800m

• JV Girls: Making her racing debut in impressive style was Freshman Morgan Brown. She and Hallie Fischer went out stride for stride through the whole race as Hallie finished with a 2:48 (1:23/1:25) to Morgan's 2:49 (1:23/1:26). Camille Hendrix was under the 3:00 mark as well at 2:59 (1:24/1:35).
• JV Boys: Josh Luck continues to burn the track up with yet another big PR for him. In the 800m big drops are hard to get but his race last night was a :02 second drop from last weekend with another win ... (:57/1:10) for a 2:07 finish. Kerry Joiner is racing himself into shape by going out quickly in (1:01/1:18) for a 2:19.
• Var Girls: Carson Hockersmith as a Freshman, after last night is leading the Region in the 800m. She went out more aggressively last night with splits of (1:06/1:13) for a 2:19 finish. Her first split is where she needs to be right now and as the season progresses, she will follow up with a lower 2nd split) She was caught just steps before the finish ... Madison Sutter also ran very well coming through her splits at (1:15/1:21) for a 2:36.
• Var Boys: Hunter Joiner has thrown his name into the mix for a spot at the District meet by running a very tough 2:02 (1:00/1:02) Noah Landguth was by his side with a 2:03 (:59/1:04) and Christian Sutter had another PR in 2:05 (1:00/1:05).

1600m

At this point in the meet the winds/rain picked up noticeably so I put my split sheet away ... but the racing was great!!!

• JV Girls: Evie McGowan had another strong outing getting her mile back down where it should be, finishing 4th in 6:07. I feel at the District meet if not Prosper after Spring Break, she will be under 6:00. Emma Satterwhite followed her in at a big PR of 6:42.
• JV Boys: The Sweep Season of 1-3 came to an end, but the season of being undefeated continues for the JV guys. Freshman Brett Pedersen broke the 4:50 barrier at 4:49 and closely in at 4:53 was Soph Sunny D ... these 2 guys are well on their way to making their mark on the Lovejoy Distance team for the next 3 years. Senior Brock Bittner followed up the scoring with a 4th place finish with a very gutty 5:00.
• Var Girls: Ariaan coming back after her 3200 had a very good outing. She rallied over the last 400m to overtake 2 Prosper girls who came to the meet to race us. It was good to see her be able to shift to that extra gear. Madison Sutter had a very good race also coming in just behind the Prosper duo at 5:35. Emily Gueller capped her night off with a huge PR going under the 6:00 mark for the first time at 5:42.
• Var Boys: The last race of the evening for the distance guys saw Hunter and Ryan Spruell teeing it up. Both the guys ran well after impressive earlier races. Ryan followed Hunter in closely at the finish for 4:47/4:48.

Exclamation Point

If the racing yesterday wasn't good enough, we did a time trial today for those who didn't race yesterday adding 2 more to our sub 5:00 group ... With several PRs set along the way.

• Jacob Myers/4:37*
• Preston Tiff/4:53*
• Michael OBrien/4:59*
• Eli Ruhala/5:01*
• Chayden Dubois/5:14*
• Colin Jones/5:26
• Parker Nolan/5:46
• Brent Hendrix/5:52*
• Jason Abernathy/5:55*
• Chris Dunn/5:57*
• Katherine Powell/6:36

*=PR

It was really cool to see the guys take this as seriously as they did and hammer home a great exclamation point to the week ... I'm very proud of them ...

I was very pleased with the efforts and PRs being set by most of the team. We have to continue getting in work over the break. Enjoy the time off next week and if traveling be safe,

Greg

I can not say enough to all of the parents and volunteers that helped make our home meet a great success. I know it was great for all of the athletes, parents, and coaches. I heard numerous coaches saying that we were doing a great job. Our starter Chuck Estill and Timer Rick Watkins both emailed me saying that it was a great meet and they were very impressed with the parent help that we had for the meet. It takes a lot of help and planning to conduct a meet of that quality so again I thank everyone for their support.

One of the biggest highlights of the meet was the first every 2000M steeplechase. All athletes congregated towards the steeple pit to watch this exciting event. This event would not have been possible without the support of our Lovejoy administration: Ted Moore, Dennis Womack, and Jim Bob Puckett for having faith in the Steeple Chase. Bob Brands, Jeff Joiner (and boys), Frank Cnossen, Darren Printz for their countless hours of work and sacrifices made in barrier construction and laying down the approach/runout. We are very thankful for their time and dedication to this new event at Lovejoy!

Logan Kelly

Here are race results:

• Varsity
• JV

Race recap:

Being the clerk I wasn't able to see a lot of the racing like I would've liked to ... But:

• Grant Tiff setting a NATIONAL leading time in the steeple of 6:13
• Ryan Brands and Christian Sutter completing the sweep
• Emily Gueller finishing 3rd in the steeple after only working over barriers the day before!!!!
• Josh Luck seeing his relentless hard work pay off cracking 2:10 for a PR in the 800
• Carson Hockersmith continuing to shine in the mid distances
• Ariaan Cnossen in her first race back running 5:34
• JV boys milers continuing their season sweep
• Sunny D and Brett Pedersen setting new PRs in the 3200 ...

An incredible day and one to build on going forward ... this next week we are at Argyle on Thursday for an afternoon/evening meet. The week looks to be a wet one, but at least expected warm ... for the past couple of meets we have been doubling athletes. This week I'm planning on only racing 1 event to get more athletes some action, and to save some juice in the tank for later this spring.

Once again I would like to thank our Lovejoy administration: Ted Moore, Dennis Womack, and Jim Bob Puckett for having faith in the Steeple Chase.

Bob Brands, Jeff Joiner (and boys), Frank Cnossen, Darren Printz for their countless hours of work and sacrifices made in barrier construction and laying down the approach/runout. I'm very grateful.

Greg

Some of the big highlights from the meet for the girls team included freshman Carson Hockersmith breaking the 12 min barrier in the 3200M and again running 5:20 in the 1600M. Juilet Franz placed 5th in a very competitive 300M Hurdle race and 4th overall in the triple jump with a new season PR of 24’ 10.5”. Grace Ridgeway had a HUGE day in pole vault winning the varsity girls division and clearing 10’6”! Majority of our other jumpers also set new PR’s. Riley Gournay placed 7th overall in Varsity Long Jump and Noelle Franz cleared 4’10” in high jump. Bella Gaccione also jumped over 32’ for the first time in triple jump even though they do not have that in the official results. Kassidy Litchenburg won the JV Girls 100M. All of our relay teams improved their times and all handoffs looked much better this week.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns (903-821-8399 Cell).

Logan Kelly

3200m

• Girls JV: We had 2 girls running in their first track meet ever (Autumn Purcell/Emma Satterwhite - both who have enormous potential) and Katelyn Cardwell who in her second 3200m ever has gone under 14:00 @ 13:58 and improved :42 from last week. The girls ran smart moving up mid race and as they mature and get more experience will be big contributors for our team.
• Girls Var: We had 2 girls racing and both had outstanding races. Carson Hockrsmith (fr) ran stride for stride with the leaders until very late and cracked the 12:00 barrier on her first outing (very rare ... Especially from a freshman). Her splits were: 2:48/3:00/3:03/2:57 Emily Gueller ran a smart race by moving mid race and picking off those who went out too fast. She beat all the HP girls (our district next year) and set a new PR for herself at 12:27. Elms splits were: 2:59/3:05/3:09/3:13
• JV Boys: Quickly rounding into a varsity caliber runner for us is Trevor Joiner. He ran very intelligently by again laying off the fast early pace, and moved up late to destroy the field with that patented "Joiner kick". His splits were: 2:34/2:42/2:43/2:30 Freshman Chayden Dubois and soph Eli Ruhala also had exceptional races and both dropped huge PRs for the day. Chaydens 11:09 is very encouraging as he missed a lot of early season work for play practices. 2:45/2:50/2:51/2:43. Eli knocked nearly :30 off his PR from last week at 11:15!!! 2:42/2:51/2:53/2:49.
• Var Boys: I don't know if I would use the term "redemption", but this race felt like it for Will Wise rebounding from last week's 10:38. He ran a great race and now can set his sights on going under 10:00 at our home meet next Saturday. I was very proud of him to make the late race surge he did by going negative splits: 2:25/2:39/2:34/2:24 !!!! Ryan Spruell had a busy day yesterday, as did Bradley Davis (sunny D) Both these guys are in the process of setting themselves up for varsity spots in the fall by having outstanding spring seasons so far. Ryan finished up 6th overall at 10:24 (2:30/2:40/2:44/2:30) and Sunny D was close behind at 10:27 (2:27/2:41/2:43/2:36).

Var boys DMR:

• Noah Landguth set us up nicely with a very strong opening 1200 leg at 3:15 (1:03/1:09/1:03). Bend Miller running the 400 leg gave us just what we needed at :52. Then Ryan Brands on a tender hip flexor gave us a solid effort at 2:04 (1:00/1:04) when he handed off to Grant Tiff. Allen HS at this point had a lead that had I let Grant really cut it loose over the last lap we might have come close to catching him, but with him coming back soon in the open mile I shut him down and he cruised in for 2nd place. 1:05/1:12/1:12/1:16 - 4:40

4x800m

• JV girls: Really just looking to get the girls a speed workout and racing experience which will pay off later, I thought our girls did s good job. Camille Hendrix started us off and after a very aggressive opening lap of 1:13 (there is the experience lesson) she followed it up with at 1:42. I love her desire to compete and race fast. When you're leading off a relay it takes a lot of poise and experience to lay off the fast pace early because you have that feeling that you don't want to let your team mates down. Camille is a huge talent and great races for her are around the corner. Jr Hallie Fischer got the baton and split 1:30/1:36 for a 3:06. Emma and Katelyn from off their 3200's got some needed speed work in at 3:09 for Emma and 3:04 for Katelyn.
• JV boys: Running in the Varsity division, the guys had pretty good splits. Michael Gueller 1:02/1:16 ... Josh Luck 1:04/1:08..Sunny D 1:05/1:12 ... Brock Bittner (our latest sub 5:00 member) 1:08/1:13.
• Var boys: Sr Jacob Myers got us off with an outstanding opening PR leg at 2:02. :57/1:05. Sr Hunter Joiner then followed up with another PR at 2:06!!! Hunter is running very well right now. It is so cool for me to see Srs finish out their Lovejoy careers racing hard. Soph Ryan Spruell got his day started with a solid 2:10 PR 1:01/1:09. With Sr Dane Printz anchoring in with a 2:13 effort at 1:01/1:12. At this point the winds had picked up and Dane was running by himself as the race had spread out, but he did a good job of finishing off the race.

1600m

• JV girls: Camille and Autumn wet doubling back and for Autumn it was her first mile on a track. Autumn came on late very strong during the Cross season for us...and now fresh out from basketball she is getting in work that will benefit her greatly for the upcoming fall. Camille ran close to her PR at 6:38 (1:37/1:41/1:44/1:36). Autumn clocked (1:33/1:32/1:43/1:43)
• Var Girls: Fr Carson Hockersmith is authoring a season so far we haven't seen since Katie Ruhalas days of circling the oval. She ran a very good race against some of the areas top 6a talent. (1:16/1:22/1:27/1:15) was good for 2nd place just being edged in a dual down the stretch by a lean at the line. Sr Madison Sutter should've probably stayed home in bed as she left practice Friday feeling tired/weak. But her strong leadership and team bond brought her to the track. She had good early splits of 1:20/1:32.. But then she said she felt weak all over and finished up at 1:41/1:20 For a 5:58.. She has a pr of 5:35 so we hopefully will see her fresh next weekend. Freshman Evie McGowan is also a talent who will be a big contributor in the future. She ran a 6:28 with splits of 1:23/1:32/1:41/2:08. Another young runner loaded with talent, getting needed racing experience in a Varsity race.
• JV boys: In what is becoming my favorite race to watch, the JV boys once again had their way with the field and comfortably swept the race 1-3. Hunter Joiner had a huge day for us capping it off with a PR of 4:44 having overtaken team mate Christian Sutter on lap 3(1:07/1:13/1:14/1:10) Christian cracked the 4:50 barrier for his first time ( an important separated for good HS milers) at 4:46 (1:06/1:13/1:15/1:12). Freshman Brett Pedersen has become our newest sub 5:00 guy at 4:55!!! He ran an impressive race for a freshman claiming the 3rd spot and completing the sweep (1:09/1:14/1:17/1:15)
• Var Boys: I feel like by late in meets.. The striped uniforms become "targets" for other teams after seeing us dominate most races. In the last distance race of the day that was evident as Allen/Boyd/Rockwall guys went out to the lead quickly and went through an opening lap of 1:02 (4:08 mile pace). Our duo of Grant and Noah held bac and worked their way through the large field of runners patiently and through opening splits of 1:10 were noticeably back in the field. Winds however had picked up and by the 2nd lap our guys were right with the lead group with splits of 1:09/1:10. Then the fun began ... Grant through down a 1:08 split and Noah 1:09 with the two overtaking the field with a Rockwall runner hanging on. Grant put the race away with a final lap at 1:07 and Noah was out dialed down the stretch ending up 3rd at 1:13 for 4:34 for Grant and 4:42 for Noah. The sound the Allen runner made after he crossed the line let me know they were out for us ...

I also want to give an extra note to Ryan Spruell. Late in the meet his was called on to run an 800 and he didn't bat an eye or complain... He managed his day well after his 4x8 and had another solid 800 on the sprint medley at 2:13. One of the cool things about our distance teams is that they embrace racing and can't wait to get on the track for another race.

I also appreciate how they all stay at the meet to support their team mates and learn by watching each other race, how to become better themselves.

All in all a solid day. We will get faster across the board as long as we're doing all the little things to stay healthy. Sleep/diet/stretching-foam rolling. Our home meet will be a lot of fun and once again thank you for all the support. The teams appreciate the vocal support when racing. I can still remember the sound of my moms voice from the stands, no matter how big/small the race ... They can hear you.

Greg

3200m

• JV girls: Katelyn Cardwell was our lone participant, and I was proud of her for toeing the line. She has been sick with bronchitis for the past week which has been improving. It would've been very easy for her to say "not today", but she didn't and had a great race until her condition got the best of her after the 1 mile. For a freshman that shows a lot to me!!!
• Varsity girls: 2 very cool things here.
1. A MAJOR PR set by Emily Gueller going under 13:00 for the first time at 12:44. Coming off anemia last year and regaining strength through the fall, she will continue to get faster as we continue through the season.
2. I didn't even expect Kathryn to compete as she had a band conflict ... But minutes prior to the time for them to start warming up I see her bop out on the infield. I believe that is what sets our athletes apart from others ... Especially as a Senior it would've been very easy for her not to show up. But she hustled over after her band commitments and got her racing season off to a good start.
• JV boys: Possibly the shocker of the meet for me. As I said I learned a lot of the resolve to win. Freshman Brett Pedersen took off from the gun with an opening split of 1:07 (very fast) and from there I was honestly concerned for his safety. He continued to settle in and crank out impressive splits. Gradually closing the gap was sophomore Brad Davis who impresses me each race as they finished 1-2 in 10:27/10:29. Ryan Spruell struggled a bit in the mid section of the race but completed the sweep for Lovejoy with a 10:38!!!! Those are very fast times for guys in JV.
• Varsity boys: Wth the Plano schools and Wylie's, I thought this was going to be a very fun race. Grant Tiff basically led the whole way until being overtaken with a lap to go. Ryan Brands followed in a close third until late as well. Will Wise struggled yesterday, but he will rebound next week. Grant's 9:47 is a nice PR for him to start off his season. Ryan had a PR as well with 10:00 ... 10:38 for Will. We went 2/4 in a very competitive meet for distance schools.

800s

• JV girls: Sophia DesJardines turned in a very respectable opening lap at 1:13 ... As the season advances she will be able to hang on to that and be in the 2:20's. She finished yesterday at 2:36 followed up by Freshman Gracie Turner in 2:48 and Hallie Fischer at 2:56.
• Varsity girls: I knew going into this race we were going to see something special because in a time trial in Dec Carson/Ariaan both broke the school record. Ariaan sat out this week due to a quad strain, and Shaelyn Ballard, battling one as well raced to a 2:40 after her opening split of 1:13 ... but yesterday was Freshman Carson Hockersmiths day as she st a new school record (I haven't seen the official time yet but I believe it was 2:21-22) breaking the previous record by Riley Goodell at 2:25. Carson opened up with a 1:06 (a little faster than we wanted) and followed it up with a second lap of 1:13-14. As we go further into the season she will be able to follow up that opener and be well under 2:20 !!!!
• JV boys: We had an interesting mix of racers. Madison's brother Christian, Preston Tiff, and Brett Pedersen returning back from the 3200m. Christian opened up with a 1:03 first quarter and behind him at 1:04 Brett, and 1:05 Preston. Christian then got to work and had a very good second loop at 1:06, Preston 1:08, and Brett following in at 1:12 ... The guys going 2:09 (2-second pr for Christian), 2:13 for Preston-PR, and a 2:16 for Brett capping off a good day for the frosh ...
• Varsity boys: Jacob Myers showed a lot of Senior racing savvy and strength along with Seniors Noah Landguth and Dane Printz. After openers of :59 for Jacob/1:00 for Dane/1:01 for Noah they all relied on their strength and followed up with 1:04 for Myers/1:02 for Landuth/1:06 for Printz. A PR for Jacob. We will need to get our first laps down in the :56 range going forward to have a chance of going under 2:00 and advancing from District. But I was very pleased with these Seniors and how they competed yesterday.

1600s:

• JV girls: our trio of freshmen got their Lovejoy careers off in very tough competition. Evie McGowan led the way with a 6:08 PR. Katelyn Cardwell and Camille Hendrix followed her in at 6:25 for Katelyn (A very good day of doubling for a fresh) and 6:33 for Camille. We'll be seeing a lot from these 3 later.
• Varsity Girls: Carson and Senior Maddie Sutter (running with a broken wrist) were the leopards on the line. Carson and Madison hung with the lead group through opening splits of 1:15/16, 1:24/1:27, 1:23/1:33 (that's where Maddies arm got the best of her), but Carson finished up with a final lap of 1:17!! Madison turned in a final time of 5:52 ... Carson's 5:20 was good enough for 4th ... As that puts her as Lovejoys 2nd fastest miler behind Katie Ruhala. And she bested one of the areas top runners from The Colony as well.
• JV boys: It has become very fun for me to watch our guys run JV miles because as deep as we are, their times are faster than most varsities. Ryan Spruell led the opening laps with Hunter Joiner and Brock Bittner, both Srs close in tow. With a lap remaining Hunter took over the leading chores and finished with a 4:47 (I believe a PR?) and Ryan close in at 4:50. One of the best moments for me was seeing a Sr crack 5:00 for the first time for Brock.
• Varsity boys: After all the great races ... we had one more show to put on, and our guys didn't disappoint. In his heat Grant was paired up with Wylie's Lee, who was more than happy to let Grant lead hoping to out kick him late. But Grant has found that extra gear. His splits of 1:08/1:11/1:13/1:05 was good for the win ... in the 2nd heat we had Ryan Brands and Noah back in action after his 800 (near PR). Ryan also led the majority of his race closely followed by Noah and a West kid. Splits for Ryan at 1:06/1:11/1:10/1:05 brought him to a very exciting finish as the runner from West passed him late in the race ... But by racing the full 1600m, Ryan retook the lead just before the finish for the win. Noah followed in at 4:39 with splits of 1:08/1:11/1:13/1:07.

All in all a really good start to our season. I was very pleased to see so many of the guys who raced Thursday and got our week off to a great start, at the races yesterday lining the track encouraging their team mates ... Pretty cool stuff ...

Greg

Girls Race:

Ariaan got our day started off as our lone racer in the girls division. We talked earlier in the week regarding her race goals. It is very difficult to have a great race at the State meet on your first trip there. However, with Ariaan's experiences in Championship level tennis, I felt like she wasn't as overwhelmed as others might have been.

She got out aggressively and in a race like that it was important to do so. From there on it was just managing to stay afoot and not fall over others who couldn't. She finished in 48th place and she was able to accomplish a good portion of the goals she had going in to the meet. You can ask her about what her goals were.

I feel very fortunate she came to us this summer to give XC a try. Her passion, work ethic, attitude, and the way she approaches her training will serve her well as we go in to track, and she has the opportunity to run Collegiately.

Boys Race:

It seems like all season long, although for a good portion of it, coaches had us highly ranked. Others didn't seem to take the guys as a serious threat to reach the podium. That all changed drastically yesterday. All the pre-race "chatter" was about Grapevine, Canyon, Wakeland. And rightfully so. But hopefully they know now that anytime Lovejoy is racing in a Championship race ...

When the guys first came into view I saw Grant running in a group with the leaders, and then there was Will, Noah, Cole, Ryan, Hunter all right there within about :20 ... on a course like that, as Noah said in the post-race interview (which by the way I'm very proud of how they handled that ... the best I have seen so far) it was important to get out ahead of the mess and give yourself an opportunity to run.

That race came down purely to who had the heart and the stomach for the fight ... Losing to Wakeland by only 4 points is tough, but Im glad it was they who bested us. They've raced well all season and they are a good group of guys.

If you haven't seen the post race interview Logan has posted it on Lovejoyathletics.com

Jim will have outstanding coverage as well on our booster site Lovejoyxctf.org. harrier/trecho will get you access.

It was great to have Mr Mayfield and Coach Herrema do the medal draping!

The support we had was phenomenal from former runners, current runners who made the trip down, parents, administrators, and people outside the team who respect what we do.

I can't wait to say more at the banquet Thursday.

Run Long Run Happy

Greg

Despite the weather, the Lovejoy XC faithful were out in force today. State is usually a multi-ring circus with deafening crowds, but today's galleries were only one-third of their usual strength and sounded relatively muffled. But the Lovejoy fans were numerous and rowdy. Many thanks to the other team members who were not included on the State squad but nevertheless came down to Round Rock on their own to cheer for Lovejoy's team. A special thanks to the girls who could have excused themselves because only one girl was running. But they came anyway and supported Ariaan and the guys. That's the great team spirit that Lovejoy is known for.

It was also great to have Kendall Joiner ('14), Grant Ballard ('15), and all-world Katie Ruhala ('13) on hand. It was fitting that Grant and Kendall should be there to watch the boys win their first 5A trophy at State since those two led Lovejoy's boys to their first 4A trophy two years ago. Katie led the girls to a 2nd place 3A State finish her freshman year and then to 1st place State 3A finishes her sophomore and junior years before becoming the first Lovejoy girl to run solo her senior year in the State 4A Championship. Special thanks to Kendall who has supported the team all season. We've never had an Alumnus of the Year Award, but Kendall has earned it this fall.

Ariaan Cnossen (20:35.61) made a fine first appearance in the 5A Girls State Championship race finishing 48th out of 151 runners. The muddy course was well suited for ducklings who could patter over the mud. But for gazelles like Ariaan, the course was quicksand. Yet she toughed out a finish that placed her in the top one-third of a very competitive 5A field. An amazing performance for a runner who has never been to State, much less one who hasn't run Lovejoy cross country before. Ariaan started the season at a high level of running proficiency, and her improvement continued to accelerate with every race. She has a very rare combination of excellent physical talent, stature, and competitive mental focus. I think we have yet to see where the limit of her running capabilities may lie. Hopefully she will continue as an NCAA DI collegiate harrier next year.
[ results]

In the 5A Boys State Championship race, Lovejoy's runners put an exclamation point on a marvelous season by earning the Runners' Up trophy, and coming within 5 points of knocking off 1st place Wakeland. More than any previous cross country season, this fall was inundated by statistical and other prognostications attempting to rank the top competitors and predict meet outcomes. The 5A boys race showed that the time and effort might have been better spent on fantasy football picks.

While 93 points seems high, at State where each race features approximately 150 very fast runners, sub-50 scores are unusual. The average of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place scores amongst the 6 races in the more competitive 4A, 5A, and 6A conferences comes out to 68-98-125 for the three podium positions.
[ results]

Lovejoy's hammer, junior Grant Tiff (16:39.81), had a career-defining race finishing 5th overall and securing the 3rd place team point. Success at State starts with a top-5 finish in team scoring. Grant Tiff generated a lot of buzz amongst the DI college coaches scouting the race from the sidelines. He bested all 3 of Wakeland's vaunted top 3, two of whom are seniors and none of whom had top-10 finishes as Grant did. Senior Will Wise (17:13.62) has a reputation for coming up big in big races and does what the team needs him to do. Today a solid #2 finish was paramount, and he delivered by coming in 11th in team scoring and 19th overall. I have never understood the nickname "Wild Will" — it doesn't seem to fit his quiet, gentlemanly demeanor. Every Lovejoy senior should get to enjoy a final race like Will had today, but no senior ever deserved it more.

Freshman Cole Hinton (17:27.34) really put Lovejoy in position for a podium spot by coming in #3 for Lovejoy in 20th place in team scoring (34th overall). If Carson Hockersmith had the best freshman season for the girls since Katie Ruhala, then Cole easily had the best freshman season for the boys since Jake Hervey's Fall 2007 season. Cole's freshman achievements are arguably better than Jake's: Cole finished 34th at State in a 5A Championship race while Jake finished 27th at State in a 3A Championship race. We'll leave it for the readers to decide for themselves. Cole was the race's top freshman finisher — the other freshmen came in 51st, 58th, 73rd, 86th, 116th, 124th, and 130th. In boys cross country, age and experience are the proven recipe for success, but Cole clearly bucks that trend.

The #4 and #5 finishers for every top contender at State are the make-or-break positions. After the #3s finish, it's gut-check time for the coaches. How incredibly reassuring for Lovejoy's coaches to have runners like senior Noah Landguth and sophomore Ryan Brands filling those roles today. Noah (17:36.19) finished 27th in team scoring (42nd overall) while Ryan (17:45.46) closed out the scoring at 32nd in team scoring (49th overall). This put all of Lovejoy's scoring runners in the top one-third of the race, and the team in contention for the podium and hardware. And the seasoned eye knew it as Ryan crossed the finish line — this race was one for the ages in the history of Lovejoy cross country. Twenty years from now sitting on his cabin porch somewhere in the mountains near Taos NM, Coach C will still be pointing back on the significance of this one.

Noah Landguth has been an uber staple of Lovejoy cross country for five seasons now. He has led at every level with unveering consistency. He is quite simply Lovejoy cross country's best team leader in program history. XC leadership isn't a matter of finishing 1st in races, but rather doing what's necessary to help the team finish 1st in races. Noah sets such a strong example for our diverse XC community which includes 70 high school and 130 middle school runners. Noah hasn't been smiling a lot since September 26th, but he was uncontrollably smiling after today's races, which was nice to see. And who has earned the right to smile more than Noah? (Coaches excepted).

Lovejoy seniors Hunter Joiner (18:13.78) and Jacob Myers (19:12.48) also concluded their high school XC careers today. They left nothing undone and deservedly share in the team's successes this fall. Hunter bore the pressure of following in brother Kendall's footsteps, and knuckled down and got it done. Jacob is one of the team's most beloved members, and his steadying influence will be hard to replace.

Other Lovejoy boys effectively concluded their high school XC running today including Brock Bittner, Kerry Joiner, Dane Printz, and John Lange. These boys would have started Varsity at the other schools in our District. Not to be selfish, but we're awfully glad they were Lovejoy harriers.

Note that while the runners times have been included in this story, they can't effectively be compared to times from other meets since today's muddy course slowed things down so much. For example, Grant Tiff's 16:39.81 could have fallen under 16 minutes under more ideal conditions, and Ariaan Cnossen was easily in line for a sub-19:20 time assuming no mud.

Taking a look at some other boys teams of interest, McKinney North fell from their tie with Lovejoy at Region down to last (16th) place at State. Grapevine was every prognosticators favorite to win the 5A boys race, but finished a distant 3rd with 123 points and almost got beat by College Station (126 points) for the final podium spot. Houston Stratford finished 6th (162 points) and The Colony 7th (194 points). The boys 5A individual title was won by Frisco Independence's Carter Blunt (as expected). No runner since Craig Lutz has so captivated Texas XC spectators. For the girls, it was nice to see former Lovejoy Assistant Coach Josh Allen and his Prosper girls finish in 3rd place, but sad to see the vaunted Forney girls end up in 7th. McKinney North's girls were 15th and Ariaan finished ahead of all of North's girls. Not much celebrating for the Bulldogs on this day.

Today's result was so welcome for Lovejoy relative to last year. Question: was the 2014 season's 13th place boys finish at State the future of Lovejoy cross country at the 5A level, or was it an aberration? Just like this year, expectations in 2014 were high, which left some queasy as 2015 State approached. This wasn't helped when one ranking statistically predicted Lovejoy to finish in 11th place at State. But today's results — including Ariaan's performance — firmly establish Lovejoy as one of the premier programs in Texas high school cross country at any level.

After the 2014 season, Lovejoy's coaches took some appropriate corrective actions, but made no major overhauls, just a few tweaks. The most notable change was not to compete at any meets for the 2.5 weeks before the start of Championship season. Admittedly hindsight is 20-20, but it worked.

In 10 seasons of Lovejoy cross country, this was the finest coaching performance yet. Starting with the girls, Lovejoy's top five finishers at Region did not even run Varsity at Region in 2014. Yet the 2015 girls had a solid year and ran a quality race at Region and sent a rookie runner to State who did Lovejoy proud. On the boys side, the dynamics could not have been more different. The coaches had to manage an unprecedented depth of talent, which was unparalleled across other Texas high schools. Even though The Woodlands scored a crazy 24 points in winning today's 6A Boys Championship race, I think Lovejoy could best them in a 15-runner format. But back to reality — when Championship season rolled around, which 7 boys would the Lovejoy coaches pick to represent the team? In going with seniors and State experience, who can argue with the boys' 2nd place finish at State?

Lovejoy cross country is graduating its largest-ever senior class, which begs the question: who will be left to run next fall. Not a problem. First, our coaches are so inventive that they could field a competitive team even if all 70 of the runners were graduating. Second, and more importantly, there's tremendous Varsity depth returning and coming up through the ranks. For the girls, Carson Hockersmith, Hallie Fischer and Shaelyn Ballard accompanied by Emily Guellar, Sophie DesJardins, Bella Gaccione, Summer George, Emma Satterwhite, Gracie Turner, Autumn Purcell, etc. make up a formidable Varsity squad. And many of the 60 WSMS girls will be joining the high school ranks next fall. As for the boys, they may end up being better than the 2015 edition: Cole Hinton, Ryan Brands, Ryan Spruell, Nate Hartter, Christian Sutter, Brett Pederson, William Godfrey, Preston Tiff, Mr Bradley Davis, Josh Luck, Michael O'Brien ... the list goes on. And many of the 85+ WSMS boys running XC this year will be freshmen next fall. I predict that in 2016, the coaches will need an extra bus to transport the high school runners to meets. The 2016 season will be at least as exciting as the 2015 season. Go Leopards!

[Note: if you son or daughter was not mentioned, it's purely an oversight — all will get a chance to prove themselves as Varsity material next fall]

Click here for the meet photo album. All the photos have been uploaded.

Click here for the meet photo album. All the photos have been uploaded.

Boys Race:

The boys were led by Grant Tiff as a 9th place finisher. Will Wise, Hunter Joiner, and Cole Hinton had good races as well ... but from there we were uncharacteristically off in rounding out our top 7 with a split of 1:07 ... about :30 slower than where it has been. We will get that corrected and will have a better team race in Round Rock.

For a more detailed account of the racing please see:

• lovejoyxctf.org (harrier/trecho)
• lovejoyathletics.com

I'm very proud of both teams ... not very many schools can claim state participants so many years straight.

Workouts for the Week:

• Tuesday: Recovery
• Wednesday: Spirited recovery
  -Wednesday night tutorials
• Thursday: am weights/400's-200's
• Friday: Recovery
• Saturday : Threshold 7:00am at Celebration
• Sunday: 3/4 long run

Senior Recognition:

Friday night is Senior night at the LHS football game. Any Seniors wishing to participate need to get the forms to me today so I can get them submitted to Linda Green asap.

Run Happy Run Long

Greg

In attendance were LISD AD Jim Bob Puckett and a camera-toting Mrs. Puckett, as well as Lovejoy's first Varsity girl runner and captain, Elizabeth Gienger (LHS class of 2010) and her mother Nancy.

Overall the Varsity Girls put in a good effort, but finished 9th and did not qualify for a trip to the State championships. The Lady Leopard's finished in order 18-39-44-50-74-80-86 with a split time of 2:21.0. The top three teams qualifying for state — Forney, The Colony, and Prosper — were in a real dogfight for 1st place with the score settling at 68-72-83. They'll be fun to watch at State. McKinney North finished 4th with 113 points and also qualified for State. If you look at the chart above (click the chart for an enlargement) you can see that these top 4 teams truly earned their trip to State. It also means that no single Lovejoy girl could have changed the outcome even by finishing 1st overall.

For Lovejoy, senior Ariaan Cnossen continued her season-long ascent finishing #1 for Lovejoy in 19:25.11 and earning a trip to State as an individual competitor. She finished 18th out of 181 finshers. On September 19th (six weeks ago) Ariaan ran the course at the Gerald Richey in 21:03.8. The 1:28.91 difference is a good representation of just how far Ariaan has improved this season. Finishing #2 was freshman Carson Hockersmith (20:22.40). While this may not have been Carson's best race, she has greatly exceeded expectations this fall in turning in the best freshman season since Katie Ruhala. Senior Katie Albers came up big today finishing #3 in 20:44.68 (versus 22:05.1 in September). Katie may be Lovejoy High School's best pure athlete in any sport since Kensey Berry. If only she started running XC in middle school like her sister, Jackie, it's scary to think how much farther she could have taken (and can still take) her running. But we're extremely happy to have had her in the program for the two seasons she did dedicate to XC. Her athleticism will be missed next fall, along with her winning smile. Junior Hallie Fischer stayed on Katie's heels all race and turned in the other uber performance for the girls today finishing #4 in 20:55.78 (versus 23:12.3 in September). Senior Madison "Madi" Sutter closed out the scoring for Lovejoy finishing #5 in 21:46.11. It's hard to watch a runner struggle through a race, but Madison clearly gave it everything she had today. Madison is a 6-season XC veteran and has turned in so many top-notch performances over the years. Her gliding style exemplifies her quiet, polite demeanor. She too will be missed next fall. Another bright spot today was junior Shaelyn Ballard finishing #6 in 21:52.20 (versus 23:27.8 in September). Shaelyn has been battling injury for a while now, but has steadily fought back to where she contributed during championship season. If she can take the next several months to fully heal and be ready next summer for the start of XC, the team will be so much the better for it. I have never seen senior Carol Xia give less than 100% in a race as she did today (21:55.86 versus 22:50.0 in September). Carol has always made the most of her athletic talents, and she sets a great example for others by her efforts. Success in life isn't about being first, it's about applying what you've got and giving it your all day in and day out. That's Carol.
[results]

Several other senior girls effectively ended their Lovejoy XC careers today. Veterans Katherine Powell, Libby Britton, Blair Lang, and Tate Thompson have added a lot to the team. One of the biggest contributions an athlete can make is to be a good teammate, and these girls have done that and more for many seasons.

The Varsity Boys put in a solid effort finishing 2nd and punching their ticket to State. Surprisingly Lovejoy tied with McKinney North at 114 points after the first 5 runners, but took second over the Bulldogs based on the #6 runner tiebreaker. At District last Monday, our boys handily defeated North by a score of 38-70. Some teams just do better on flat ground, which is unfortunate for them at State because the course at Old Settlers Park is far from flat. Last year, the Colony edged Lovejoy for 1st at Region, but today the Cougars finished 4th (after meet officials restated the results in their favor).

The biggest challenge for Lovejoy is making up the 56-point deficit that Wakeland bested them by to take 1st place. Wakeland got 3 runners in before Lovejoy's #1 finished, which we expected. But then Wakeland got their #4 and #5 in at 18th place and 22nd place overall, which we did not expect. More on this and other competitors next week in the State preview.

Junior Grant Tiff finished #1 in 15:40.9, which is second best time for any Lovejoy runner at Region (Jake Hervey turned in a 15:32.33 time at Region his senior year on 6-November-2010). Last year Grant ran a 16:42.41 at Region and yet finished 2nd. Clearly the 5A field has gotten noticeably faster in a year as Grant finished 9th overall today. Senior Will Wise finished #2 in 16:15.46 (17:05.05 in 2014), a solid Region performance. Then it took what seemed a while before senior Hunter Joiner (#3, 16:28.90) led in the scoring pack. Running practically with Hunter was freshman Cole Hinton (#4, 16:29.40), and not much farther back was senior Noah Landguth (#5, 16:48.00). Cole always has a great finish, and although Noah is still recovering his form he still improved over his 2014 Region time of 16:58.05.

And all this effort only to be tied with McKinney North at 114 points after the #1 to #5 runners had finished. But this is where a deep team and unrelenting effort pay off: sophomore Ryan Brands (#6 in 16:51.49) handily beat North's #6 by 7 places and 6.12 seconds. To add insult to injury, sophomore Ryan Spruell (#7 in 16:57.72) beat North's #7 by 46 places and 53.62 seconds. You'd be surprised how often this sort of thing happens at Region and State. As an example, in 2009 then Lovejoy senior Elizabeth Gienger finished #6 for Lovejoy ahead of Argyle's #6 which gave the Lovejoy girls the 2nd place State trophy instead of 3rd. The moral: never give up in a championship race — every runner you can beat at the finish can make the difference no matter where you are in the field.
[results]

Click here for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

• Varsity Girls: a 9th place team finish out of 24 teams; order of finish was 18-39-44-50-74-80-86; Ariaan Cnossen (19:25.11) advances to State as an individual competitor [results]

• Varsity Boys: 2nd place finish behind Wakeland; tied McKinney North with 114 points, but Lovejoy won tiebreaker for 2nd place because #6 Ryan Brands finished ahead of North's #6; order of finish was 9-17-24-26-34-37-43 with #1-#5 split time of 1:07.10 [results]

Click here for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

The 5A Varsity Girls race kicked off promptly at 8:00 am. Prosper, ranked 2nd by CCCAT, pulled out a narrow 47-49 victory over unranked McKinney North, which has always been tough to beat. The Lady Leopards slipped comfortably into 3rd place at 77 points. Lovejoy was led most of the race by freshman Carson Hockersmith (20:9.0, 8th overall) per usual. Senior Ariaan Cnossen (20:38.0, 7th overall) was close behind Carson the entire race, and edged her during the final 100-meter sprint to the finish. Senior Madison Sutter (20:47.0, 11th overall) put Lovejoy in a solid position. But there was an average 1:26.5 separation between the initial pack and the second pack of 4 runners. The order of finish reflects this: 7-8-11-24-27-29-30. The pack running looked good, the packs will just need to be closer at Region. The second pack was led by senior Carol Xia (21:49.0, 24th overall). Junior Shaelyn Ballard (22:08.0, 27th overall) closed out the scoring. Close behind were Lovejoy's #6 and #7, senior Katelyn Albers (22:17.0, 29th overall), and junior Hallie Fischer (also 22:17.0, 30th overall).

It was great to see veterans Madi Sutter and Shaelyn Ballard back in action and running so well. It really helped the girls cement their spot at Region. Ariaan Cnossen has been getting better by the week, and finally managed to catch Carson. The weather may have helped — cooler temperatures seem to suit Ariaan, much as they did 2010 graduate Conner Day. Like 2013 graduate Katie Ruhala, Carson Hockersmith rarely finishes after another Lovejoy girl, and her success at pacing the Varsity girls this fall has been extremely important. Today the rest of the girls caught up to that pace. Carol Xia filled the important role of leading the 2nd pack. Katie Albers and Heidi Fischer had good efforts today and look ready to deliver breakout performances next Monday at Region. The Varsity girls look as ready for Region as they have in years.
[results]

The 5A Varsity Boys race was Lovejoy's to lose, and they didn't in coasting to a 38-70-86 victory over McKinney North and Wylie. The stat of the race was Lovejoy's top 5 finishing ahead of every other team's #2 runner. Can't touch that. Junior Grant Tiff (16:40.0, 2nd overall) was well out in front battling for 1st place overall, but came up 7 seconds short. This time. Freshman Cole Hinton (17:25.0, 6th overall) led in 5 of the remaining 6 Lovejoy runners. Senior Hunter Joiner (17:31.0, 9th overall) finished #3, followed by sophomore Ryan Brands (17:33.0, 10th overall), and senior Will Wise (17:34.0, 11th overall). Senior Noah Landguth (17:55.0, 18th overall) came in a little ways back, but he has been recovering from a serious infection so that's understandable. Finally senior Jacob Myers (18:40.0, 36th overall) concluded Lovejoy's race.

Grant Tiff is really starting to stretch the team by pushing for 1st place finishes. The #1-#5 spit time of 0:54.0 doesn't look impressive because Grant was so far out in front (by 45 seconds) of Lovejoy's scoring pack. From #2 Cole Hinton to #5 Will Wise took only 11 seconds. Now if the scoring pack can get closer to Grant at Region and State ... well, we'll see what happens. Getting Noah "Die Hard" Landguth 100% healthy and back in form by State will help. Some may have wanted to rest Noah today, but telling a senior he can't run at District, well good luck with that. Most of the boys looked reasonably rested at the finish, so prospects look bright for qualifying out of Region next Monday.
[results]

The 5A JV Girls demonstrated the LHS XC girls' improvement over the course of this season. Because of injuries, etc., the coaches have been raiding the JV girls squad in order to fill out the Varsity. But with practically everyone back in action today, we got to see the undiluted Lovejoy JV girls, and they didn't disappoint — the race of the day for Lovejoy. Sophomore Emily Gueller (22:27.0) looked like Grant Tiff pushing for a strong 2nd place finish. And just like the Varsity Boys race, the scoring pack was led in by a freshman, Gracie Turner (23:42.0, 14th overall), followed by senior Libby Britton (24:06.0, 17th overall), senior Katherine Powell (24:11.0, 18th overall), and sophomore Autumn Purcell (24:16.0, 21st). While Emily was fairly far out in front, only 34 seconds separated the scoring pack. Freshman Katelyn Cardwell (24:39.0, 24th overall) was close behind Autumn as Lovejoy's #6. Former Leopard Alyson Sudak (25:10.0, 31st overall) is running for Wylie now, and finished #1 for the Pirates.
[results]

The 5A JV Boys race went as expected — an uber perfect score for the Leopards with their top 9 runners finishing before the other teams' #1 could finish. At the 5A level, you'd expect better competition, but no. Or maybe the way to look at it is how much better the Lovejoy boys are than any other school in the State of Texas. Yes, you only need to string together 5 great individual performances to win State, so the Leopards aren't a lock for hardware in Round Rock on November 7th. But end-to-end, does any team have a finer set of runners? What if the UIL expanded Cross Country Varsity squads to 15 runners? Now who's taking home the 1st place hardware from State?

Junior Ryan Spruel (17:42.0, 1st overall) and sophomore Christian Sutter (17:52.0, 2nd overall) were well and comfortably out in front. They made an early statement about how the race would go, and it didn't take long for the exclamation point. Freshman Brett Pedersen (18:20.0, 3rd overall) led in the stampede — over a 14-second span, the next 7 Leopards would cross the finish line: junior Nate Hartter (18:23.0), freshman William Godfrey (18:24.0), sophomore Preston Tiff (18:30), senior Kerry Joiner (no time — yet another race timing system omission), senior Dane Printz (18:31.0), and Mr. Bradley Davis (18:33.0).
[results]

Click here for the meet photo album. Only the marquee photos have been uploaded.

• Varsity Girls: a 3rd place finish behind Prosper and McKinney North; top 10 finishes for Ariaan Cnossen (7th overall) and Carson Hockersmith (8th overall); Madison Sutter 11th overall; order of finish was 7-8-11-24-27-29-30; #1-#5 split time of 1:30.0 [results]

• Varsity Boys: 1st place finish; Lovejoy's top 5 finished before any of the other 7 teams could get their #2 home; comfortable 38-70-86 victory over McKinney North, Wylie; top 10 finishes for Grant Tiff (2nd overall), Cole Hinton (6th overall), Hunter Joiner (9th overall), Ryan Brands (10th overall); Will Wise 11th overall; order of finish was 2-6-9-10-11-18-36 with #1-#5 split time of 0:54.0 (Grant was fairly far out in front, the #2-#6 split time was only 11.0 seconds — excellent pack running) [results]

• JV Girls: solid 3rd place finish behind Prosper, McKinney North by a score of 33-40-68; Emily Guellar 2nd overall; order of finish 2-14-16-17-19-22-28 [results]

• JV Boys: 1st place with a perfect score; Lovejoy took top 8 finishes overall (well top 9 finishes actually, but Kerry Joiner's chip didn't register with the scoring system at the finish line); next two teams were McKinney North and McKinney by a score of 15-60-103; top 10 finishes for Ryan Spruell, Christian Sutter, Brett Pedersen, Nate Hartter, William Godfrey, Preston Tiff, Kerry Joiner, Dane Printz, Bradley Davis; order of finish was 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 (an uber perfect score); #1-#5 split time was 0:42.0 [results]

Click here for the meet photo album. Only the marquee photos have been uploaded.

Here is a link to the results page:

• tx.milesplit.com/meets/214201-dallas-jesuit-classic

Chile Pepper:

We have been going to the Chile Pepper since our 2nd year here at Lovejoy. Although the Collegiate division seems to be dwindling in competitiveness, the 10k open and 5k open always give us a good chance to get in one last really hard long effort before District. This year was by far our best in terms of the number of guys we had rolling at or under the 36:00 mark. Very impressive. William Wise led the guys across which will be a huge boost for us for him to keep that on into the 5k's to come. Grant Tiff had a shoe mishap shortly after the start but still ran a respectable 34:32. The split for the top guys was just a tad over 2:00 over 6 miles ... that is awesome. I felt that Noah once again had a good day when not feeling his best along with Freshman Cole Hinton. Christian Sutter, Ryan Brands, Ryan Spruell, Jacob Myers and Hunter Joiner along with Nathan Hartter all had a good performance on the course. For the boys in the open 5k both Brett Pedersen and William Godfrey ran awesome with PR's in the mid 17's. Adding to our already very deep boys squad ...

The performance of the weekend in my opinion, came from our girls squad. Ariaan Cnossen crossed the 10k finish in 42:07 which gave her the age group victory ... and should be a huge confidence boost on into the Championship meets. Carol Xia also had a good run along with Hallie Fischer. In the open 5k, Carson Hockersmith continues to race well as she cracked the 20:00 mark on a tough course running 19:48, and probably the team boost of the weekend was Madison Sutter's first race of the season coming off a sprained metatarsal in 20:25. That will make a huge difference in the coming weeks having Madison back on the course. Shaelyn Ballard had a good race in the low 22's ... Several of our younger girls were on hand and had a great first Pepper. Emma Satterwhite continues to improve as well as Summer George, Katelyn Cardwell and Autumn Purcell all had a PRs on the tough course.

Another benefit to the Chile Pepper weekend was a chance to see Lovejoy Alum Abby Tedford in her first race as a Collegian. She ran great in 19:39 for the Razorbacks coming off a year long injury riddled freshman year. Her coach Lance Harter was very excited to see her run so well.

Here are links to the 5k and 10k:

• Open 5K = ar.milesplit.com/meets/213602/results/399587
• Open 10K = ar.milesplit.com/meets/213602/results/399586

We had great performances all over the place this weekend. The task at hand now becomes focusing on generating speed out of the huge Aerobic Base we have established over the past 4 months. To do that we will focus on shorter reps/recovery/and rest. We have about 3 weeks of good work left to get in before we are really set to run fast ... If we can come out of the next few weeks healthy, I really like our chances at some exciting racing in to November.

Coach Kelly and I now have the always difficult decision on who to race at District in the top 7. When especially on our boys side we are so deep and talented, with no clear top 7 it makes it very difficult. We will be analyzing our past few meets/workouts/and gut feel for who can have the best races at Myers. We can list 10 athletes to be eligible for Varsity racing. On race day we can race any of those 10.

Booster Club:

Our next meeting will be Tuesday evening at 7:00pm in the HS Lecture Hall Library .

Workouts:

• Monday: Banger (toned down)
• Tuesday: Recovery/am weights
• Wednesday: 400m repeats
• Thursday: Am weights/Recovery
• Friday: Recovery
• Saturday: Repeat 2 miles/200s
• Sunday: Long

As we are gearing up for the most meaningful part of the season, we really need to be cognizant of staying healthy and taking every precaution possible ... vitamins/Orange Juice/Sleep are vital in being at our best on race day. I will be providing more information regarding our District Championships on Monday October 19 at Myers Park.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather today and for the upcoming week too ...

Run Happy Run Long

Greg

• A depleted squad of Lovejoy JV Boys got bumped up to the black-n-blue Varsity Boys 5A&6A race. All of the top teams in last weekend's Lovejoy XC Fall Festival were competing plus Jesuit, McKinney Boyd, Plano, Brenham, Frisco Liberty, etc. Lovejoy finished 13th out of 34 teams — truly excellent when you consider who they were up against. The squad was led by Brad Davis (17:49.00), Trevor Joiner (17:56.80), and Kerry Joiner (18:03.30). Also scoring for Lovejoy were Preston Tiff (18:44.50) and Josh Luck (18:46.90).
  [results]
• Gracie Turner (23:55.30) and Alyssa Detorrice (24:01.10) represented Lovejoy in the Varsity Girls 5A&6A race, another tough race. It takes a lot of courage to step up and run in a highly competitive race with only one other teammate to keep you company. Nice job, girls.
  [results]
• Sophia DesJardins working back from injury competed in the Girls 4A & Under Varsity Girls race. She completed the 2-mile course in 14:46.3 and finished 13th overall.
  [results]

• Eli Ruhala (19:24.50),Collin Jones (20:19.8) Jason Abernathy (21:20.40), Brent Hendrix (21:25.00), John Stallings (21:49.5), and Christoper Dunn (23:33.7) competed in the JV Boys combined race. Unfortunately, the results split them between two teams — "Lucas Lovejoy" and "Lovejoy High School" — so there's no team result to report.
  [results]

• Camille Morgello (25:42.10), Lillian Mussellman (25:57.40), and Christina Thorpe (26:15.60) competed in the JV Girls combined race.
  [results]
• The WSMS Boys competed in the middle school boys races, which featured 12 teams and 424 runners. The boys also finished in 6th place. Brady Laboret (11:58.6 and 3rd overall), Trevor Malik (12:25.5), George Bentley (13:27.2), Bedell Whitson (13:30.2), and Sam Rouse (13:32.5) scored for the boyswho finished in order 3-23-35-38-40-51-52.
  [results]

• The WSMS Girls competed in force against 10 other teams in the middle school girls race with 359 runners. The Springers finished 6th. Erika Jenkins (13:52.6 and 9th overall), Sadie Dale (14:13.8), Lily McCutcheon (14:26.6), Sofia Estes (15:23.4), and Andee Richardson (15:25.1) scored for the girls who finished in order 9-17-23-40-42-42-48.
  [results]

Click here for the photo album provided by a professional selling photos.

There will not be a detailed analysis for these races.

• The University of Arkansas home course is quite good and in immaculate condition (not a crack in sight).
• The Open 10K and Open 5K have manageable field sizes with 399 and 276 registered finishers respectively. (Note: The later high school races had a total of 3,619 finishers spread across 6 races with the largest race being the Varsity Boys with 828 finishers. Some ridiculous scores result, such as the Elite Varsity Boys last place team finishing in 71st place with 2,050 points.)
• The Open 10K and Open 5K fields are composed of a variety of different runners ranging from 5 years olds to folks in their 70s.
• Some of the runners dress up in fun outfits adding levity and relaxation to the event. More than a couple runners wore kilts, and one runner suspiciously resembling Santa Claus appeared in both the Open 10K and at the end of the Open 5K.
• Alumni and parents get to run with our current team members.
• Lovejoy High School gets mentioned by the meet announcers almost as much as the University of Arkansas (no kidding).
• Our high schoolers get to watch some top-level college teams go at it in the Men's 8K and Women's 5K collegiate races.
• You can buy really cool tee shirts.
• You can run the course without even registering for the race, although you won't receive an official time or mention in the results (but you will have more money left to buy a tee shirt).

Nowadays with both the Open 10K and Open 5K available as options, the coaches split Lovejoy's runners between the races based on each runner's training needs. For our more experienced runners who are 100% healthy, the Open 10K is the preferred race. It's not an all out go for the full 6.2 miles, but rather a combination of a 1-mile warm-up, then 3 miles of go-hard running, concluding with a 2.2-mile cool down. At least that's the general plan, but each runner has his or her own variation. This makes it hard to compare results between the different runners to determine who won. And it's not a team event, so no split times, etc., to report. That said, Will Wise and Ariaan Cnossen had standout performances.
[results]

The Open 5K race is a more traditional run for Lovejoy's first timers to the Chile Pepper and those coming back from injuries. In the old days, the only other available race was the 1K Fun Run, which isn't particularly helpful for developing a runner, so all of the Lovejoy runners got lumped into the Open 10K. Today Madison Sutter (20:25.70) showed great form returning from injury. Great performances were also turned in by Brett Pedersen (17:37.16) and William Godfrey (about 3 seconds behind Brett) for the boys, and Carson Hockersmith (19:48.02) for the girls. Shaelyn Ballard (22:19.58) showed some of her old Varsity form today.
[results]

Many parents and alumni attend and even compete at the Chile Pepper, so it's a nice way to catch up. It's also a reminder of one of the many benefits of distance running: It's something you can do into your 80s (depending in part on how well your knees, ankles, and hips hold out). For so many high school sports and other activities, they are discontinued once participation at the high school level stops. It's almost sad to consider how much time, effort, and money go into many high school activities, only to let them fall by the wayside once high school is over. So keep on running, or as a locally famous guru puts it: Run Long Run Happy.

Click here for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

• Open 10K: for the Lovejoy team members, the race was a 3-part training run spread over the 6.2-mile course: (1) warm up, (2) hard run, (3) cool down; one notable was Will Wise finishing 1st for the Leopards [results]

• Open 5K: a more traditional race for Lovejoy's younger and recovering runners; notably Madison Sutter looked solid in her return to racing; not all runners were bibbed and so they won't show up in the results (you'll just have to dig through the forthcoming photo album to see who all ran) [results]

Several alumni and parents also ran.

Click here for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

Varsity Girls:

Carson once again is positioning herself as one of the top 5A girl runners in the Region. She ran a very controlled and poised race with plenty left in the tank over the last 800m. Ariaan saw a huge improvement over an intimidating course ... experience is serving her well ... (see what I did there ... "serving" her well ... tennis player??) I was very pleased with Katie and Hallie. I didn't get a chance to see them after their races, but this was a huge step forward to where we need them by District/Regionals. Very cool to see them respond to last week's work. And Carol as well raced much better, as I think she is also feeling better this week than last. District foe Wylie East nudged us in the standings, but in another week or two we will have back Madison Sutter, who over the summer and early fall was our top girl performer. I'm feeling much better about our girls team moving on in to October.

Varsity Boys:

I have seen a lot of Cross Country races, and at the end of that race yesterday I really thought we had won it ... then came the onslaught of timing mishaps and missing bibs, and in the final results we were 6th. If accurate that's ok because I know where we are now in relation to Wakeland and Canyon. When we get the work in over the next few weeks we will be fine. We had 7 in before Wakeland's 5th ... now we just have to be in closer to their lead 3 guys. I believe we can get there. I felt like our guys ran really well individually, and in the end packed in very closely ... That depth can make a big difference in Championship racing.

JV Girls:

Our top 5 of Autumn Purcell, Katelyn Cardwell, Gracie Turner, Summer George, and Camille Hendrix did a great job of once again improving from the first outing. 4 freshmen and a Sophomore is very impressive to place as well as they did ... all in the top 75 with Alyssa DeTorrice joining them in the top 100 out of almost 400 runners! Team depth is starting to show up in our Girls ranks now and that is a very welcome sign.

JV Boys:

Going through a season undefeated in cross country is a very difficult thing to achieve. However our JV boys are unbeaten, and only have the Jesuit meet remaining before District. A lot of the guys will be bumped up to Varsity at Jesuit ... and then the only remaining meet for them will be District. We have never lost a District Title in the JV Boys division (or varsity either) and I fully expect that trend to continue.

Here is a link to full race results, videos, and race interviews. I also thought our guys did a great job with a microphone ... always a scary thought, but I think they did great.

Workout This Week:

• Monday: Banger
• Tuesday: AM weights/recovery/buildups
• Wednesday: Hills
• Thursday: Recovery
• Friday: Premeet shakeout
• Saturday: Jesuit/Chili Pepper
• Sunday: Long

Next weekend will be very chaotic, but a lot of fun. A lot of deserving runners will get a chance to race in the Varsity divisions. The Chili Pepper will give a lot of our Varisty runners a chance to get a hard extended effort in on a challenging course and see the University of Arkansas and Lovejoy Alum Abby Tedford in action.

I will be sending out detailed information regarding the weekend by Wednesday - hopefully Tuesday.

It was very cool to see so many of our XC alums at the race yesterday. Austin Gallaway provided drone coverage, Mike Jones/Sam Ruhala/Kendall Joiner/Phi Pham/Katie Ruhala ... lots of fun ...

The big take away from yesterday ... we are in a good spot. There are some very good teams ahead of us, but within our reach I feel. For the girls, there is work still to be done to get to where we want to be by the end of the season, but the Taos goals are still very attainable. Keep working hard, believing in yourself and trusting your team mates to do the same.

And we have the best parent/Administrative support in the State.

Run Happy Run Long

Greg

		complete	partial
race	runners	teams	teams
Varsity Girls Division 1	200	25	7
Varsity Boys Division 1	230	29	5
Varsity Girls Division 2	101	11	8
Varsity Boys Division 2	109	13	6
JV Girls	394	27	8
JV Boys	359	29	6
Middle School Girls	128	11	3
Middle School Boys	193	14	2
total	1,714

The Varsity Girls D1 race went off first at 8 am and featured top notch 5A/6A competition between 32 complete and partial teams. All of the races featured top-notch competition. Lewisville Hebron (6A) won convincingly with a score of 49 points, and Plano West (6A) finished 2nd with 68 points. One of the partial teams was Prosper which held out its A team — they'll be running at the McNeil Invitational in Round Rock next weekend. The top 5A team finishers were The Colony (4th), Wylie East (7th), and Lovejoy (9th).

The Leopards were led by freshman Carson Hockersmith making her 5K debut on the Myers course. She finished in 19:52.9. Out of 695 finishers spread across three races, only 24 girls all morning ran the 5K course in under 20 minutes. Ariaan Cnossen (#2 at 20:43.2) had another solid race and continues to improve weekly. Katie Albers finished #3 at 21:46.6 leading in the Lovejoy pack. The race of the day was #4 Hallie Fischer's who PR'd on the Myers course with a time of 21:48.5 (compared to 23:17.2 last fall). About 4 to 5 seconds later came #5 Katherine Powell, which should have completed Lovejoy's scoring, but the timing system did not record Katherine's finish. Lovejoy's official order of finish was 20-36-73-75-90-109-121. Overall the Varsity girls showed good improvement and should be well prepared for the District meet.
[results]

The Varsity Boys D1 race seemed to be the toughest for the Lovejoy faithful to swallow. Expectations/hopes were sky high, but when the dust had settled (after much re-scoring), the Leopards ended up on the wrong end of a 5-team scramble for 2nd place. Allen was the clear winner at 95 points, which says a lot about their program's improvement over the past few years. Then came the 2nd-place scramble between 6A Hebron (122 points), 5A Wakeland (123 points), 6A Plano West (125 points), 5A Canyon (131 points), and Lovejoy (141 points). The results as initially posted had Lovejoy finishing 1st, but were obviously incomplete as many of the race's top finisher (e.g., Lovejoy's #1 Grant Tiff) were not included.

But let's not cancel Christmas just yet. The Leopards put in a solid effort and appear to be moving through their fall preparations for championship season on schedule. Grant Tiff (#1 in 16:28.0) again led the team. At about 600 meters from the finish, Noah Landguth looked as if he might surrender his #2 spot for the first time. But never discount Noah who finished #2 at 16:41.2 and led in the uber pack of Cole Hinton (#3 at 16:43.7), Will Wise (#4 at 16:45.6), Ryan Brands (#5 at 17:01.8), Ryan Spruel (#6 at 17:03.8), and Hunter Joiner (#7 at 17:06.3). The #1-#5 split time of 33.8 seconds was by far the best of the top 6 teams: only Plano West had a #1-#5 split time of less than a minute. Lovejoy's #1-#7 split time of 38.3 seconds was untouchable: by comparison Plano West's #1-#7 split was 1:02.2 and the other top teams were all above 1:30.

To add insult to injury, Lovejoy's #8, #9, and #10 finishers were close behind the uber pack: Brett Pederson (17:32.3), Jacob Myers (17:43.3), and Nate Hartter (17:50.3). All 10 of Lovejoy's Varsity boys finished in the top half of a very tough 5A/6A race, and all were under 18 minutes. Lovejoy's #1-#10 split time of 1:22.3 was better than Wakeland's #1-#5 split time of 1:32.1.

Why is split time so important? Because at State where all of the runners are fast there will be many more runners filling those time gaps and ballooning the score of a team with sloppy split times. As an example, today Wakeland's #5 finished 20 places behind Lovejoy's #5 with a time difference of 25.5 seconds. But using last year's results from State, that same time difference would increase to 39 places adding another 19 points to Wakeland's score. Lots of variables to consider, but the bottom line is that big split times are a huge anchor at State, which few teams ever overcome. By this analysis, Canyon will be tougher for Lovejoy to beat at State than Wakeland.

Another factor in Lovejoy's favor is fresh legs. Lovejoy's top four were all airborne at the finish today, easily passing opponents. And of Lovejoy's three remaining scorers, two were also passing runners at the finish. This means reserves which the Leopards will be able to draw upon earlier during the State race thus improving their times — maybe an additional 20 seconds for the top four, and 10 seconds for two others. (At least from a sideline perspective.) As an example of what not to do, two years ago, Highland Park ran its Varsity boys into the ground to take 2nd place at the Region II Championships. A week later at State, they had little left and finished 12th — dead dog last. State championships require fresh legs.

The point at this juncture is to prepare for the competition season which starts with district in 30 days on October 26 right back at Myers Park. Sure it's nice to be highly ranked, undefeated, etc., but in the grand scheme of things these are just feel goods that you can't exchange for hardware at State. The point isn't to win early, it's to win late. Specifically this means (1) qualify out of District, (2) qualify out of Region, and (3) get on the podium at State (ideally in 1st place).
[results]

The JV Girls race featured yet another slate of very good teams, including Highland Park's All-Girl Army. Girls Cross Country is a very big thing at HP (just ask Coach C). While Lovejoy's JV girls finished 8th with 214 points, they were only behind two other 5A schools: The Colony (155 points), and Wakeland (209 points). Very nice when you consider that Lovejoy is a small 5A school. Autumn Purcell finished #1 at 23:37.2 followed by Katelyn Cardwell (23:54.3), Gracie Turner (24:17.2), Summer George (24:33.6), and Camille Hendrix (24:44.3). Lovejoy's order of finish was 32-36-44-49-53-58-84 — good numbers for a race with 394 runners.
[results]

In the JV Boys race, the Leopards won handily with a score of only 33 points while 2nd place 6A Marcus and 3rd place 6A Plano West scored 67 and 75 points respectively. To be fair, Wakeland ran its top JV runner in the Varsity boys D1 race as the Wakeland navy squad. But in comparing Lovejoy's second 7 runners to Wakeland's, the Leopards still come out well ahead.

Top 10 finishes went to William Godfrey (3rd overall in 17:54.5), Christian Sutter (4th overall in 17:55.2), Brad Davis (5th overall in 17:57.3), and Trevor Joiner (9th overall in 18:13.3). Rounding out Lovejoy's top 7 — and finishing in the top 25 overall — were Kerry Joiner (18:26.5), Dane Printz (18:34.2), and Brock Bittner (18:57.3).
[results]

The full WSMS contingent participated in today's middle school races. Many kudos to WSMS Coach Jan Jungman for keeping track of so many runners (79 finishers today), even to the point of providing name corrections for the results. The success of Lovejoy's high school program starts with the WSMS runners, and that program continues to enjoy healthy growth. Evidence of this growth can be seen in the variety of old high school uniforms that the WSMS runners wear. It's simply not possible to outfit all the runners in a single set of uniforms.

The Middle School Girls race was Lovejoy's best race of the day despite the absence of their top runner. The WSMS girls squad may be the ultimate answer to vaulting the LHS girls Varsity back onto the podium at State. And this was a race featuring 11 other teams. The girls were led by Erika Jenkins who finished 6th overall in 15:12.1 for the 2-mile course. Also with top 25 finishes were Madison Dubois (16:01.7), Sofia Estes (16:18.1), Heidi Fischer (16:21.8), Lacey Pelkowski (16:26.1), and Haylie Peschke (16:29.9). The order of finish was 4-11-14-15-16-18-27.
[results]

In the Middle School Boys race, WSMS was equally impressive, but got edged out by Decatur by a score of 60-62. Top 10 finishes for Brady Laboret (1st overall in 12:13.8), Grant Gueller (7th overall in 13:22.7), and Trevor Malik (10th overall in 13:38.4). The other scorers were Alex Pedersen (14:20.5), Mason Heruska (14:24.6), Whit Bedell (14:26.3), and Sam Rouse (14:34.8). The boys order of finish was 1-7-10-21-23-25-29. Lovejoy suited up 56 runners for the Middle School Boys race — very good growth indeed.
[results]

Click here for LHS meet photo album. All LHS photos have been uploaded.

Click here for WSMS meet photo album. All WSMS photos have been uploaded).

• LHS Varsity Girls: finished 9th in team scoring with 294 points (47-56-57-63-64-79-84); Carson Hockersmith finishes under 20 minutes; Hallie Fischer PRs on Myers course; split time of 2:18.3 (62.2-second improvement over last week) [results]

• LHS Varsity Boys: 6th place as a team with 141 points (17-26-28-30-40-41-42); top-20 finish for Grant Tiff; Lovejoy's top 4 especially fast at the finish including Noah Landuth, Cole Hinton, Will Wise; 5-team rat race for 2nd place; #1-#5 split time of only 33.8 seconds, #1-#7 split time of only 38.3 seconds — wow! [results]

• LHS JV Girls: Finished 8th as a team with 214 points; very tough field full of 5A & 6A teams including Highland Park All-Girl Army [results]

• LHS JV Boys: 1st place finish (of course) scoring 33 points (2nd place Lewisville Marcus scored 67 points); Lovejoy's top 7 finished in the top 25 overall (3-4-5-9-12-14-23); top-10 finishes for William Godfrey, Christian Sutter, Bradley Davis, Trevor Joiner; #1-#5 split time of 32.0 seconds — déjà vu all over again [results]

• WSMS Girls: Race of the day finishing 1st despite missing top runner; scored 60 points besting 2nd place Prosper which had 87 points; top 6 runners placed in top 20 overall (4-11-14-15-16-18-27); top-10 finish for Erika Jenkins; future of LHS girls team is bright [results] — corrected

• WSMS Boys: 2nd place finish to Decatur by only 2 points; 6 Willow Springers finished in the top 25 overall (1-7-10-21-23-25-29); top-10 finishes for Brady Laboret, Grant Guellar, Trevor Malik [results] — corrected

Click here for LHS meet photo album. All LHS photos have been uploaded.

Click here for WSMS meet photo album. All WSMS photos have been uploaded.

Race SNAFU:

When we got to the registration table they asked us to double check our race bibs for accuracy. Our boys bibs were fine, but the girls bibs had The Colony girls names on our numbers. We were able to fix that, but I imagine that later in the morning as more teams arrived, they couldn't keep up with it and gave up. That is why we will see some timing errors/names wrong in the results. Our boys var/girls var names are good ... but we saw some names that were reported in the wrong race for our JV boys that obviously weren't corrected. You expect a little more out of a race put on by a University at the Region preview ... but I also understand things happen out of administrators control. In this case, the downloaded names from the registration site, shifted and printed out wrong names for athletes at school ... I hope our meet goes better this weekend ...

Girls Varsity:

To be honest, I have seen the race course in much better shape ... it looked like in some areas there was some type of construction work done leaving very soft, cloddy footing ... but everyone was racing on the same course. Carson Hockersmith's HS career is picking up where her MS career ended. She is racing with a lot of poise and confidence. She and Ariaan, got out very well. Carson held on and finished up well in 7th place in a very respectable 19:46 for a freshman. Ariaan battled at blister onslaught and finished up in much better shape than her first outing. She will continue to improve as she gets experience ... I thought Katie Albers had a great day as well in 22:05. She as well had a great day. From there however we seemed to lose our grip on the pack and we slipped in the standings. The bulk of our girls group didn't get off the line as well as we had hoped and didn't respond to the need to move up. That will change when they have their legs under them ... Trusting their workouts right now is the most important thing. We know from the data collected during the week that we are a much better team than how we raced yesterday ... and that's fine for now. But later we have to be able to flip that switch to race mode and compete ...

The girls finished up 10th overall ... but in going through the results, (3 times) Wylie East beat us ... but when I scored it I have us in front of them ... ???

Boys Varsity:

For the first time in program history, the boys are undefeated. We are a collective 43-0 against the competition so far. Yesterday we had a split of 1:02 from our number 1 to 8 runners. Most schools don't have that from 1-5!! Grant Tiff ran a great race although the opening mile of 4:51 was a tad fast, we still want him in that lead pack for us ... but 5:00-05 is more reasonable ... but sometimes you just have to go with them and hang tough ... he did ... Noah followed up again as Mr. Steady for us. He is a rock on the course ... always dependable ... never having a bad race. From there on it was our team strength of our depth that slammed the door shut. Hunter Joiner, Ryan Spruell, Ryan Brands rounded out our scoring as Cole Hinton and Will Wise had uncharacteristically off races. Jacob Myers pulled in a great race as well. A very dominating race from the guys as the only team to score under 100 pts at 75 to Mesquite's 104.

Girls JV:

Our JV group was led by Freshmen Camille Hendrix and Summer George ... and newcomer Ashley Fahey was also in the mix (without a bib) ... I was very pleased with the effort from the group. I thought Alyssa DeTorrice and freshman Avey Silliman also had good days. By the time they were running the heat/humidity was getting pretty rough ... even by our team standards ... The sun broke through for a steamy race. The rains that hit this area were absent further south.

JV Boys:

The JV Boys join the Varsity guys as undefeated on the season so far ... at the start of the boys race ... cloud cover came and they had a much more comfortable go at it on the course. They had just as dominating race with Bradly Davis following up Ryan Spruell from last year as the race Champion. Kerry Joiner, Trevor Joiner, and Dane Printz all were top 10 finishers ... with Josh Luck and freshman Chayden DuBois (who worked his way up from the depths of the pack) were close by in 12/13 places ... These guys would be running Varsity at most any other school ... As a coach from another school said, "Lovejoy had 8 varsity runners in before our 2nd" ... That is what team depth is all about, and how championships are won.

As I said ... some of the team members are dead legged, battling aches/pains ... but I was very proud of the effort and emotion I saw on the course. If you ever wonder about the character or commitment of young people ... all you have to do is go to a Cross Country meet and you'll see kids put out more effort, heart, and sacrifice their bodies for the team, then any other circumstance I can imagine. And for the most part they don't have to do this ... it's amazing sometimes to think how hard these kids are working and the pain/sacrifice they endure ... while most of their classmates are still in bed ...

Ice baths, compression socks can assist with the aches/pains ... Thank you as parents for instilling the work ethic and commitment to team work in your sons/daughters.

Notes for the Week:

We will have another/last Fall Fest organizational meeting Tuesday evening at 7:00 in the Lecture Hall ... help is still needed in some areas so please volunteer if you can. We are expecting close to 2000 athletes so it will be a lot of fun ...

Wednesday Tutorials:

We will be back on this week for tutorials in the meeting room from 7-9 pm.

Course Setup:

We will meet at the fieldhouse at 9:00 am to get organized and go to the park to set up the course. Any/all help is very welcome. It usually takes 2-3 hours to mark the course, set up the chutes ... fill in any craters ...

Workout Schedule:

• Monday: Banger
• Tuesday: weights/recovery
• Wednesday: Milers
• Thursday: weights/recovery
• Friday: Shakeout
• Saturday: Fall XC Festival
• Sunday: Long

This will be the last week of our long strength phase ... after this week we get speed intensive. We have upped our distances on Bangers and Long Runs ... the intensity of Friday thresholds ... all is coming together nicely. Please continue to reinforce sleep/diet/grades ...

I hope everyone has a great week coming up ... it'll be busy but a lot of fun,

Run Happy Run Long

Greg

The early, cooler races featured the the small contingent of college teams that showed up. It wasn't until 8:45 am that the Girls Varsity D1 high school race kicked off. The Lady Leopards were pitted against 21 top-notched opponents and could only manage a 10th-place team finish. Freshman Carson Hockersmith turned in an exceptional performance finishing 7th overall in 19:46.2, only 8.1 seconds behinds Prosper's top finisher. Ariaan Cnossen finished #2 for Lovejoy in 22:03.8, while Katie Albers was #3 in 22:05.1. The pack came in starting with Carol Xia (22:50.0) followed by Libby Britton (23:06.8), Hallie Fischer (23:12.3) and Katherine Powell (23:12.8). Lovejoy's order of finish was 7-38-64-82-92-93-94.
[results]

The Varsity boys started well and kept it strong throughout the Varsity Boys D1 race. They finished 1st with a score of 75 points — the only team under 100 points in the 22-team field. Per usual, the team was led in by junior Grant Tiff (5th overall in 16:18.2) and senior Noah Landguth (11th overall in 16:41.9). Typical for this year but atypical for prior seasons, runners #3 through #7 (#8 actually) varies from race to race mainly because of the quality and depth Lovejoy enjoys this year. Interchangeable excellence. Hunter Joiner was #3 today (16:59.7), followed by Ryan Brands (#4 at 17:07.0), Ryan Spruel (#22 at 17:10.6), Jacob Myers (#6 at 17:17.2), Cole Hinton (#7 at 17:19.4), and Will Wise (#8 at 17:20.0). The #1 to #5 split time was 52.3 seconds, which is higher than you'd like, but with Tiff and Landguth so far out in front of the pack it's understandable. The #1 to #8 split time of 1:01.7 impresses more — great depth! Lovejoy's order of finish was 5-11-17-20-22-24-26 — very hard for other schools to compete with.
[results]

The JV Girls race was nasty hot and humid. But Lovejoy's girls pushed hard to turn in a 6th place finish amongst the 13 teams. A lot of new faces at the front of Lovejoy's JV pack since the coaches ran 12 in the Girls Varsity D1 race: Camille Hendrix finished #1 for Lovejoy in 24:44.0 with a top-10 finish, Summer George was #2 in 25:12.8, Alyssa Detorrice was #3 at 25:53.5, Avery Stillman was #4 at 26:21.7, and Lillie Musselman was #5 in 27:01.4. Lovejoy's order of finish was 7-38-64-82-92-93-94.
[results]

The JV Boys race should have been an footnote for Lovejoy today: the coaches ran 16 boys in the Varsity D1 race (at least as far as the scoring system was concerned), so Old Mother Hubbard should have found the cupboard relatively bare when it came time to draft the JV lineup. It was hot and sticky, everyone wanted to go home, and Lovejoy had never fared better than 3rd place in this race even with a flush lineup. Time to pack it in, right? Uh, well no: Lovejoy's JV G-Men ('G' as in ganster) ran away with the race scoring a 33 while 2nd place Austin Westlake and 3rd place Dallas Jesuit could only muster 55 and 81 points respectively. The other 17 teams scored above 100 points. Sure, it wasn't a perfect score, but Lovejoy's JV was missing 9 runners who ran (or scored) with the Varsity today, and this was the Gerald Richey versus some cow-pasture season opener. Still Lovejoy placed 4 runners in the top 10 beginning with Brad Davis (1st overall in 18:13.6), Kerry Joiner (4th overall in 18:34.6), Trey Joiner (6th overall in 18:41.9), and Dane Printz (10th overall in 19:11.8). Others scoring for Lovejoy were Josh Luck (12th overall in 19:14.6), Chayden Dubois (13th overall in 19:20.1), and Brock Bittner (23rd overall in 19:51.1). Lovejoy's order of finish was 1-4-6-10-12-13-23. As Coach C put it: "If you want to appreciate the depth of our program, just look at the JV."
[results]

Click here for the online photo album. (Marquee photos have been uploaded).

Varsity Boys:

The guys were the first race up, and we wanted to get out hard (as will be the case every meet) and get established up front. Ryan Brands led the charge for us in the early going followed closely by Grant, Noah, and newcomer Cole Hinton. What I was very pleased with was Hunter, and Will gave us a very tough top 6 guys all very close together ... Our team depth is definitely a strength for us and will pay off when it comes to Championship racing. Grant led the guys through with a 16:47, but like I said I feel like on a normal course that would be under 16:00 and we would've had all of our top 6 guys down under 16:30 for a 5K. Very impressive.

Varsity Girls:

Carson Hockersmith had a great first race as a Leopard finishing 10th overall. Ariaan ran well too for her first time out ... (wish it wouldn't have been on such an unforgiving course) and learned what XC 5K racing feels like ... she will improve as our season moves along. Emily Gueller, Madison Sutter, and Katie Albers all had outstanding races too ... All of our top 5 being new to the scoring for Varsity. Again, once we get the next few weeks of training in under our belts they will feel more comfortable in going out harder and holding on for the race duration. The teams finishing ahead of our girls are all strong 6A programs from that side of the Metroplex ... Boswell especially is always a strong team out of Region I.

JV Boys:

This race was about as dominating as it can be with 8 guys in :30 before anyone from another team crossed the line. They would've fared almost equally as well had we raced them in the 6A JV. Freshman Brett Pederson, and Soph William Godfrey hammered each other over the race course with Brett pulling out the :01 victory. I love seeing that kind of competition among team mates on race day ... only makes our overall team that much deeper and tougher ... their times put them solidly in contention for top 10 spots on the team ... !!

JV Girls:

New comer freshman Emma Satterwhite, who has only been running for a few weeks, was our first to cross the line ... In not knowing what to expect in her first race as a Leopard (or anywhere for that matter) she did a great job of going out and competing ... She was followed in closely by 2 others new to the team, freshman Katelyn Cardwell and Soph Autumn Purcell ... Alyssa DeTorrice had a good opener too for someone new to the sport ...

JV Girls 3200:

We were able to bring along some of our WS girls who have been training well over the summer and a few of them had a big impact on the race. 8th grader Reagan Metacale was our overall winner by nearly a minute over the rest of the field in 13:31. Next in for us was Shaelyn Ballard (getting in a workout from not having been able to train for the last almost month due to back issues) who had a good outing. Shaelyn was followed in closely by 8th grader Lilly McCutcheon ...

When you look at our results we have so much youth contributing all over the place...that is awesome to see and will keep our program healthy for years to come.

I want to thank all the parents who made the race day special in the support you gave ... From the caravan of cars following the buses at 4:45 am, to the vocal support on the course and the Booster Club tent ... No one else at the meet had the support we had ... best group of parents in the State ... !!!! Thank you ...

Link to meet results

Other meets of note to check out:

• Plano where Wylie and McKinney North raced: very flat race course and distance highly suspect from conversations I heard from other coaches at the meet ... !! [results]
• Wakelands Boys/Girls ... The Colony Girls/Boys at Marcus [results]
• Belton where College Station/Georgetown raced ... both highly ranked [results]

It was a great opening weekend for our program ... now its time to knuckle down and get some serious work in ...

Greg

The sunrise race featured the 6A-5A Varsity boys, and Lovejoy dominated with a 51-76 victory over 2nd place 6A Keller Central in a two-team competition that stood out above the other 19 teams. Lovejoy had 6 runners place in the top-20 of a field of 163 competitors. The split time was only 37.2 seconds — a good split for State much less the first meet of the season. The graphic below shows how significant Lovejoy's split-time advantage was relative to their competition — none of the other teams scoring in the top 10 had a split time of less than a minute. While it's early, and the Varsity boys still have work to do if they want to make State and perform well, their performance at the Cowtown can be described as blistering for a first meet.

The squad was led by junior Grant Tiff (16:47.2, 4th), who was joined in the top-10 overall by freshman Cole Hinton (17:08.0, 9th), and senior leader Noah Landguth (17:09.8, 10th). Rounding out the scoring were senior William Wise (17:16.4, 12th) and sophomore Ryan Brands (17:24.4, 16th). Hunter Joiner also put in a sub-17:30 effort finishing less than 2 seconds behind Ryan in 17th place.

The Varsity girls were somewhat depleted this past week losing two of their top-5 runners to injuries. Still Lovejoy showed some good things on a difficult course where (a) only two girls finished under 20 minutes, (b) only ten girls finished under 21 minutes out of 286 competitors, and (c) no team's top-5 averaged under 21 minutes. The Buff provided an unusually difficult course for the Lady Leopards to start their season and on a rather humid morning (60% relative humidity). Only Lovejoy's home course at Myers Park may be tougher. So as their conditioning adjusts during the season to address rigorous terrain, the times will improve. But today, the girls were uniformly losing ground to their competitors in the last half-mile of the race.

Freshman Carson Hockersmith put in a top-10 finish (20:57.8, 10th). Sophomore Emily Guellar is beginning to leverage her talent and finished at 22:04.4. Senior Madison Sutter has really stepped up this season and finished 3rd for Lovejoy at 22:12.1. Ariaan Cnossen racing at her first cross country meet finished 4th at 22:33.8. Senior Katie Albers finished 5th at 22:40.4 to complete Lovejoy's scoring. All five of these girls are debuting as top-5 Varsity finishers for Lovejoy.

Lovejoy's JV boys always provide a lift for the spectators because of their dominance. The coaches decided to drop the squad into the 5A & Under race, which didn't provide our boys with a whole lot of competition. Lovejoy's top 8 runners finished before the other teams could get any runners in. Thirteen of the top twenty runners in were Leopards. So while Lovejoy scored a perfect 15 points, only one other team, Joshua High School, managed to (barely) score under 100 points. Mapping our JV into the 6A JV race, the Leopards would have defeated Keller Central by a score of 37-67, but as it was Keller Central took 1st place with 46 points. And Lovejoy ran a 10-boy Varsity squad (Keller Central only ran 7), so theoretically Lovejoy's JV should have been depleted. But no.

Freshman Brett Pederson duked it out with sophomore teammate William Godfrey the whole race to see who would finish 1st. Brett finally pulled out a 0.8-second margin of victory finishing at 18:14.3 while William took 2nd overall at 18:15.1. About 40 seconds later came the gate-crashing quintumvirate of Preston Tiff (18:55.1), Trevor Joiner (18:56.5), Bradley Davis (18:56.9), Josh Luck (18:57.4), and Kerry Joiner (19:00.3). Dane Printz also had a top-10 finish at 19:10.5. Rumor has it that a hungry JV motivates the Varsity to run faster.

The JV girls were split into two squads. First came the combined LHS/WSMS squad in a 3200-meter race where our girls finished a close 2nd to 6A Haltom City by a score of 48-65. All the other teams scored well over 100 points. WSMS flash Reagan Metacale streaked to an easy 1st place overall finishing with a time of 13:31.5. Junior Shaelyn Ballard (14:38.7) and WSMS Lily McCutcheon (14:41.1) also finished in the top 10. Freshman Gracie Turner (15:09.5) and WSMS Heidi Fisher (16:17.1) completed Lovejoy's scoring.

The second JV girls race was a mock, second-team Varsity squad composed of 7 solid Lovejoy girls tackling the same 5K course as the boys and Varsity girls squads. The girls performed well as a pack finishing 4th as a team with a split time of 1:01.3. Freshman Emma Satterwhite (25:19.0) led the squad, followed by freshman Katelyn Cardwell (25:32.5), sophomore Autumn Purcell (26:02.2), sophomore Alyssa De Torrice (26:08.9), and freshman Summer George (26:20.3).

[results]

[photo album] — all photos have been uploaded

Click here to see the meet photo album. Marquee photos have been uploaded.

Boys:
The guys look to have picked up right where they left off last season, but with a much deeper, faster team — with runners looking to push the returning Varsity team from last season to faster times this season. Sr Noah Landguth pulled out at the 1 mile mark today due to an ongoing bloodblister situation, that we feel is improving. Grant Tiff and Ryan Brands, along with Noah I feel give us a 1,2,3 punch, that should be able to match anyone in the State. Throw in the mix Wild Bill Wise, Jacob Myers, the HUGE addition of Cole Hinton (who like his freshman counterpart Carson Hockersmith make the varsity squads much deeper and more talented), the resurgence of Hunter Joiner, and the always solid Nate Hartter — gives this year's addition of our top 7 from the Time Trial our fastest ever on record. Our top 7 were under 11:00 which is a 17:05 5k pace ... and our top 3 (adding in Noah's summer work) give us 3 under 16:00 ... very impressive. But then to look deeper on the roster ... Ryan Spruell, Freshman Brett Pederson and Christian Sutter are right there close to the 11:00 mark. Kevin Sorstokke, who will return to the team after his summer in Michigan should be in the mix of the top 10 as well ... Very cool ...

[boys results]

So what does all of this mean? It means we had a lot of runners put in good work over the summer and they are fit at the start of the season and ready to roll. It also means that we had a lot of runners out for vacations and injury who will be making inroads to the top 7 groups as the season goes along and they regain their fitness. But overall ... a much better showing in a time trial and exhibition of how much work was done in the summer, than anytime in team history. But here is what I'm seeing, that means the team is very healthy: When looking at the age distribution of our team ... we aren't Senior heavy ... our team talent is pretty evenly distributed from Srs➞Fr ... Each year we seem to return a team that could've beaten last year's squad ... that is great to see. So each year our Varsity team should be in the discussion for a podium spot at the State XC Championships, much like we're seeing this season with the boys a Coach's Poll #3, and the girls garnering attention as a team to watch. However polls mean nothing until November 7.

Have a great rest of your weekend,

Greg