The Lovejoy Cross Country program is one of Lovejoy's most popular and successful sports both at the high school and middle school levels. To date the Leopard harriers have brought home 10 trophies from the UIL State Championships. Their string of District Championships is unparallelled. Over 250 Lovejoy students currently run for the program. Truly a juggernaut.

One of the program's most enduring qualities is the ability of Lovejoy graduates to carry on with the sport well into their later adult years. Running clubs around the country including DFW hold 5K events almost every weekend. Lovejoy itself hosts two such events annually: the LLI's Lovejoy Country Run in the spring, and the LHS senior-sponsored Running Over Depression 5K in the fall.

Lovejoy's Cross Country renown is well known. Every fall LISD hosts the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival which is the high school (and middle school) Cross Country meet of the year in North Texas. CLICK HERE for more information on the meet and its history (which dates back to October 2006 when the first Lovejoy XC meet was held).

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the success of LISD's Cross Country program is by graphs depicting the results LHS has enjoyed at the UIL District, Region and State Championships. (Note that the middle school harriers have been equally successful, but their successes are not (yet) presented here).

Through the Fall 2018 season, the LHS Cross Country team has won 10 trophies at the UIL State Championships which breaks down as follows:

• 5 first place finishes
• 4 second place finishes
• 1 third place finishes

You can view photos of the individual trophies by selecting from the drop down below. The trophies are listed in reverse chronological order. Note that in the early years, UIL handed out plaques instead of trophies.

Select trophy: 2018 Boys 3rd Place 2017 Boys 1st Place 2016 Boys 1st Place 2015 Boys 2nd Place 2013 Boys 2nd Place 2011 Girls 1st Place 2010 Boys 1st Place 2010 Girls 1st Place 2009 Boys 2nd Place 2009 Girls 2nd Place

Coach Logan Kelly researched the top 20 5K finishes for both the boys and girls. Expand below to see the rankings.

In the fall of 2006 when Lovejoy High School first opened its doors, the only two Varsity athletes in any sport were harrier freshmen Elizabeth Gienger (LHS 2010) and Conner Day (LHS 2010). Both are pictured below as seniors with their coveted letter jackets. They were awarded Lovejoy's very first Varsity letters, and it would be several seasons before another Lovejoy student got a Varsity letter for something other than Cross Country.

In their freshman season's they both displayed tremendous courage by mostly running alone in races including at the District Championships. At the start of his sophomore year Conner would be joined by a bevy if talented freshman who worked with him to win Lovejoy's very first District Championship on October 22, 2007. Elizabeth would have to wait until the fall 2008 season before the girls started winning championships. In fact, the Varsity girls did not register a team score (5 or more runners) until the final/District race of her sophomore year in October 2007 when she was already half way through the program.

Conner would go on to the University of Kansas as a 4-year scholarship athlete for the Jayhawks in distance running. Elizabeth attended Loyola University New Orleans where she captained the Cross Country team and still holds the women's record in the Steeplechase.

The inaugural season in the Fall of 2006 had such limited participation — only one LHS runner competed in each of the four District races. So the start of the Fall 2007 season brought a welcome crop of freshmen into the program and the impact was immediate. The Varsity boys (with only 6 runners) won Lovejoy's first ever trophy on Saturday, September 1st at the Plano Invitational — 2nd place! This was the first race in which the Varsity boys had enough runners to register a score.

With the trophy in the photo below are:

• kneeling, left-to-right: Chase MacKey, Collin Cooper, Jake Hervey
• standing, left-to-right: Conner Day, Todd Skorrupa, John Holliman, Coach Greg Christensen

In the first XC season (2006), Elizabeth Gienger (LHS 2010) ran Varsity girls alone. In the second season, she was joined by Angi Sethi (LHS 2011) in the first race and then others by the time District rolled around. But it wasn't until the District Championships that the Varsity girls actually had enough runners (6) to register a team score. While the girls finished 5th out of 7 teams that rainy and dark day, they were finally on the score board and headed for great things the next year. Coach Christensen placed all of his girls in the Varsity race — Lovejoy did not enter any Girls JV runners in the District Championships that fall.

The members of the LHS Varsity girls first team are shown in the photos below (from top left to bottom right): Ellen Paxton (LHS 2011), Natalie Malliet (LHS 2011), Anji Sethi (LHS 2011), Elizabeth Gienger (LHS 2010), Sara Tinch (LHS 2011), and Morgan Thompson (LHS 2010).

In the Fall of 2007, Ellen Paxton (LHS 2011) became Lovejoy's first qualifier for the Region Championships (she beat the Varsity boys by about 40 minutes because the girls races go off first). Ellen performed well at Region finishing 16th overall and nearly qualifying for State.

Nowadays Lovejoy students and athletes regularly compete in UIL state championships. But back in the fall of 2007, a Lovejoy harrier was the first to do so. Then freshman Jake Hervey (LHS 2011) competed at State as an individual qualifier on Saturday, November 10th. In those days, the individual qualifiers had to finish in the top 10 at Region regardless of other runners ahead of them on teams that had qualified.

The boys Varsity had won District that year besting both Frisco Wakeland and Frisco Liberty. And while the Varsity came in 5th at Region and missed qualifying for State (only the top 3 teams qualified for State in those days), Jake finished 10th overall in 16:35.3. At State he finished 27th out of 106 runners in 17:34.30.

In the photo below on the left, Jake approaches the finish line at State. The photo on the right taken after the race is of Jake being held by his Varsity teammates who made the trip down to Round Rock to support him (they contemplated throwing Jake in the Lake, but thought better of it).

Lovejoy XC accomplished an incredible feat in the Fall 2010 season by winning both the girls and the boys UIL State XC Championships.

In the fall of 1975, the UIL added Girls Cross Country to its list of sports creating the first opportunities for a single Texas UIL high school to win both the boys and girls State XC Championships in the same season. At that time UIL had only an A and a B conference. Today that has been increased to six conferences — 1A through 6A — for XC.

So since the fall of 1975, there have been 198 opportunities for a single high school to win both UIL State XC Championships. Yet only 11 high schools have won both the boys and the girls XC State Championships in the same season. Three high school have done it multiple times. Here's the list of those select few.

	school	year	conf
1.	Humble Kingwood	2002	5A
		2001	5A
		1997	5A
		1995	5A
		1994	5A
2.	Southlake Carroll	2019	6A
		2013	5A
		2012	5A
		2011	5A
3.	Sundown	2016	2A
		2008	1A
		2005	1A
4.	Cumby Miller Grove	2019	1A
4.	Lovejoy	2010	3A
5.	The Woodlands	2008	5A
6.	Decatur	2005	3A
7.	Iraan	2002	1A
8.	Rocksprings	1996	1A
9.	Canyon	1993	3A
10.	Canyon	1989	5A
11.	A&M Consolidated	1984	4A

Katie Ruhala (LHS 2013) is often mentioned as one of Lovejoy's exemplary distance runners. While true, this understates her accomplishments. Simply put, Katie is Lovejoy's most decorated athlete in any sport, and it's difficult to imagine that any future Leopard will ever match her.

Expand below to see Katie's list of UIL distance running accomplishments while a student at LHS.