Texas Girls XC Team Rankings Week 8

Regional week answered several of the season's open questions. Highland Park and Lucas Lovejoy finally raced each other, and Highland Park won. The Woodlands' gap between their top two runners nearly closed. Flower Mound's top two again finished one-two. Bridgeland and Katy Tompkins tied for the Region III title and had to be separated by their sixth runners.

All ten teams in this edition qualified for state. The 6A girls race is Friday, Nov. 6, at 8:15 a.m. at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, and the 5A girls race follows Saturday morning. Katy Tompkins and Katy enter the rankings. Vandegrift and New Braunfels drop out, but both are still headed to Round Rock. Vandegrift finished fourth in Region III, and New Braunfels won 5A Region IV by 46 points.

No. 1

Flower Mound

No. 1 Flower Mound (Flower Mound, TX) Prev. No. 1 - No change

Analysis: Last week's question was whether Flower Mound could run like they did at district once the pressure went up. In Lubbock, their front two did. Adeline Bennett (Sr.) won Region I in 17:31.3, and Liana Cluley-Garza (Sr.) was 3.2 seconds behind her in second. They finished ahead of El Paso Eastwood's Kylie Vega and Carlee Caraveo, a pair that has been near the front of big races all season.

Eliana Rivera (Sr.) was eighth, so Flower Mound had three in the top eight. Jewel Barnes (Jr.) was 22nd, and Allie Driscoll (Jr.) was 30th, and the spread went from 1:06 at district to 1:26.4. Flower Mound still won by 48 points over Keller, and no team in the region was close.

Flower Mound is the favorite to reclaim the 6A title they lost to Bridgeland last year. They have two runners who can contend for the individual title and fairly consistent depth. 

No. 2

Dallas Highland Park

No. 2 Dallas Highland Park (Highland Park, TX) Prev. No. 2 - No change

Analysis: For weeks, the 5A race came down to Highland Park's speed against Lovejoy's depth, and the two teams finally met this week at the 5A Region II meet at Rolling Hills in Fort Worth. Highland Park won 43-52. Adelaide Wortman (So.) and Ryan Sontag (Sr.) finished second and third, a tenth of a second apart in 17:56.9 and 17:57.0. Only Tyler's Amy Vazquez beat them. Finley Heckler (Jr.) was sixth.

That top three won the meet. Highland Park's first three scorers totaled seven points, and Lovejoy's totaled 20. Lovejoy got four of those points back at the back of the lineup, where Paisley Bassett (Jr.) was 13th and freshman Orsella Hooks 27th. It wasn't nearly enough.

Highland Park will be the 5A favorite in Round Rock and stay No. 2 behind a Flower Mound team that has been the best in the state. They finished fifth at state last year. This year, the Scots have beaten the defending champion head-to-head.

No. 3

The Woodlands

No. 3 The Woodlands (The Woodlands, TX) Prev. No. 4 - Up 1

Analysis: Last week we asked which version of The Woodlands would show up: the team with a 46-second gap between their first and second runners, or the one with a 39-second spread at district. On Monday in Fort Worth, it was the better one. Naomi Weller (Sr.) was second in 17:58.9. Freshman Emma Harder was fifth, only 11.7 seconds behind her.

Emily Kacher (Jr.) was sixth, and Marta Linde Gomez (So.) eighth. The Woodlands had four runners in the top eight, within 17.5 seconds of each other. Leah Griffin (Sr.) closed out the scoring in 20th place, for a spread of just 45.8 seconds. The Woodlands scored 35 points and beat Woodlands College Park by 55.

That's the version of The Woodlands that can contend for the title.

No. 4

Lucas Lovejoy

No. 4 Lucas Lovejoy (Lucas, TX) Prev. No. 5 - Up 1

Analysis: Lovejoy lost by only nine points. Emily Armstrong (So.) was fourth, 4.4 seconds behind Sontag. Leila Thomas (Jr.) was ninth, and Talia Orshalick (Sr.), Lily Stabile (So.), and Lily Fogle (Sr.) finished 12th, 16th, and 20th. The spread was 1:00.5, almost 30 seconds tighter than Highland Park's.

This was one of Lovejoy's best races of the season. Armstrong ran with the leaders. Lovejoy's pack, with freshman Bronwyn Vaughan as the sixth runner in 22nd, held together against the best 5A field they've faced. They move up to No. 4 because of that improvement, even in a loss.

The 5A title will come down to the same matchup at Old Settlers Park.

No. 5

Keller

No. 5 Keller (Keller, TX) Prev. No. 3 - Down 2

Analysis: Keller beat Carroll for the second straight week, this time by 24 points, and finished second in Region I. Sarah Darnell (Jr.) was 12th, freshman Emma Gibson 14th, and Julia Graves (Jr.) 19th, all within 14.5 seconds. Katherine Wander (So.) and Quinn Boneau (Sr.) finished 28th and 44th, for a 59.3-second spread.

The drop to No. 5 isn't because of anything Keller did wrong. The Woodlands and Lovejoy both improved this week.

Keller has depth, and they have beaten Carroll twice. A podium finish in Round Rock is realistic. 

No. 6

Carroll High School

No. 6 Carroll High School (Southlake, TX) Prev. No. 7 - Up 1

Analysis: Carroll qualified for state by two points. They finished third in Region I with 127, two ahead of Northwest Nelson and eight ahead of Eastwood, which missed state as a team. It was close, but Carroll's pack was the tightest of the region's top five teams. Abigail Perez (Sr.) led in 16th, and Grace McIlvain, Megan Bergman, Nora Farden, and Quinn Salstrand finished 27th through 39th. The spread was 36.8 seconds.

Last week we said Carroll's ceiling depended on which team showed up, the one from district or the one from the Chile Pepper Festival. On Monday it was some of each. The pack was even tighter than it was in Arkansas, but Perez, who won district, had an uncharacteristic off day at regionals. 

 In Round Rock, a 36.8-second spread with Perez in the top 10 would make Carroll a podium threat again.

No. 7

Bridgeland

No. 7 Bridgeland (Cypress, TX) Prev. No. 6 - Down 1

Analysis: Hope Smith (Sr.) won Region III in Huntsville in 16:57.8. Bridgeland still came close to losing the region title. The defending champions tied Katy Tompkins at 83 points and won because their sixth runner finished ahead of Tompkins' sixth.

Brynlee Weston (Sr.) was 12th. Freshman Zoe Jaswani, Kate Garrison (Sr.), and freshman Lorna Paul finished 25th, 31st, and 36th. Abigail Seale (Sr.), who was second at district, finished 101st in 20:44.7, but should bounce back at state.

No. 8

Katy Tompkins

No. 8 Katy Tompkins (Katy, TX) New

Analysis: Katy Tompkins scored the same 83 points as the defending state champions and lost only on the sixth-runner tiebreaker. Freshman Bailey Pipes was a huge reason they were in the race. She finished second in 17:04.8, seven seconds behind Hope Smith. 

Sophomore Kendall Maloy was 10th, and Sara Hurtado (Sr.), Emma Arthur (Jr.), and Caroline MacLellan (Sr.) finished 28th, 30th, and 34th, all within 14.1 seconds of each other. The spread was 2:05.9, mostly because of the gap behind Pipes. Tompkins' second through fifth runners finished within 43.2 seconds.

Pipes and Smith will likely race near the front of the 6A field in Round Rock, and the two teams' third through fifth runners may very well finish within a few places of each other again. The rematch at state could be just as close.

No. 9

Northwest Nelson

No. 9 Northwest Nelson (Trophy Club, TX)

Analysis: The fifth runner has been Nelson's weak spot all season. Last week, the fifth scorer finished 40 seconds behind the fourth. On Monday in Lubbock, sophomore Lyla Calaway finished 37th, 1.2 seconds behind Audrey Pavlicek (Jr.). That gap was the difference between going to state and staying home. Nelson took the last Region I spot with 129 points, six ahead of Eastwood.

Elena Sather (Sr.) led in 11th, ahead of every runner from Keller and Carroll. Then Madison Benton (So.), freshman Cheryl Bor, Pavlicek, and Calaway finished 32nd, 33rd, 36th, and 37th, all within 5.3 seconds. The spread was 47.0 seconds, and Nelson finished two points behind Carroll.

Nelson finished sixth at state last year and will be in Round Rock again. With Sather near the front and a pack that tight, they could finish well.

No. 10

Katy

No. 10 Katy (Katy, TX) New

Analysis: Katy took the third state spot in Region III by beating Vandegrift, which was ranked last week, by five points. Gianna Emeish (Sr.) and Vienna Fish (Jr.) finished together in 17th and 18th, and Avery Torrey (Jr.) was 26th. Kinley Skaggs (So.) and Annabelle Hesterman (So.) placed 43rd and 48th. The spread was 56.0 seconds, one of the tighter spreads among the ranked teams.

Katy has been steady all season. They were fifth at the Nike South in September, a point behind Katy Seven Lakes. They don't have a frontrunner like Pipes or Smith. Their first runner was 17th, and that's what will limit them at state. They make the rankings because their pack beat a Vandegrift team that had Caroline Krupa back in the lineup, finishing ninth.

Katy finished third at state last year, and they'll be in the field again. With a top-five finishing in the 17-to-48 range, it's unlikely they'll contend for the title, but they're the kind of team that can pick up places as others fade and surprise some people.