of her. Bridgeland was third out of more than 30 teams.

Bridgeland has improved as much as any team in these rankings, and it's improving at the right time for a Region II matchup with The Woodlands. Smith gives Bridgeland an advantage up front that few teams can match. Against The Woodlands' depth, Bridgeland needs its spread to shrink again, from 1:30 to the mid-1:10s. Based on how the season has gone, that's realistic.

No. 7

Keller

No. 7 Keller (Keller, TX) Prev. No. 7 - No change

Analysis: Keller beat Highland Park once this season, 53-57 at the Boyd Bronco Stampede on Sept. 12. HP was without Wortman that day, but the result still counts. A week later at McNeil, the full Highland Park lineup won by 17 points, and Keller was third behind Flower Mound. On Oct. 3, Keller won the Reunion Run by placing its top five in the top seven.

Sarah Darnell (Jr.) and freshman Emma Gibson have both gotten faster each race. Darnell ran 18:16 at Boyd, 18:12.2 at McNeil, and 17:59.5 in Decatur. Gibson ran 18:57, then 18:47.7, then 18:23.2. Those were different courses, but the trend is consistent. Julia Graves (Jr.) has been the steady third runner. The fourth and fifth spots have changed among Katherine Wander (So.), Quinn Boneau (Sr.), and Yumi DeSaram (Sr.).

That fourth-and-fifth question decides District 4-6A, where Carroll, Keller, and Nelson are competing for three regional spots. Keller and Nelson haven't raced each other. Keller's top three have finished higher than Nelson's all season. But Nelson's pack was within 33 seconds at Byron Nelson. 

No. 8

Northwest Nelson

No. 8 Northwest Nelson (Trophy Club, TX) Prev. No. 8 - No change

Analysis: Nelson has come within two points of taking down a ranked team twice. At Southlake on Sept. 5, it scored 112, one behind Carroll and tied with Lovejoy. At the Byron Nelson Last Minute meet on Oct. 3, it lost to Lovejoy 38-36. Apart from a 47-point loss to Highland Park, Nelson has been close to every ranked team it has raced, but it hasn't beaten one yet.

How the lineup came together explains that. At Southlake, Elena Sather (Sr.) and Lyla Calaway (So.) were ninth and 10th. The next runner was 23rd, and the spread was 1:35.3. At the Byron Nelson Invitational without Sather, Madison Benton (So.), freshman Cheryl Bor, and Audrey Pavlicek (Jr.) led a pack that finished within 33 seconds. The Last Minute meet put the two together, with Sather third and Pavlicek, Benton, and Bor all in the top nine, and the spread dropped to 1:00.

District 4-6A will tell us the most. Nelson lost to Carroll by one point when Carroll was missing its top runner, and it has never raced Keller. Nelson needs to finish third or better against Carroll and Keller to reach Lubbock. 

No. 9

Austin Vandegrift

No. 9 Austin Vandegrift (Austin, TX) Prev. No. 9 - No change

Analysis: Caroline Krupa has been Vandegrift's top runner all season. She was second in the Marcus Elite race on Sept. 5 in 17:41, ninth in the Woodbridge Rated race, and second at Nike South in 17:52.9. The rest of the lineup has changed more. At Marcus, the fourth and fifth scorers were Morgan Nguyen and Olivia Mason, in 71st and 75th. By Nike South, sophomores Zofie Furmanek and Mary Troska had taken those spots.

That change has moved the team up. Vandegrift was third at Marcus with 170 points, 64 behind Highland Park, with a 2:03 spread. At Nike South, it was second with 107 and a 1:44.2 spread. Freshman Joy Vladimirov has been the second runner in both races and finished 17th and 15th. This young team is getting better each race.

No ranked team has a clearer path in its region. Vandegrift is the only top-ten team in Region IV, and at Nike South it beat its Austin-area rivals: Austin Bowie by 52 points, Round Rock by 75, Westlake by 96, and Lake Travis by 116. Getting through to state looks likely. The real question is whether the gap between Vladimirov and the sophomore pack shrinks enough to compete with the teams ranked ahead of them.

No. 10

El Paso Eastwood

No. 10 El Paso Eastwood (El Paso, TX) Prev. No. 10 - No change

Analysis: In August, Eastwood looked like a complete team. At its own Jim Omohundro Stars & Strides on Aug. 21, the Troopers scored 32 points. Kylie Vega (So.) and Carlee Caraveo (Jr.) went 1-2, and the next three runners, Natalia Gomez (Jr.), Sienna Salas (Jr.), and Ava Ellison (So.), finished eighth, 10th, and 11th, all within eight seconds of each other. El Paso Franklin was 41 points back.

Desert Twilight was a much tougher test. Vega was fifth and Caraveo 14th, with programs from five states in the field. Gomez held up in 35th, but Salas and Ellison, who were within eight seconds of her in August, finished more than 70 seconds behind in Arizona. The spread went from 1:25 to 2:19, and the team finished ninth with 257 points.

Eastwood's Region I case is the hardest to evaluate. The Troopers haven't raced Carroll, Keller, Nelson, or Flower Mound. Their best results came on their home course. Vega and Caraveo are strong candidates for individual state spots, which means that the rest of the team's scorers can secure a team bid with solid showings in Lubbock—something they've proven they're capable of in El Paso.