The times today appear sluggish, but blame that on the course and a little on the weather. The runners did fine. The Woodlands home course is just a disaster when it comes to cross country. Lots of sharp turns and switch backs that make it flow more like an obstacle course. It's also much too narrow for championship racing making it hard for athletes to maneuver. A typical Lovejoy race strategy is to start midway in the field and then move up in the final mile. But with such a narrow course and such a front-loaded field of championship runners, that's very difficult to pull off. The bad fall weather had its affect on the back part of the course where it was muddy and several of the Lovejoy runners suffered falls.

As example of the course's deficiencies, McKinney North's London Culbreath won the Girls Championship individual title in 17:39.3. By comparison her times at State and Region were 16:58.52 and 16:46.72 respectively. And it wasn't the mud today causing most of the problems; last fall in perfect conditions London only turned in a 17:29.20 at the NXR South. This is just a lousy course for Cross Country, especially a championship with so many high caliber runners. Hopefully Nike will choose a different venue in future years. Ideally Nike could rotate the venue.

The Lovejoy Girls ran 2 teams in the Girls Open Races. Carson Hockersmith (35th overall out of 577 finishers in 20:29.03) did not get aligned with her Varsity teammates (a Nike snafu), so the Girls Varsity finished 10th out of 62 teams. Had Carson been properly aligned with her teammates, then the Varsity Girls would have finished 6th (Carson would have been 18th in team scoring). And if Carson had been allowed to race in the Girls Championship, she would have finished in the top half of the field. Still a fine last race for Carson in a pseudo Lovejoy XC uniform. The rest of the girls also delivered great performances: Amelia Carothers (20:46.73, 25th in team scoring), Sofia Estes (21:07.35, 39th), Katie Armstrong (21:16.44, 45th), Zoe Bessa (21:59.79, 97th), and Andrea Richardson (22:36.12, 132nd).

The girls had a second team made up of our top JV runners. Lily Bouldin (22:15.43, 114th in team scoring) led the way. Her compatriots were Sara Rouse (22:50.19, 152nd), Maci Martelloni (23:19.97, 184th), Evie McGowan (23:33.03, 207th), Emily Piccirillo (24:06.31, 247th), and Sadi Hernandez (25:56.70, 316). They placed 10th in a field of 62 very competitive teams. Nicely done. A couple of the girls had injuries/illnesses that prevented them from competing today, but they deserve mention for qualifying with their teammates: Avery Silliman and Lily McCutcheon.

The Varsity Boys qualified for the Boys Championship, and finished 13th out of 22 teams. Notably the overall team winner (who will be going to Nationals in Oregon) was El Paso Eastwood. The Lovejoy boys were led by the familiar dynamic duo of Will Muirhead (16:41.95, 18th in team scoring) and Brady Laboret (16:42.28, 20th). Then a bit of a gap before Brett Pedersen (17:22.65, 78th) and Michael O'Brien (17:26.06) sprinted in. Great to see both of them back on their game. Finally came Grant Gueller (17:47.74, 110th), Trevor Mallik (18:05.20, 166th), and Whitson Bedell (18:52.11, 143rd). Not bad for a race with the top runners from 4 states including all the top UIL 6A runners/teams from Texas.

Lovejoy's best team results of the day were turned in by its team of Boys Rising Stars (freshman and sophomore runners) who took 2nd place in the day's first race. John Armstrong (17:15.40, 7th in team scoring) and Alex Pedersen (17:19.18, 10th) turned in Lovejoy's best times of the day behind Muirhead and Laboret (and DuBois). They had great pack scoring support from Matthew Murray (17:48.43, 19th), Riley McGowan (17:57.92, 25th), and Cameron Kennedy (18:12.46, 32nd). Finally came Rohan Sharma (18:40.38, 50th) and Carson Person (18:52.09, 57th). Great performances in a 226-runner race. With these guys coming up through the ranks, the future looks very bright for Lovejoy.

The Lovejoy boys ran in two of the Boys Open Races. First, a team of 7 took 25th out of 101 teams (no kidding — there were 5 Boys Open Races with 20+ teams each from which the composite results were cobbled together). Chayden DuBois (17:00.69, 22nd in team scoring) was only 18.41 seconds behind Brady's time. Collin Jones (17:49.43, 137th) and Zane Edwards (17:49.85, 138th) had quite a duel at race's end. Erik Day (18:06.32, 190th) filled a gap before the final wave came in consisting of Shalin Mehta (18:39.72, 277th), Blake Hinton (18:46.04, 294th), and Sam Rouse (18:57.86, 318th). A very competitive result for Lovejoy runners in a composite field of 908 runners.

Running unattached (there were fewer than 5 JV boys left to compete) were Sam Mena (18:40.82, 411th overall), Brenden Dunleavy (19:26.86, 558th), and Justin Maroney (20:36.35, 730th). Brenden wins the photo op of the day award by sprinting to the lead at the start of his race (see photo above). Mason Heruska also qualified to compete, but couldn't.

CLICK HERE for the combined results (messy, but the data is there).

The ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM currently has marquee photos. It should be complete by Wednesday night, November 21st.

Meet Recap with full results HERE.

I also update the Team History page on the Lovejoy Athletics website.

Going Forward:

Once we complete the Running Over Depression and Nike South Meet, we will transition to the track season. If we are lucky enough to qualify for Nike Nationals we will continue to work with that group of runners to prep for Nationals.

Unless a runner is transitioning to another sport, ALL members will continue to train and focus on the track team with the distance crew. This is a crucial part of each runners progression into becoming the best runner they can become.

My goal this year and going into next XC season is to have each runner keep in mind we will RAISE THE BAR. El Paso Eastwood dropped down from 6A and has competed at a high level for several years. They are not going to drop off anytime soon. They are not a one year wonder program. When we placed 2nd in 2015, we went into the track and following XC season with the mindset of Raising the Bar. We were able to do just that — win two state championships in a row and have several runners raise the bar in how fast we were able to race a 5K and now having several members break the 16 minute barrier. I want our seniors to finish their high school careers with the best track season this year. I want our boys to have more sub-5-minute milers than ever before this year and help each runner set new PR's this track season. It will be vital to have each runner improve this track season to begin on another level of training going into the summer when we prep for the XC season. This track season I will be working along side with Greg more to help fine tune the training/pacing for each runner and help us run to a new level. Coach C, Coach Littlefield and I will also be looking at ways we can enhance the training and/or racing experience for our runners next year to help us keep improving. I want our boys to have a shift in mindset this next year of not only striving to be the best in Class 5A, but to be the best in Texas regardless of classification.

Turn In Uniforms:

All boys need to turn in all school issued uniforms, shorts, sweats etc in by Wednesday 11/7/18 — turn in items in a bag with Name on the bag.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

Girls State XC Championship:

Carson and Amelia racing as individuals were on 2 different agendas as far as Carly and I were concerned. We wanted Carson to go out as a senior in style with a race she would be happy with ... and Amelia to get on the course and experience her first State Championship race day feel ... and I feel like it was successful for both. I was standing at the 1-mile/2-mile area and as the pack came through Carson was right where she needed to be in the top 30 ... I was very pleased to see her running aggressively and seemingly at ease. Amelia was back a bit ... but as I said ... all we really wanted for her was the experience of the day.

Carson and Amelia were both holding their places in the race (in fact at the 2 mile Amelia was moving up) as the passed the 2 mile mark ... and from there on out it was a matter of finishing and closing the door on the UIL season. After the race they both were pleased with their races and we as coaches got exactly what we needed. A Senior who finished her Lovejoy career happy with her race ... and her successor in line with the experience to lead her team mates at the State meet next year. We now have a returning runner with State meet experience who will lead her team to the next level next fall ... Carly has our girls team in a good spot to do some really cool things next year ... it will be fun to see her and the girls working together to achieve some lofty goals again next season.

Boys State XC Championship:

Going into the race we as a program felt very confident about being on the podium, and even better about how high. But what is great about this sport is that on race day ... anything can happen/usually does and how the team reacts to it will determine the success. We had a junior (Will Muirhead) finish as a top 10 individual ... and another junior (Brady Laboret) just out of the mix ... we had a sophomore (Trevor Malik) have the best race of his season and another junior (Whitson Bedell) set a PR which will propel him on to great things next spring/Fall. We had another jumior (Grant Gueller) set a personal PR and we had 2 seniors (Brett Pedersen/Michael OBrien) have a day they weren't expecting, but without them we wouldn't have been there in the first place ... that is what racing and XC is all about. We have 7 guys on the TEAM and 5 who score. All of the guys did everything they could and as a result we came away with a 3rd place trophy !!! Not too shabby.

To be honest it wasn't where we thought we would finish ... but now looking at yesterday ... we were on the podium and that's pretty dang good for Texas !! Eastwood beat us as a TEAM ... they have raced well as a pack all year and that's how they beat us yesterday ... LBJ just "out scored" us. Having 2 guys as 2/3 finishers is tough to beat even if you outscore the rest of their team.

For both teams I am very excited for what is in store for the next couple of weeks, the spring and next year. We have so much talent coming back and coming up ... it will be soo much fun to see the program grow and evolve to the next level of success. Carly, Logan, and I will continue to push and find ways to make this program and your athletes experience in this program 2nd to none !! That is a commitment I made to Mr Moore and Coach Puckett in the spring of 2006 and one I will continue to strive for daily and each successive season.

I can't thank you as parents and athletes enough for the trust you put in me and the effort you give to me and the program daily ... it is remarkable and if you were on hand yesterday at the meet and saw the amount of student-athlete support/parents/administrators on hand ... much more than any other program I saw. That is what makes Lovejoy, Lovejoy ..!!!

The girls and boys programs are in great hands with Carly and Logan ... when you look Statewide, there are only a handful of programs who have the amount of success we have on both sides of the team ... and if you are thinking this season was nice ... just wait ..!!!

I hope everyone is planning on making it to the banquet ... it is going to be a lot of fun to celebrate the season, say goodbye to some seniors ...and look forward to what lies ahead ...

cya Thursday

Greg

The Lovejoy turnout was outstanding. Most of the teammates — especially the girls — chose to decorate themselves with paint (see the photo gallery for details). The LISD administration was again represented by AD Jim Bob Puckett. An interesting variation was having McKinney North and Frisco Reedy runners sharing the Lovejoy tent area. Since those schools only brought a few individual qualifiers, our coaches invited them to hang with the Leopards. Lovejoy sportsmanship at its finest.

The 5A Girls Championship race went off at 2:30 pm sharp. In the team results, Frisco Wakeland who defeated Boerne Champion, Cedar Park, and Highland Park by a score of 90-98-106-125 (a very close race amongst those 4 teams). The 6A Girls Championship was equally competitive with Coppell defeating Flower Mound, Prosper, and Southlake Carroll by a score of 79-93-94-103.

The individual championships was won by North's London Culbreath (1st overall in 16:25.52) as expected, but she had a battle on her hands with 2nd place finisher Allison Wilson (17:16.33) from Montgomery and 3rd place finisher Colleen Stegmann (17:28.87) from Frisco Reedy. All the top runners had noticeably positive split times with their last mile being at least 30 seconds slower than their 2nd mile, which was slightly slower than their 1st mile. Interestingly, while going out for the 1st mile the wind was in the runners' faces, and while coming back the last mile the wind was at their backs. The fast, competitive make-up of the State fields causes even the best runners to hit the accelerator much earlier than they'd planned to. There is no road kill at State — every runner is extremely fast.

Senior Carson Hockersmith (44th in 19:21.28) delivered a worthy swansong performance, while sophomore Amelia Carothers (120th in 20:51.40) had an invaluable, eye-opening experience. Both Carson and Amelia went out fast recording 5:54 and 6:09 split times respectively for the 1st mile — only 23 girls had a faster 1st mile than Carson (the race had 149 total runners). Carson's miles splits were 5:54 + 6:19 + 7:08 = 19:21, while Amelia's were 6:09 + 6:53 + 7:49 = 20:51. Race management can be near impossible at State, but our girls did well.

[results]

Carson Hockersmith has sadly run her last UIL XC race for Lovejoy. She has been such a force for the girls squad which had effectively gone dormant when she arrived in 2015 (see chart at right). But in her four years here the team has been rebuilt in no small part due to her leadership by example. When Katie Ruhala (2013) arrived in 2009, the class of 2012 already had the girls squad going to State. Katie vaulted them onto the podium. But Carson helped reverse a seriously negative slide and now has the girls on the precipice of of going back to State, which they will do next fall. Of all the accomplishments made by Lovejoy harriers over the years, Carson's is probably the most consequential. Thank you Carson, you will be missed by all.

The 5A Boys Championship race went off at 3:10 pm, the last race of a very busy UIL Championship spectacle (no other UIL championship is quite like this XC bonanza). Lovejoy was ready and again improved its State performance over the prior years. But El Paso Eastwood (previously 6A) and LBJ Austin turned in spectacular performances in running past the Leopards to take 1st and 2nd place by a score of 62-87-91. This was a 3-team race with the other 13 teams completely out of contention.

A little history on Eastwood and LBJ. Eastwood had been in the top UIL conference (6A and its predecessors) for decades. And Eastwood had been going to State in that top conference starting in 2011 with a 3rd place finish last year right behind The Woodlands and Southlake Carroll (the score was 88-94-123). LBJ Austin has not been to State as a team since its creation via a spin off in 2007. (see chart at right for a comparison).

The styles between these two teams could not be more different. Eastwood runs a tight pack and today turned in a 30-second 1-5 split time. Austin LBJ relies on two über hammers who went #1 and #2 in team scoring in today's championship, and then hung on while their #5 finally came in at #37 in team scoring resulting in an 86-second 1-5 split time. FYI, the über hammers are seniors, so it may be a while before LBJ Austin makes it back to State as a team. Eastwood is graduating 2 seniors (their #3 and #5 today), so Lovejoy will see them again next fall.

Lovejoy's 1-5 split time of 1:08 was probably the Achilles heel today. It's been a concern all year, and at State it really bites you (unless your über hammers come in #1 and #2). It's quite exemplary that Austin LBJ should have it's top 2 runners finish #1 and #2, only to be decidedly bested by Eastwood with its tight pack.

Junior Will Muirhead (4th in team scoring, 15:16.95) placed the highest in scoring for Lovejoy at State since Jake Hervey's #1 team finish back in 2010. Will improved his State time by almost 36 seconds over last fall. That's what you expect from a hammer, and he delivered — and got a top-10 medal. Junior Brady Laboret (12th, 15:40.73) bettered his 2017 State time by almost 7 seconds (even without the wind adjustment), yet finished noticeably farther back in the field. More on that later. But a great race from Brady who has finished at least in the top 3 at State for Lovejoy for the past 3 years. Sophomore Trevor Malik (18th, 15:55.79) delivered yet again. Usually it's hard (disorienting) for a first timer at State, and generally very hard for a first year Varsity runner to consistently deliver during Championship Season. But Trevor has gone 3 for 3 at District, Region and State. Truly amazing consistency. Junior Whit Bedell (20th, 15:58.48) had Lovejoy's race of the day. He came up with a huge jump in performance both over State last fall (almost 50 seconds faster), and all of his races this fall. A gutsy, veteran performance. Grant Gueller (37th, 16:25.69) ran the race the coaches wanted him to. He wasn't expected to finish at #5 for Lovejoy today, but took advantage of the opportunity to close out Lovejoy's scoring. Nice. Senior Brett Pedersen did not have the race he wanted or that anyone expected. But XC has always had a human element, which mostly explains why you compete with a 7-runner squad in a sport where only your top 5 runners factor into your score. As this falls's lone senior leader with Varsity experience for the boys, Brett has carried a lot of pressure. One off race does not alter a career of achievement. Michael O'Brien ran injured (speaking of heel issues) and had a tough go of it. But you cannot deny a senior the State opportunity, and even with a bad foot he finished in the top half in team scoring in the 150-runner field.

Generally speaking the boys looked disappointed after the race, but they shouldn't be. They effectively improved their top 5 average time by at least 20 seconds (taking into account the wind), yet had to surrender the championship to a couple of teams that got red hot at State. The girls missed State by 3 points at Region 12 days ago, and 3 years ago the boys missed winning State by 5 points to Wakeland. So Lovejoy has known its share of disappointments. Still, 4 podium appearances in 4 years speaks volumes about the quality of the Lovejoy program and their commitment to it. They should all hold their heads high.

If you're interested in other theories or reasons for today's order of finish, here are a few ...

1. black shorts — The coaches switched the boys from their traditional white shorts to new black shorts just for this race. Maybe the black shorts are bad luck and should be taken out to the parking lot, doused in kerosene and lit on fire.
2. Cole Hinton — Remember Cole? Three years ago he was the super frosh finishing #3 at State as the guys took 2nd place. Then a couple months later his family moved to Wisconsin. This would have been his senior year at Lovejoy.
3. the competition is simply getting better — More schools have discovered what Lovejoy knew over a decade ago: XC is cool! So more schools are taking XC seriously and that generates better competition for Lovejoy. As proof, look at Brady's results today: he turned in his best time ever at State effectively 20 seconds better than last year, but he dropped from 5th in team scoring to 12th. Overall Lovejoy's top-5 boys averaged 15:52 today versus 16:02 last year when they won State by 22 points. And adjusting for today's wind, that average would drop to under 15:42 — that's 20 seconds better than last year. And yet the guys finished 3rd today versus last fall's 1st place finish.

In a normal year with normal weather and reliable results coming out of other meets, we could have seen this coming. But this fall's weather caused canceled meets and made the results we did get hard to interpret. We'll be better informed next year.

In the 6A Boys Championship, The Woodlands defeated Southlake Carroll and Flower Mound by a score of 99-113-117.

[results]

A number of the senior guys finished out their UIL careers today, and so sadly we must say goodbye to them, but not without some deserved thank yous. Collin Jones has been a part of the program since the fall of 2007 when he started attending his older brother Mike's XC meets. At the time Collin was a 1st grader. He has more tenure than any other Lovejoy harrier ever. I have greatly enjoyed and appreciated the friendship of Collin's parents, Wally and Linda, for over a decade now. We will all miss them and their many contributions to the program.

Chayden DuBois made a great rise up from the JV ranks to Varsity this year, and represents the 1st of team DuBois in the XC program. By the time they're all done, the DuBois family tenure may well exceed the Jones family tenure.

Michael O'Brien will always be remembered for his fantastic flying running style. Some of the best photographs in Lovejoy XC history are of an airborne Michael. He is a great team player who also worked his way up through the JV ranks to run Varsity this season. Effort counts for more in XC than in any other sport, and Michael gave it his all.

Brett Pedersen has had a great run thru the XC program. He shouldered the senior leadership this year. He cemented himself on the Varsity his sophomore year finishing #2 at State to Grant Tiff as Lovejoy won gold. He will be very hard to replace next fall. Thank you, Brett.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

I told the girls that this race is going to make them a better team next year...!! This year we came into the season with the finish from last season (9th) hanging over our heads ... and they went to work to put that behind us. Today is the highest finish we have had in several years ... I think a lot was learned from today by the girls ... and now we will get Carson and Amelia ready for their best races of the season.

• Girls Results

Boys Race:

We had the type of race we needed to have and now we move on to prepare for Round Rock. Will, Brady, and Brett provided an overpowering force up front as for much of the race they were in the top 5. Then Will and the Kaufman runner separated and it became a 2 man race for the overall win. Brady and Brett secured the early top 10 scoring, but then came in Trevor Malik with a MONSTER last 600m ... Michael Obrien closed out the scoring with a top 20 finish which may have given the guys one of the lowest Region scores on the day. No other team in our Region scored fewer than 100 points ...

• Boys Results

We had some girls who were feeling the sting of a close finish ... and being on the disappointing side of it. There's not much that can be said, but in time they will begin to see how they, along with Carly, have put us back where the girls team should be and had a great season. The guys were solid, but I think they also had some performances now that we can take going forward to make us a tough out in less than 2 weeks.

Carly and I will be talking to Carson and Amelia about where we need to have them in Round Rock. For the guys, Logan and I will look at Eastwood and Grapevine results and put a plan together for State. Keep in mind the Lubbock Region is a 3 mile race. Our Region is a 5k, but was trimmed off to over 4700m (just short of 3 miles) ... but the mud factor needs to be taken into account ... comparing times from the 2 regions will drive you crazy, but makes for good fun and topics to hit on for workouts.

• Region I results

Thank you to all who made the trip to sunny south Dallas ... and many thanks to Coach Puckett and Coach Herrema for all the support..!! And the girls and guys team members to also made the trip to support and assist their team mates ...

Look for Carly and Logan's emails for a more detailed breakdown.

Proud of my Leopards

Greg

Finally a few days of dry weather accompanied by cool temperatures — what a break. The course had some muddy/dangerous spots that slowed down the pace and sullied runners' uniforms. The course itself was reconfigured yet again at the last minute to avoid the worst spots. Still this was the best (not fastest) Region course ever for Lovejoy to compete on. In past seasons, the courses at Vandergriff Park and Lynn Creek Park have been flat and boring. But today the course provided some nice topography and the spectator viewing opportunities were great. Parking was also a breeze. The awards venue could use some work — like bringing back the raised platform. Let's hope UTA permanently moves the Region II Championships to the Jesse Owens Sports Complex.

As always, the Leopard Faithful were out in force. Even Highland Park cannot boast the level of support our runners receive from parents, boosters, and JV teammates. LISD Assistant AD Kyle Herrema was there along with a camera-toting LISD AD Jim Bob Puckett. In his copious spare time (ha ha), Jim Bob has learned how to Tweet, so look out.

The Girls Championship Race went off at noon under a light cloud cover in excellent running weather. Region Championships are the largest of the UIL Championship racing trifecta, with today's Girls 5A Championship field at 181 runners/finishers and the Boys 5A Championship field at 183 runners/finishers (the max possible is 184). North's London Culbreath won the individual title as expected besting the 2nd place finisher by 61.95 seconds. Remember that for the girls, 5A Region II is the most competitive in Texas. Not surprisingly, London started lapping the slowest competitors by race's end. The Lady Leopards ran a smart race, and truly gave it their all. While a couple struggled, all 7 executed the race plan and were closing in the last 1,000 meters. At the end they appeared to have qualified, and then the results dashed our temporary euphoria — Lovejoy had missed the final State qualifying spot by 3 points.

Wakeland convincingly won the team title, which everyone expected. But then HP surprised by easily taking 2nd place. Remember that Lovejoy decidedly beat HP at the Plano Invitational including their #1, Sophia Oliai. Finishing 3rd and another surprise was Frisco Liberty. Telemetric data on the Redhawks has been hard to come by all season, yet Liberty was not even CCCAT ranked coming into today's Region Championships. An even bigger surprise was 4th place finisher Midlothian. Coach Littlefield had them on her radar screen, but still we all thought our girls would best these other teams (except Wakeland). And North had a great race — Lovejoy finished 15 points ahead of them at District, but only nipped them by a single point today. At District, 4 Leopards beat North's #2 to the finish line, but today North's #2 beat all 7 Leopards.

Frisco Reedy and Jacksonville finished behind Lovejoy, but provided even more great competition. So after Wakeland and HP comfortably took the first 2 State qualifying spots, the next 6 teams had a real knock-down, drag-out fight for 3rd and 4th place (see dot chart below). But that's 5A Region II for girls. Cross Country is an ancient and elegant sport with brutal objectivity, and missing out on State by 3 points is an unfortunate example of that objectivity. As it turns out, Lovejoy comes from the 2nd toughest Region II District based on the Region qualifiers' finishes today. The Frisco District (9) proved to be the toughest with its 3 qualifiers averaging a 3.7 finish. Lovejoy's District (10) averaged a 7.3 finish with even Denison finishing in the top half of today's race.

Senior Carson Hockersmith (14th overall in 19:08.11) ran a deliberate and effective race leading the girls today. Running with her for the whole race was sophomore Amelia Carothers (15th in 19:09.76). A fantastic sophomore campaign, and her reward is a trip to State with Carson as an individual qualifier. The two provided a great start to the scoring. Junior Zoe Bessa (28th in 19:28.73) was right where she was supposed to be — as reliable as ever. A couple of unexpected gaps occurred: first a gap of 18.97 seconds between Amelia and Zoe, and then another 48.46 seconds between Zoe and our #4. These gaps probably provide today's only statistical explanation for the girl's 5th place finish. Overall the 1-5 split time of 76.07 seconds hurt at Region (and would have been fatal at State).

Junior Sofia Estes (44th in 20:17.19) had maybe her best race of the season. A solid veteran performance. Junior Andrea Richardson (46th in 20:24.18) came up big today and her extremely fast final 1,000 meters is what got Lovejoy ever so close to that final State qualifying spot. The freshmen, Katie Armstrong (54th in 20:39.39) and Avery Ashley (65th in 20:56.12) have had a great season and ran solid Region races. Their times today were not far off Carson's freshman Region time of 20:22.40, which Carson achieved on a much flatter and very dry course over at Lynn Creek Park. Their first UIL campaign has been a very successful one.

So Carson and Amelia move on as individual qualifiers at UIL State which will be held a week from Saturday, while the rest of the Varsity (and other Nike qualifiers) wait/train for the November 17th NXR South Regional in Houston. The girls will qualify for UIL State next year. Unfortunately Carson will have graduated by then. But she can take solace in appreciating how much she has done to bring the team forward from where they were. As a 7th grader she ran on a middle school Winter District team with only 8 runners. Now look where the Lovejoy girls are. Big difference.

[results]

Since the girls' as a team are officially done with their UIL season, we have thanks to give to another of our seniors, Avery Silliman, who has delivered so many compelling races over the years. XC team success requires a critical mass of competitive runners who get after it, and Avery has been one of those who stepped up. She will probably be best remembered for her sophomore District performance where she skunked the entire HP all-girl JV army. She finished 4th at District this year as part of an amped-up girls squad — Lovejoy's larget ever — that took back the JV Girls District Championship after 5 years. Thank you, Avery.

The Boys Championship Race was a whitewash with Lovejoy besting the other 3 State qualifiers from Wakeland, Kaufman, and Lufkin by a score of 37-109-115-174. The scoring was so tough for the other teams that 18 of them (including HP) did not break the 200-point barrier. Before the race the Lovejoy coaches were saying things like "not that concerned with winning" and "getting through the race healthy". However, the effect of these words on our boys was like throwing red meat to a bunch of lions (well, Leopards actually). Lovejoy placed 4 runners in the top 10, which Lovejoy last did in 2016 when Grant Tiff led the team. Except today was better in that the average 1-5 finishing place was 7.4 (versus 8.2 in 2016) and today's average 1-7 finishing place was 11.1 (versus 17.0 in 2016). Today all 7 finished in the top 25 overall. (There's this rumor that the coaches were hoping all 7 would finish in the top 15 overall.) In summary, statistically better finishes and depth today that ever before.

Juniors Will Muirhead (2nd overall in 15:14.92) and Brady Laboret (3rd in 15:27.40) were serious hammers today with only Kaufman's Christian Rivera (1st in 15:12.80) getting the better of them. But then a nice bonus for Lovejoy: the Big 3 became the Big 4 as senior Brett Pedersen (7th in 15:38.65) was followed in by sophomore Trevor Malik (8th in 15:45.71). When championships are on the line, winners step to the forefront, and that's was Brett and Trevor are doing.

Then the wait. Perhaps the boys only work on is lowering their 1-5 split time (today 42.54 seconds) by getting a #5 in quicker. Still this was the best split time of the season by far, so they are making progress. Senior Michael O'Brien (17th in 15:57.46) accepted the challenge and closed out the scoring. Shortly after Michael came a hard-charging junior Whitson Bedell (19th in 16:05.45) having his most dominant race of the season and setting himself up for a sub-16-minute time at State. Junior Grant Gueller (22nd in 16:13.60) delivered another great race, making it plausible that all 7 of the boys will go under 16 minutes at State. FYI, Grant's time would have put him at #3 or better on 22 of the other 23 teams today, and that means Whit and Grant added a lot of points to the other teams' scores.

Taking a sneak peak at State, the coaches have been rightly concerned all season about El Paso Eastwood, which today won the 5A Region I Championship by a score of 40-119-159-160 over Grapevine (the #3 CCCAT 5A team in the State), Canyon Randall (the #10 CCCAT 5A team), and El Paso Burges. A dominating performance. Looking at the Region I times can be deceiving: they look on par with Region II's times, but you might incorrectly assume that the Region I course was flat and dry. As it turns out, the Region I course had 3 challenging hills over 200 meters in length. Eastwood's 1-5 split time of 24.5 seconds looks daunting. We'll see what the Lovejoy boys can do about Eastwood at State on November 3rd.

In other Regions, Cedar Park (Region III) and Austin LBJ (Region IV) had a convincing wins.

[results]

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

Now we look forward to the next step: Qualifying BOTH teams out to the State meet on October 22. We can do it ... we have to race well on that Monday ... and the rain is going to continue well into next week so we can count on another sloppery course ... but as we have proven over the years ... the worse the weather and course conditions, the better we race. I am counting on that to be the case at Region.

CLICK HERE for the week's results.

We will talk to the team Monday regarding who we want to begin their mandatory 2-week break and who we wish to keep working.

I want to thank again all who assisted with the race week ... especially Matt DuBois for his gator prowess on both days of racing ... much appreciated..!!!

Look to Carly and Logan's emails for complete wrap-ups.

Proud to be a LEOPARD,

Greg

Times didn't mean a lot today because the course was such a nightmare. Talk about running in quicksand. And the course saw its first major reconfiguration in years in order to route around some particularly bad spots. Will the coaches and Myers Park staff maintain the changes or tweak the course even more for next fall? May be a good time for a makeover.

As our coaches predicted, Lovejoy's JV squads had no trouble dispensing with their District opponents, but the perfect scores eluded Lovejoy today. At the 5A level the competition comes in force and does not rollover, so perfect scores are quite elusive. Our JV girls had not won District since 2013, not quite as long a drought as the Varsity girls.

                    Varsity   Varsity     JV        JV
year	conference   Girls      Boys	 Girls     Boys
2018        5A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2017        5A        2nd       1st       2nd       1st
2016        5A        2nd       1st       2nd       1st
2015        5A        3rd       1st       3rd       1st
2014        5A        3rd       1st       3rd       1st
2013        4A        2nd       1st       1st       1st
2012        4A        2nd       1st       1st       1st
2011        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2010        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2009        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2008        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2007        3A        5th       1st       dnr       1st
2006        2A         <5        <5        <5        <5

The JV Girls District Championship Race went off under a flicker of sun from behind the clouds. The Lady Leopards flooded the leader board with 21 of the first 28 finishers. Lovejoy defeated McKinney North and Princeton be a score of 23-35-91. The Bulldogs gave Lovejoy its only real competition at District this year.

Junior Carson McFadden (22:57.32, 2nd overall) came from behind to lead Lovejoy in. Shortly thereafter junior Lily McCutcheon (23:03.41, 3rd) pulled Lovejoy ahead in the scoring. After another North runner knotted up the score, Lovejoy blew it up with 3 straight finishers: junior Maci Martelloni (23:37.77, 5th), senior Avery Silliman (23:50.27), and sophomore Lily Bouldin (23:51.95). North's #5 wouldn't finish until 13th overall and after Lovejoy's #7. Depth, depth, depth. Today Lovejoy's #6 and #7 were junior Sara Rouse (24:19.44, 9th) and freshman Katie Koh (24:51.53, 11th). A grand way for the JV girls to finish their season.

By the by, the results show that only 35 Lovejoy JV boys finished, while 40 JV girls finished. That's the first time since Fall 2006 (2 boys, 4 girls on the LHS team in total) that the Lovejoy girls have fielded a larger squad for District than the boys. Our girls are definitely back!

[results]

Seniors Katelyn Cardwell, Bryce Gournay, Camille Hendrix, and Evie McGowan finished out their Lovejoy XC careers today. We are grateful they came our way. Katelyn always has a smile and generates a lot of positive energy for everyone. Bryce proves you can be a great leader without finishing in the top 25 of the team. Evie will alway represent E for effort, as she worked her way up from the back of the JV to Varsity last year (and then all those pesky, fast freshmen showed up this year). And despite breathing difficulties, Camille has been a gamer showing lots of courage. Thank you ladies.

In the JV Boys District Championship Race, Lovejoy zipped to a near-perfect score of 18. One runner from Wylie East slipped into 3rd place overall and broke up the perfect score lovefest. Still Lovejoy defeated the 2nd and 3rd place teams from McKinney North and Wylie East by a score of 18-54-82. Convincing. Of the race's total 86 runners, 35 (over 40%) were from Lovejoy. Hard to beat Lovejoy's numbers combined with its commitment to excellence. We had 17 of the top 25 finishers.

Sophomore Alex Pedersen (18:39.38, 1st overall) came from behind to edge out sophomore John Armstong (18:40.85, 2nd) for the individual title. After the Wylie East runner took 3rd overall came Lovejoy's scoring pack: senior Chayden DuBois (19:04.59, 4th), senior Collin Jones (19:04.59, 5th (or a tie for 4th?)), freshman Matt Murray (19:13.99, 6th), junior Zane Edwards (19:19.73, 7th), and sophomore Erik Day (19:26.26). That's 7 of the top 10 finishers. No PRs today, just lots of hardware to store in the Lovejoy Cross Country trophy barn.

The guys notched a solid 34.6-second 1-5 split time. Truly excellent execution under less-than-optimal conditions. And the JV Boys District Championship streak continues — 12 years in a row.

[results]

Senior Walter Bedell decided to join Cross Country this year. Not easy to break onto this team late and grab a Varsity spot, but he does show that this community always has room for one more to don a Leopard jersey and get after it. We're glad he chose to join us.

CLICK HERE for the District photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

We set the goal to put at least 3 in front of their number 2 runner ... but instead we put 4 — going 2, 3, 4, 5 ... wow!

Carson set the tone for the team early getting out aggressive — as she will need to do at Region. It was awesome to see Amelia have the confidence to get out and GO today!! Unfortunately, she took a wrong turn that cost her some valuable time ... but with her and Carson running that closely ... that makes us dangerous. Then the Zoe/Katie duo came in only 14/16 seconds behind ... Carson and Amelia — they are closing that gap!! Avery Ashley and Andee Richardson gave literally everything they had to catch North's #4 girl and both nearly beat her. They busted their tails that last mile ... so proud of that effort!!! Sofia may not have had her best day ... but she does have one GREAT race under her belt this season and MANY great training days to support the fact that when Regional Day rolls around she is capable of making the Zoe/Katie duo into a trio ... because she's got the wheels to do it ... and that should be good enough to get us a trip to the State meet in a crazy fast Region.

Now we can anticipate the JV District race on Friday. The girls were so excited to run today! It was a bummer that they had to stop — but the right thing for safety. I'm looking very forward to seeing how these girls perform when they get to race ... I have the feeling they will not disappoint!! The way we looked that first 800 meters today was ... feisty!! Those girls are hungry to win a District title of their own! So much fun! See you Friday!

Carly Littlefield

But the Varsity divisions were able to race, and although the conditions weren't as bad as SouthLAKE, it was a close 2nd ... !! The cold front blew through and then the rain, resulting mud ... ahhhh XC at its finest.

Our teams came through great and achieved 2 of our BIG goals from Taos. The girls were able to soundly defeat a 10th ranked North squad 25-40 ... the boys perfect scored the rest of the District placing 1-5 with Will Muirhead being crowned Conference Champion!! I think some of our varsity athletes may be a bit disappointed in their races ... but:

• on a day like today you are thrown off your routine so much
• a soft hilly course, wind, rain ... can be distracting mentally ... we have to learn to fight through the elements; these races count !!!
• I will be speaking individually with some ... we will have to have an concerted all out performance at Region to satisfy round 2 of team goals

CLICK HERE for the Varsity results.

I will let you know what the rest of the District wants to do as soon as I can so you can make plans ...

But is was an awesome morning ... Boosters on hand manning the hospitality and gator duties ... !! Thank you all ...

One last thank you: We have the most incredible student/athletes I have ever been associated with ... when we got back to the school ... although they were wet, some tired/hungry ... we had sooo many assisting with putting away meet materials (tents/tarps, etc.) and even grabbing towels and wiping down the bus floors and seats ... This has been one of the most challenging seasons I have ever had as far as weather disruptions to our training and racing ... but we have the absolute best athletes who accept and adapt to situations ... it really is incredible to see and I hope you see the same thing at home ... hahaha.

Greg

It was critical to complete the Varsity races because all of the schools moving on to Region on October 22nd want their Varsity harriers as rested as possible. So the meet was a definite success despite the JV postponements. The Lovejoy Faithful were there — rain or shine — as always. And LISD Athletic Director Jim Bob Puckett and Assistant AD Kyle Herrema joined to cheer the runners. No one seemed to mind the rain or the mosquitos or the plethora of fire ant hills.

And everyone in the LISD Community should be shouting from the rooftops about the Varsity Girls' victory: the Lady Leopards had not won District for 7 years. It has been quite a season for our girls, and today’s effort and results further attest to this. Their real test will come at Region where they will race to qualify out for State. But for now, we can all join them in celebrating a fantastic District championship — WOO HOO !!!

The Lovejoy Varsity Girls last won District in 2011 at the 3A Level. Yeah, it's been that long since the vaunted class of 2012 plus Katie Ruhala did the championship sweep by winning District, Region, and State. So the girls' success today is a really big deal. The Hockersmiths, Carothers, Bessas, Armstrongs, Ashleys, Richardsons, and especially the Estes need to give their daughters very big hugs tonight. The Varsity Boys' parents can certainly do the same.

                    Varsity   Varsity     JV        JV
year	conference   Girls      Boys	 Girls     Boys
2018        5A        1st       1st       TBD       TBD
2017        5A        2nd       1st       2nd       1st
2016        5A        2nd       1st       2nd       1st
2015        5A        3rd       1st       3rd       1st
2014        5A        3rd       1st       3rd       1st
2013        4A        2nd       1st       1st       1st
2012        4A        2nd       1st       1st       1st
2011        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2010        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2009        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2008        3A        1st       1st       1st       1st
2007        3A        5th       1st       dnr       1st
2006        2A         <5        <5        <5        <5

The Varsity Girls race started a few minutes early in order to take advantage of a dry window in the weather. As expected, McKinney North's all-world London Culbreath (18:42.0, 1st overall) won the individual title. Coach Kelly estimated that today's average time was off by 1:30 due to the course and weather conditions. Needless to say, London won't be moving up from #2 in the nation to #1 with her time today (nothing she or anyone could do about today's conditions). Then came the Leopards in a wave, and something we haven't seen since Ariann Cnossen's performance at Region almost 3 years ago: another Lovejoy girl beating senior Carson Hockersmith (2nd overall, 21:20.3). Carson took the early lead for Lovejoy, but about a mile into the race sophomore Amelia Carothers (3rd, 21:21.8) pulled ahead of Carson. This lasted until almost the end of the race when in the final few hundred meters Amelia somehow got off the course, and retracing her steps cost her an extra 60 meters. Carson beat Amelia at the finish by about 10 meters and 1.5 seconds. The misdirection was understandable because of the weather and because this was the Leopards first race at Myers Park this season (our XC Fall Festival on September 22nd was cancelled due to weather). Coach Littlefield has had Amelia practicing with Carson, so today was not a surprise. Can't wait for Region. One can argue that Carson was coasting a bit today and saving it for Region. Taking on London was not advisable, and not much was needed to finish ahead of North's scoring pack. A freshman Carson would have done otherwise. But now we're dealing with a savvy veteran. Region is the girls' Waterloo, not District (especially in Region II — UIL's toughest by far). Carson knows this.

The rest of the wave — the Lady Leopards top 4 finished 2nd thru 5th overall — came in about 13 seconds after Amelia as super frosh Katie Armstrong (21:35.1, 4th) and ever-reliable junior Zoe Bessa (21:37.0, 5th) set Lovejoy up for the win. But then another oddity cropped up: usually it's junior Sofia Estes (23:23.9, 21st) somewhere in the #3 to #5 mix helping securing Lovejoy's score, but this was not a good day for Sofia (atypically). She'll bounce back, and at District we didn't need 100% from every runner anyway. So instead the Lovejoy team victory was secured by freshman Avery Ashley (22:19.9, 11th) and punctuated by junior Andrea Richardson (22:23.4, 12th). And that's how Lovejoy's girls deservedly won their first District Championship since 2011. The veterans held their own, and then there are those fantastic freshmen. It takes a village.

A work on: the girls' 1-5 split time of 59.6 is still high. Getting to State will require something tighter.

More importantly, the girls' District Drought has come to an end. The difficulties started as Lovejoy got promoted up from UIL Conference 3A. Then to 4A. And finally to 5A. If you look at the chart above, the girls were consistently knocked down with every promotion. But today they finally caught back up and are once again on top of the District. Kudos to Coach Littlefield and the girls for their triumph.

The Varsity Boys had a solid race but were admittedly not challenged in chalking up a perfect score over McKinney North, Wyle East, and the other 3 District opponents with the tally at 15-50-104-115-129-151. Ouch! The race's top 6 finishers were all from Lovejoy — and they all finished more than 30 seconds ahead of the first non-Lovejoy runner, namely Jaeshaun Osborn from McKinney North (19:02.98, 7th overall). Lovejoy's Big 3 led. Up until the last 600 meteres, there was a duel between juniors Will Muirhead (17:14.31, 1st overall) and Brady Laboret (17:23.41, 2nd), but Secretariat (aka, Will) pulled ahead at the finish. Lovejoy is the envy of Conference 5A with 2 hammers. Our elder statesman, senior Brett Pederson (17:46.87, 3rd), had a fantastic race, and glued the hammers to the scoring pack. And this is Lovejoy' true advantage as the Championship Season gets more competitive at Region and then State: no one can hang with our scoring pack. Saying this doesn't make it so for Region or State, but everything looks solid so far.

The scoring pack was led in by junior Trevor Malik (18:02.59, 4th) who was stride-for-stride all race with senior Michael O'Brien (18:03.57, 5th). And that locked in Lovejoy's scoring at 15 points. For good measure, junior Grant Gueller (18:24.23, 6th) had another great race in oh-so sloppy conditions. At State a lot of fast runner fill gaps. But Lovejoy's redundancy will help avoid that and elevate Lovejoy up in the standings. Cross Country is a team sport. Our #4 through #7 runners will be critical at State and important at Region. Having an off day was junior Whitson Bedell (19:31.13, 11th) — it happens. But better to happen at District than Region or more problematic yet at State. Whit is a veteran, so no worries there.

It would be an oversight not to reemphasize that our Varsity Boys have now won their District Championship for 12 years in a row. And Lovejoy High School has only been in existence for 13 Cross Country seasons. No other Lovejoy sport can make that claim. Guys, you rock.

But on the cautionary side, the boys' 1-5 split time of 65.3 seconds was awfully high for this late on the season, and gaps can be problematic at Region and fatal at State. There's always something to work on.

The JV race (not races) was an odd duck from the get go. First, the JV Girls race was postponed awaiting a forecast window of better weather. But then the forecast changed (remember this is North Texas), and the coaches pow-wowed and agreed to lump the JV Girls and Boys together into a single race. No, really. Because of our District’s smaller size this year, this was a reasonable and creative solution to finish off the championships before the weather again descended upon Myers Park. But unfortunately the 10:00 am start time was not soon enough: about 5 minutes into the race, nearby lightning forced the meet officials to stop the race. And that was that. No more racing, no awards ceremony, just everyone retreating to their cars and buses and gettin’ outta Dodge.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

Despite the Thursday timing, lots of fans made the trek down to Grand Prairie. And anyone who stayed back in Collin County really missed a fabulous day of athletics in exceptional weather.

The Elite Girls race started the meet, and the Lady Leopards got a chance to square off against Wakeland, 5A's #1 girls squad in the latest CCCAT polls. Unpleasantly the Wolves pulled off a convincing win, with Lovejoy finishing 2nd, and 6A Waxahachie in 3rd by a score of 33-74-88.

Senior Carson Hockersmith (19:11.3, 4th overall) was well ahead of her 20:09.07 time here at last fall's Region Championship, and even her fantastic 19:32.4 time at last fall's Gerald Richey. Sophomore Amelia Carothers (19:26.0, 10th) was less than 15 seconds behind Carson, a first, and well ahead of her 21:03 and 21:01 times from last fall. Going into District this gives Lovejoy a 19-minute runner and a 19:30 runner. Great starting times. Then came a 27.6-second wait before junior Zoe Bessa (20:03.4, 18th) led in junior Sofia Estes (20:06.9, 20th) and freshman Katie Armstrong (20:13.1, 22nd) to conclude Lovejoy's scoring. The 1-5 split time of 1:01.8 is better than it looks because Carson was so far ahead of her previous times. It is quite possible that out top 5 girls will all be under 20 minutes during Championship Season. That will be hard to beat.

Freshman Avery Ashley (20:22.0, 23rd) made her Varsity debut and finshed a solid #6 for Lovejoy, while junior Andee Richardson (21:08.5, 29th), and senior Avery Silliman (22:01.3, 47th) finished out the side for Lovejoy. The girls look well poised for District. As an interesting aside, only 2 of the 8 girls wore watches to pace their runs today. Not sure what that's all about.

[results]

The Elite Boys race went as expected with Lovejoy notching another convincing win over 5A Kaufman and Wakeland by a score of 28-82-101. Not very close, which probably says more about the level of competition than anything. Region and State (and maybe even District) will be tougher.

Junior Will Muirhead (15:47.0, 1st overall) ran slightly off today, which make sense when put in context with his blitz performance at the Chile Pepper. Looking over all of the LHS times at the Chile Pepper, few Lovejoy runners held themselves back and treated the Arkansas event as a training run. The flip side of such an all-out effort is a somewhat diminished performance at the Ken Gaston 5 days later. But junior Brady Laboret (15:50.3, 3rd) didn't run at the Chile Pepper and was closing on Will for the win when he simply ran out of real estate. Brady was well under 16 mintutes and reflects the readiness that Lovejoy showed today for Championship Season. Next came sophomore Trevor Malik (16:23.2, 7th) ... wait, who? Yet another great runner who has vaulted high into the Varsity scoring mix. And yeah, Trevor ran at the Chile Pepper, so his performance today wasn't because of a fresh-legs advantage. Quite frankly, after Trevor's 2017 campaign, his success today is arguably overdue.

Officially we can put to rest any concerns about who will replace Ryan Brands, Mr. Bradley Davis, and Ryan Spruell on the boys Varsity. Of course, the coaches are once again faced with the headache of deciding who will make up the top 7 for District. The photography staff is waiting for October 9th with baited breath. Winnowing down the Varsity mix for Championship Season has been Lovejoy's perennial problem — and an envious one to have. So many great runners, but only 7 slots on the Varsity race starting line. And only the stopwatch knows for sure (theoretically).

But back to the race. Next in a 10-second rush came junior Grant Gueller (16:26.1, 8th) showing great finishing speed, junior Whitson Bedell (16:28.3, 9th) now in full form, senior Michael O'Brien (16:30.9, 11th) flying per usual, and senior Chayden DuBois (16:36.1, 13th) making a re-debut after having been away for a few meets. So Lovejoy's top 5 were all under 16:30, and more importantly, the 1-5 split time dropped to 41.2 seconds. Note that the District course at Myers won't be as forgiving, so the results could show greater fluctution. Finally, senior Brett Pedersen (17:05.1, 30th) finished Lovejoy's race.

[results]

With elite races soaking up our top Varsity runners, the coaches assembled Varsity 2 squads to run in the Varsity 5A-6A races. In the 6A/5A Varsity Girls 5K Frisco Wakeland showed why it has the #1 girls program in 5A — depth (a Lovejoy secret to success). Wakeland's top 7 finished in the top 10 overall for the race, despite their already running 8 in the Elite Girls race. Lovejoy took 4th place with junior Emily Piccirillo (21:09.2, 20th overall) leading the way with a solid time. The 1-5 split time of 37.1 seconds was one of Lovejoy's best all season. Right behind Emily came the Lilies: junior Lily McCutcheon (21:15.5, 25th) and sophomore Lily Bouldin (21:29.5, 32nd) who were followed by the freshmen twins Hailey Malik (21:43.6, 43rd) and Rachel Malik (21:46.3, 45th). The #6 and #7 spots were filled by junior Sara Rouse (22:01.1, 62nd) and freshman Katie Koh (22:19.8, 74th). The coaches max'd out the squad with 11 runners, so Lovejoy's race finished with senior Evie McGowan (22:20.8), sophomore Anna Iovinelli (22:29.6), sophomore Ashlyn Carty (23:07.0), and junior Mia Szczeny (23:11.5). Overall a great effort by a 2nd Varsity squad in a 6A/5A Varsity race with 298 runners.

[results]

The 6A/5A Varsity Boys 5K went somewhat better with Lovejoy finishing 3rd to 6A Duncanville and 3A Eustace, both of whom skipped the Elite Boys race and entered their top Varsity squads in this race. Few of the Lovejoy Faithful have ever heard of Eustace, but they were a District foe back in 2006-2007 when Lovejoy competed at the 2A level. Eustace is the only school to best our boys Varsity and JV at District. So they know how to run.

Lovejoy's top 6 runners all finished in the 17-minute range, and our top 7 all finished in the race's top 20% overall (374 runners total). Sophomore Alex Pedersen (17:07.1, 14th overall) was out in front of the pack, and his time was only 2.0 seconds behind older brother Brett's. Sophomore John Armstrong (17:24.8, 24th) led in the scoring pack of junior Erik Day (17:32.8, 30th), senior Collin Jones (17:45.0, 42nd), and junior Shalin Mehta (17:46.6, 43rd). Junior Zane Edwards (17:53.3, 51st) was right behind Shalin with sophomore Cameron Kennedy (18:08.4, 74th) taking the #7 slot. Juniors Blake Hinton (18:24.1) and Mason Hersuka (18:25.8) put all Leopards under 18:30. Nice race with a solid 39.5-second 1-5 split time.

[results]

The JV fields were so large that the race organizers split the races into 2 heats and then merged the results on the scoring computer. This made it hard to appreciate how Lovejoy was faring during the races, especially since Lovejoy was placed in the 2nd heats with (as it turned out) generally slower competitors. In the 6A/5A JV Girls race, Lovejoy easily won the 2nd heat, but after the results were merged, the Lady Leopards dropped to 4th behind Wakeland (yet another strong race by the Wolves), 6A Arlington Martin, and 6A Belton. Still a great race for our 27 girls in the race with buckets of PRs.

The most obvious Lovejoy PR of the day was turned in by junior Maci Martelloni (21:43.7, 4th overall) who was ridiculouly ahead of the rest of the field in the 2nd heat. Junior Carsen McFadden (22:42.1, 19th) also had a great top-20 finish in a field of 510 runners (not a misprint). Then the scoring pack came in pretty tight led by sophomore Karly Greenwood (23:09.7, 27th), junior Sadi Hernandez (23:20.7, 33rd), and freshman Katelyn Andrzejewski (23:22.6, 36th). Right behind was sophomore Madison DuBois (23:23.0, 37th). Sophomore Scarlett (23:50.6, 48th) took the #7 slot for Lovejoy.

[results]

It took a while to get to the 2nd heat of the 6A/5A JV Boys race, but the weather was so nice that the delay was quite welcome. Lovejoy dominated the 637-runner race with a near perfect score defeating 2nd and 3rd place finishers 6A Arlington Houston and 6A Duncanville (and 42 other schools) by a lopsided 19-64-124. Remember that Lovejoy had bumped up its top 10 JV runners to Varsity roles today. Yet they scored such a runaway victory in the JV boys race. Freshman Riley McGowan (17:38.9, 1st overall) came in with a 12.6-second lead over 2nd place finisher ... fellow freshman Matt Murray (17:51.5). Amazing contributuion by Lovejoy freshmen this season, both boys and girls on the JV and Varsity. Then bang-bang came juniors Brendan Dunleavy (18:00.4, 3rd) and Sam Mena (18:00.7, 4th). Four opposing runners interrupted the perfect score before freshman Rohan Shama (18:36.3, 9th) cemented the victory. Reliable junior Sam Rouse (18:47.4, 14th) and a rising Stefan Lingenfelder (18:47.5, 15th) put Lovejoy's top 7 in the race's top 15 overall (total of 637 runners in the race). Another gangster performance by our JV boys.

[results]

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album. All photos have been uploaded.

Official Ken Gaston meet results HERE.

Right now, Frisco Wakeland and Highland Park are looking very fast and furious! Mckinney North, Frisco Liberty, Frisco Reedy and The Colony are running ... along with our Lovejoy girls who are faster than ever!! It's going to be an important next few weeks, and District and Regionals will both be very exciting days!!

The latest CCCAT rankings have our boys #1 and girls #4.

CCCAT Rankings

The latest CCCAT rankings have our boys #1 and girls #4.

Booster Membership

Please sign up to become a Lovejoy Track & Field Booster Member! We want to have 100% membership from our parents! Our current High School Membership is only at 73% - so if you have not joined - please join!

You can sign up online HERE.

Please let me know if you have any questions (903-821-8399 Cell)

Thank you,

Logan Kelly

Here is a link to today's results:

• mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=11561

We had PR's in every race and I could see how much a day on the course racing meant to everyone !!

Now we will focus on getting fast, rest, and achieving some lofty goals !!!

Tomorrow's workout will be OYO with a 1/2 school day.

Pretty cool time to be a Leopard.

Greg

In 2009 the Lovejoy Jamboree (the original name of our annual XC meet) was also cancelled due to rain, but the coaches were able to switch the entire team over to the Lake Highlands Invitational held at Buckner Park in Dallas on the same race day. So everyone got to run. But this year two-thirds of the team was rained out of the Southlake meet, and everyone was rained out of the Fall Fest this past weekend.

But Lovejoy runners will not be denied — you really have to admire their go-get-'em attitude. They quickly cobbled together a grassroots trip up to the Chile Pepper which snowballed into 31+ runners participating. The coaches were not involved in making this happen. And the weather forecast for Fayetteville was as threatening as it was for Collin County. But they braved the trek anyway and were rewarded with some terrific running. Sadly the photography staff — like the coaches — was also left on the sidelines for this one, so the photo count is limited, although what the parents submitted is good stuff.

All of our runners ran in the Open 5K which went off at 8:45 am. Lovejoy has always chosen to run in the Open 10K and/or Open 5K first thing in the morning, and has eschewed the grossly overcrowded high school races in the late morning and early afternoon. But these high school races do showcase some great teams that run the same 5K course as the Open 5K's. The Woodlands has been Tweeting about their success in the top high school boys race. So let's see how Lovejoy stacked up against them and the other top teams. While not all of our top runners made the trip, the team was well represented so a comparison is useful. Note that our runners were not pushed during their runs, so their times were slower than they would have been in competitive races.

Girls            Time      Place
Hockersmith     19:39.1      26
Armstong        19:55.8      35
Bessa           20:24.0      71
Estes           20:36.7      92
Richardson      20:43.5     104
Ashley          20:44.1      -
McCutcheon      21:21.3      -

Boys             Time     Place
Muirhead        15:49.6      7
B Pedersen      16:36.2     56
Malik           16:39.5     63
W Bedell        16:49.9     86
Gueller         16:50.4     89
O'Brien         16:59.6      -
A Pedersen      17:12.5      -

Inserting Lovejoy's top-7 boys into the 651-runner melee called the Boys "El Caliente" 5K, they would have scored 311 points which puts them behind 6A The Woodlands, but ahead of 5A Grapevine, and well ahead of any other Texas 5A team participating. Also note that junior Brady Laboret and senior Chayden BuBois did not run. If they had, Lovejoy's lads could have shaved another 100 points off their score and challenged 6A Keller for 2nd place overall (out of 87 teams). It seems like an exaggeration to say Lovejoy's score could drop 100 points because of 2 runners, but when the field has 651 runners such a drop is quite doable. The bottom line is that Lovejoy can catch The Woodlands. Another nice notable is that even down 2 Varsity regulars, the 1-5 split time was 1:00.8.

Inserting Lovejoy's top-7 girls into the 576-runner (79 teams) Girls "El Caliente" 5K, they would have scored 328 points putting them 50 points behind Grapevine. Lovejoy was without sophomore Amelia Carothers and senior Avery Silliman who could easily have vaulted Lovejoy's score ahead of Grapevine's. This is great news with the team only 2 weeks away from District and the start of Championship Season. The girls split time was 1:04.4.

CLICK HERE for the Open 5K results. Definitely worth a look to see how far ahead our runners were in the Open 5K, and all sorts of interesting name misspellings, odd affiliations, and even flipped sexes.

Zoe Bessa ran strong with 20:24 and will be joining the sub-20 club soon!!

Another super strong freshman, Avery Ashley has been coming along all season long ... I knew it was only a matter of time before she showed what she's capable of! She ran over a minute faster this weekend with 20:44!!! This is that perfect example of hard work, guts, grit, dedication, and determination can get you where you want to be! Avery is ultra competitive and will show up big in the next few meets, I am sure!

Sofia had a strong performance — her best of the season — but we all know what this girl can do ... and I am certain a mid-19 is in her near future!!

Andee had another solid performance showing that her hard work this summer and over the course of the season is paying off!

Lily Mac, Lily B, and Sara continued to run as a strong trio with Evie having a great day and coming close to joining the strong group. I also like times posted by Alaina Harker, Ashlyn Carty and Ashlyn Cardwell!!! Pretty impressive stuff!

I looking SO FORWARD to seeing the whole TEAM race again soon!!! (hopefully Thursday!!!)

SouthLAKE meet results can be found HERE.

**Note not all results are posted. Grapevine and Flower Mound results are still missing as well as other key girls teams due to timing system malfunction**

Please let me know if you have any questions (903-821-8399 Cell)

Thank you,

Logan Kelly

Boys Elite

Similar to the girls race ... Will's time didn't register although he finished 8th or so and Brady was running well until he fell ... Brett had a good race compared to the Grapevine guys (which we outscored visually). I thought our 4-7 had good days as well ... I think a better day would've yielded better results but I was pleased with the effort overall to make the best in the mud ...

Girls Varsity

Avery Ashley continues to run tough as a freshman ... Lily McCutcheon, Lily Bouldin, and Sara Rouse were having good races from what I could see ... at this point the course was flooded and the low spots were mud baths so there wasn't much to be done but try to stay on your feet.

This race was basically a washout and at least a lot of fun and good memories were made and no one was injured .. !!!

One thing I was very pleased with: After the girls varsity race was off, a decision was made to cancel the further racing while the Boys were on the line. When the announcement was made, most of the guys took off running nonetheless and created a lot of havoc on the course. Our guys went back to the team area and made me very proud to work with this group. By taking off from the line as most did, they put the back of the girls race in jeopardy and showed a huge lack of respect for the race organizers and the event as a whole ... I'm very proud of our guys to not have joined in the herd mentality ... !!!

Going Forward

I realize most of our squad didn't race today ... if the opportunity presents itself I would prefer they get out and get in a hard 3-6 mile run today ... then Long Run with their team mates tomorrow if possible ... The results company is trying to use cameras to get results ... but if you were at the meet ... a lot of the bibs were covered in mud sooo ... yeh

I will pass along updates tomorrow if available ...

Greg

The scoring problems were understandably caused by the wetness and resultant mud: the scoring system missed 2 of our 7 Elite Varsity Women (senior Carson Hockersmith and junior Sofia Estes), while our Elite Varsity Men didn't register a team score because 4 of them were missed (junior Will Muirhead, junior Brady Laboret, senior Brett Pedersen, and junior Whitson Bedell). The Open Varsity Girls fared better with only 2 misses out of 14 (sophomore Ashlyn Carty and sophomore Madison DuBois).

The race organizers have since significantly restated the results by inserting missed runners and their times. But even after the restatements (so far), 20 of the Elite Varsity Men teams still have fewer than 5 runners registering times, so they are still being denied a team score. For example, consider Donna North's team which traveled over 500 miles from the McAllen area for the meet — long, long trip for a rainout. None of this is Southlake Carroll's doing — Texas weather is what it is. How you choose to react to it is your decision.

From the times now included (whether originally recorded or later guess-timated), Lovejoy's Varsity runners saw a full minute added to their times relative to the Plano meet. And FYI, all the results are still listed as "unofficial", so someone is still working on them (or they've given up).

The race course was unrecognizable. Literally. It wasn't until 2/3rds of the way through the first race that the photography staff recognized the locale from a couple years ago when the Leopards last competed here. The race organizers started the first race before sunrise, and the heavy cloud cover and rain made it difficult to spot much less identify our Varsity girls on the course.

One has to feel sorry for the Southlake Parks & Recreation Department which will have to rehabilitate the damaged grounds of Bob Jones Park.

From a positive perspective, if the purpose of Competition Season is to prepare harriers for Championship Season, and if adversity fosters a better competitive spirit, then today's meet was great preparation. Too bad so few of our runners got to compete.

Much credit goes to the Lovejoy Faithful who braved the conditions in force to support the team. Generally speaking, the temperature was perfect — not too cold or too warm considering the rain. So the water coming down was very tolerable. But the effects on the race course and scoring system were overwhelming.

The Varsity Elite Women's race went off pre-dawn just minutes after the clouds really opened up. Lovejoy went with its top 7 who performed well, although the suspect results make it hard to say that with conviction. McKinney North's London Culbreath saw her first action of the season, and didn't disappoint finishing 1st overall in 18:11 (no, really). Last year London ran the same course in 17:09.80. And that's the last we're going to analyze individual times for this meet, 'cause what would be the point. Carson was #1 for Lovejoy (as if rain and darkness could slow her down) followed by super-frosh Katie Armstrong who continues to grow in confidence. The would-be scoring was closed out by a familiar triumvirate: sophomore Amelia Carothers (running without her signature tinted glasses), junior Zoe Bessa (Ms. Money), and junior Sofia Estes — great to see Sofia back in form. Junior Andrea Richardson and senior Avery Silliman completed the side for Lovejoy. Our girls had a 1-5 split time of 1:28, which today means ... ??? !!!. 😕

The Varsity Elite Men's race was quite a stampede. In fact, both the Varsity Elite Men's and Varsity Elite Women's race appeared way overbooked. We can't tell how many actually ran in each race because the results are still missing times for dozens of runners. The currently revised results show Lovejoy's 7 runners coming in 2nd to Southlake Carroll's 9+ runners. But who knows what the correct results actually are? And who — other than Southlake Carroll — knew that you could race more than 7 runners? As it turns out, each team was restricted to 7 runners according to Southlake Carroll's own published meet info/invitation. So does this mean that Southlake Carroll gets DQ'd by its own rules? (And yeah, the Dragons also ran 10 runners in the Varsity Elite Women's race, so another DQ?) At this point it really doesn't matter. But think twice before saying that the boys' undefeated streak was broken today.

As this just turned out to be a practice run in the rain, let's just focus on Lovejoy's order of finish and see how the boys looked. Will was charging along at the finish passing competitors at "will" and looked great doing so. Next came Brady who was much closer to Will for this race — closing the gap as we expected. Then came Brett looking ready for Championship Season. To prove Plano was not a fluke, junior Grant Gueller and senior Michael O'Brien finished out the scoring. They have certainly cemented their places on the Varsity. Whit was #6, and Varsity first-timer junior Erik Day was #7. The 1-5 split time of 1:34.5 is still high ... for today.

The morning's sunniest highlight was seeing Brett Pedersen executing in top form. Historically a slow starter at the season's beginning and plagued by a bad throat at the Plano meet, today Brett was skimming the waves like a water bug at full speed. Fantastic to see.

Senior Chayden DuBois missed the meet to take the ACT, an enviable decision in hindsight. His score today will probably count more than anyone else's (but see the results of the Sam Mena Invitational below).

The Varsity Open Women's race mercifully turned out to be the last. Lovejoy ran 14 competitors (allowed per the rules). The Lady Leopards slogged though a course that had been turned into a mud trough by the first two races. The girls shrugged off the conditions and all finished well. Freshman Avery Ashley again led followed by junior Lily McCutcheon and sophomore Lily Bouldin. Juniors Sara Rouse and Emily Piccirillo closed out a nice race for Lovejoy. Well run by all 14 of the girls.

CLICK HERE for the unofficial results for all races run. We will not be archiving them on this website.

We have to give a shout out to our guys who didn’t get to run today for showing sportman-like behavior. The meet cancellation was announced during the Varsity Open Women’s race and many boys who had not yet run chose to jump onto the course and run a bit. This caused substantial interference with the ongoing Varsity Open Women's race. But none of the usurping boys were from Lovejoy. We should be proud of that.

Now if you wanted to get in a run after being denied by the meet's cancellation, then a great solution would be to head over to Celebration Park for an impromptu WWF Intra-Squad Smackdown. This is exactly what several of our guys did. Kudos to them for turning the tables on a gray, rainy day.

Here are the official results for the 2018 Sam Meña Invitational ...

Collin Jones        17:02
Trevor Malik        17:21
John Armstrong      17:27
Sam Mena            17:44
Shalin Mehta        17:46
Blake Hinton        17:58
Sam Rouse           18:04
Mason Haruska       18:16
Zane Edwards        18:28
Tate Barr           18:36

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album. Currently only marquee photos have been published.

Overall we had 12 career PR’s for the day:

• Jacob Beets – 20:37 – 3 seconds
• Erik Day – 17:06 – 43 seconds
• Zane Edwards – 17:31 – 13 seconds
• Grant Gueller – 16:42 – 1 second
• Collin Jones – 17:08 – 59 seconds
• Cameron Kennedy – 18:40 – 17 seconds
• Stefan Lingenfelder – 19:24 – 10 seconds
• Justin Maroney – 20:05 – 44 seconds
• Will Muirhead – 15:27 – 25 seconds
• Michael O’Brien – 16:41 – 41 seconds
• Chayden DuBois – 16:38 – 43 second PR - huge race for him!
• Matthew Murray – 19:13 – 23 second PR

The next two weeks will be key weeks for us to continue training and continue to get better before our next meet in Southlake on September 8th. Those who did not race as well as they had hoped, don’t get down! It may not have been the breakthrough you wanted, but keep in mind solid and consistent work will lead to the breakthrough when it will count!

State Rankings

The Boys team is pre-season ranked #1 in the latest CCCAT Poll. Our girls beat pre-season ranked #1 Highland Park girls this past Saturday - so pretty neat! Find the Poll HERE.

National Recognition and Rankings

Will Muirhead was mentioned in a national article on Mile Split and currently has the #1 5K boys time in the nation. Keep in mind it is only week one, but still awesome! Find the article HERE.

• Will Muirhead — US #1 5K boys time
• Brady Laboret — US #21 5K boys time
• Carson Hockersmith — US #20 5K girls time

Practice First Week of School

• Runners report to the Team Meeting room of the LHS Field House during 8th period.
• We will continue practice at 7:00 PM, Monday - Friday, at Celebration Park until August 31st.
• We will make the switch to 8th period workouts after Labor Day - September 4th. Athletes who do not drive, we will provide bus transportation. More details to come later.

All-in-all I was very pleased by what I saw ... and even as well as the Varsity groups performed ... the real stories were also in the JV races:

• Trevor Malik for the win
• JV Boys almost perfect scoring a regular season meet
• The Malik twins having a strong showing for their first 5K !!
• Avery Ashley leading the group as a freshman ... with Sarah Rouse following closely in her first 5K ...
• soooo many cool things went on this morning that I will stop there ... but just know it was by FAR our best opening meet to start out a season ... and it's not like it was a "soft" meet ... Planos, McKinneys, Prosper, Wylie, HP, Hallsville ... there were some traditionally good teams there

BUT: it's August ... what I like about our schedule now is that we have 3 weeks until we race again to get settled in to some good workouts. This race will serve as a huge confidence boost to a lot of our athletes in letting them know that this is something they can do well and all the summer work wasn't misspent. It will also serve as an eye opener to some in that there are no spots garaunteed on this team and every week is a chance to get better and improve in some way.

With over 100 athletes racing and 3 coaches, it's difficult to make a meaningful contact with an athlete like we want to after a race ... so if you or your athlete wants to chat have them text me this weekend if they need feedback on their performance before Monday.

We are about to enter the meat of our training program and you/your athlete will be having some tired legs ... that's expected and will last until after our home meet ... then we focus on speed and getting scary fast !! Again ... I'm so proud of everyone today.

I told the kids on the buses but in case I missed anyone ... if really feeling ragged tomorrow do a 1/2 Long Run ... and if feeling great, no more than a 3/4 normal length run. Let your body recover, but get in a run so you will feel better on Monday for the progression which will be modified.

Ok ... I think thats about it. Look for Carly, and Logan's emails for more detailed analysis ... and Jim's webpage for an observational viewpoint along with pictures when he has time to get them up. :)

Link to results: https://static.secure.website/wscfus/8989911/8336291/plano-2018-xc-results.htm

Greg

From a booster perspective it was outstanding to see the booster tent all set up and stocked with refreshments this morning. Kudos to the volunteers who pulled that together. So many parents come into the program with no noteworthy understanding of Cross Country. Mingling with other parents at the booster tent is a great way to join the fold and catch some XC fever. The booster tent also provides an incidental benefit to the coaches and runners: it keeps the parents occupied and away from the team tent before races. ;)

Prosper (6A) is very strong this year and won the Varsity Girls race by finishing 1-3-6-7-10 = 27. That's hard to beat. But Lovejoy was a solid 2nd finishing 2-12-20-25-26 = 85 with 3rd place HP 30 points behind Lovejoy — that hasn't happened before. HP had been ranked #1 in 5A going into this competition season, and today's point spread was sizable. Lovejoy also outdistanced District 10-5A rival McKinney North. As our coaches predicted, North rested all-world London Culbreath, but even if she had been in North's lineup, Lovejoy still would have finished 71 points ahead of the Bulldogs.

Our coaches told our girls to be aggressive and they were. Senior Carson Hockersmith (19:02.35, 2nd overall) took off at the start like she was late for a Calculus exam. She led the race much of the way. She finished 2nd overall holding off a pack of 5 girls from Prosper (6A) and McKinney Boyd (6A) who ranged from 0.25 to 7.49 seconds behind her. HP's leader Sofia Oliai who beat Carson by 30.2 seconds at District last October finished 31.3 seconds behind Carson today — that's a 61.5-second swing.

Sophomore Amelia Carothers (19:46.07, 12th) pushed herself hard, and gave Lovejoy two times (well) under 20 minutes. Last fall, Amelia employed a sure-footed approach. This fall she is running with a lot of confidence and holding nothing back.

Lovejoy's freshmen girls generally clobbered the field today, and none wielded a bigger bat than Katie Armstrong (20:13.97, 20th). She really came up huge in her LHS debut and led in the scoring pack. By District Lovejoy should have at least 3 Varsity girls under 20 minutes.

Junior Zoe Bessa (20:28.83, 25th) quietly continues as a big force for the Leopards finishing again today in our top 5. She has become one of those rare money runners: reliably finishing somewhere in the #3 to #5 position. Junior Andee Richardson (20:33.71, 26th) had a very big day in closing out the scoring. Finishing in our top 5 to start the season is a first for her. Senior Avery Silliman (20:52.44, 36th) gave Lovejoy 6 runners under 21 minutes.

Finally, the Lady Leopards had a nice, tight pack of juniors come in to finish Lovejoy's race: Sofia Estes (21:23.62, 46th), Emily Piccirillo (21:25.28, 48th), and Lily McCutcheon (21:29.64, 53rd). That's large to have all 9 girls finish in the top one-third of a competitive 181-runner field.

Carson's terrific performance helped balloon the 1-5 split time to 1:31.4, but the other girls will get closer to her by District — it's only August 18th and District is on October 9th. But remember that HP and North will also get better by the start of Championship season. And they will remember what Lovejoy's girls did to them today. We will too!

[results]

The Varsity Boys delivered a beat down to the other teams in putting together a quality first race. They were supposed to get a crack at a higher-ranked Wylie (6A) today, but the Pirates that showed up were not what we expected. Lovejoy coasted past the other 30 teams winning out over 2nd place finisher Prosper (6A) and 3rd place Plano East (6A) by a score of 37-85-137. The Wylie Boys Varsity squad that did run scored a 364 in finishing 11th. The HP boys ran at the Little D Classic and did not accompany their girls to Plano.

Junior Will Muirhead (15:27.64, 1st overall) simply outran everyone from the get go. He was hoofing it today — visions of Secretariat. The photography staff is upping its camera shutter speed to 1/1000th of a second after today. Truly. 1/800th of a second is no longer fast enough to catch the action.

Junior Brady Laboret (16:05.78, 4th) was in a bubble by himself — about 40 seconds behind Will and about 30 seconds ahead of the start of the Leopard scoring pack. He's close to getting back under 16 minutes — looking good. The boys' 1-5 split time of 1:15.31 is not yet State Championship material, but it's only mid-August.

Senior Chayden DuBois (16:38.36, 5th) led in the scoring pack of senior Michael O'Brien (16:40.15, 11th) and junior Grant Gueller (16:42.95, 12th).

Wait, what, who made up the scoring pack today!? The pre-season prognosticators (TX MileSplit, etc.) had speculated about which Leopards would step up to fill in for the graduations of Ryan Brands, Mr. Bradley Davis, and Ryan Spruell. None of them were thinking of Chayden, Michael and Grant. But the Leopard Faithful had a notion. Maybe.

The second pack came in like a stampede about 20 seconds later led by junior Whitson Bedell (17:02.75, 19th), who was followed by junior Erik Day (17:06.41, 20th), senior Collin Jones (17:08.29, 21st), and senior Brett Pedersen (17:14.43, 27th) who was nursing a bad throat. Junior Zane Edwards (17:31.85, 45th) almost broke the 17:30 mark, and put all Lovejoy runners in the top 25% a quality field of 201 runners.

In past seasons the Varsity Boys have wanted to go to Nike Nationals in Oregon come December — it's been a team goal. Today they looked like they plan to go. UIL District, Region, and State are paramount and will be respected: the boys and coaches know that. But they definitely look hungry for more.

[results]

The JV Girls also beat their HP counterparts in an unprecedented sweep of the HP all-girl army. Lovejoy started racing HP's girls back in the fall of 2006 at both the Plano Invitational and Lovejoy's first annual XC meet, then called the Lovejoy Jamboree. In JV racing, squad size is a factor: HP ran 43 girls to Lovejoy's 33, while the third largest team from JJ Pearce only ran 20 girls. And yes, Lovejoy won the race over HP and McKinney North by a score of 57-78-144. The girls are looking very good for a District Championship come October, which Lovejoy hasn't won since 2013.

In total, Lovejoy ran 42 girls today (9 Varsity and 33 JV) and 46 boys (10 Varsity and 36 JV) — relative parity, and the largest LHS contingent we've ever fielded. The extra uniforms and buses are well worth it to support such a healthy commitment to the XC program.

Freshman Avery Ashley (22:08.84, 3rd overall) had a great first race for LHS looking comfortable in her role as the squad's leader. Junior Sara Rouse (22:34.77, 7th) and Sophomore Lily Bouldin (22:35.36, 8th) gave Lovejoy 3 top-10 finishers which usually leads to victory. Sophomore Ashlyn Carty (23:23.74, 17th) was followed in by the freshmen twins, Rachel Malik (23:50.73, 22nd) and Hailey Malik (23:53.20, 23rd). Rachel's finish locked down the win for Lovejoy and Hailey's finish added to HP's score. Yet another freshman, Jordyn Caro (23:57.89, 26th) filled Lovejoy's #7 spot.

So, of the 14 Lovejoy girls who finished in the top 7 of today's Varsity and JV races, 5 of them were freshmen. Quite an inaugural statement by the class of 2022. Lovejoy's girls first made it to State in 2008 because of an influx of quality freshmen. Here's hoping we see a repeat of that phenomenon in Round Rock this November.

[results]

The JV Boys dominated their race today putting 4 runners in the top 5, 5 runners in the top 10, and 9 runners in the top 25 — hard to do in today's largest field of 307 runners. But these boys are an absolute wrecking crew to any opponent. They scored a meet low 20 points despite running with a depleted squad since 3 of the top JV runners were bumped up to create a 10-runner Varsity squad. They outscored the 2nd and 3rd place teams from McKinney Boyd (6A) and Prosper (6A) by a score of 20-68-80. Not close. They turned in Lovejoy's best 1-5 split time of 47.7 seconds.

Junior Trevor Malik (17:42.92, 1st overall) took command of the race about half way through and seriously distanced himself from the field — 21.1 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher ... who was ... sophomore Alex Pedersen (18:04.05, 2nd) who was immediately followed by junior Mason Heruska (18:14.50, 3rd) who was followed two runners later by sophomore John Armstrong (18:17.33, 5th). Junior Blake Hinton (18:30.63, 9th) put the matter to rest 13.3 seconds later. Sophomore Cameron Kennedy (18:40.88, 14th) and freshman Rohan Sharma (18:42.16, 15th) filled out the #6 and #7 spots placing all 7 of Lovejoy's scorers in the top 15. And there were a lot more Leopards right behind them. So much for the Plano Invitational being a shakeout meet.

[results]

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

1. You just had an off day.
2. Have you trained consistently this summer and/or the track season with no interruptions?
3. Were you injured this summer or during the track season and had to take time off?
4. Are you mentally motivated to becoming the best runner you can be?
5. Are you dealing with an ache or pain/injury that is preventing you to run as hard as you know you are capable of?

Here are some comparable stats to last seasons time trial (boys breakdown only):

                     2017      2018
Sub 10:00 Runners:     3         2
Sub 10:20 Runners:     5         7
Sub 10:30 Runners:     7         9
Sub 11:00 Runners:    13        14
Sub 12:00 Runners:    20        26
Sub 13:00 Runners:    25        33

Click here for the results from today's time trial. I also calculated out the 5K Equivalency for your reference.

Girls              Today / Last Season
Hockersmith        11:43 / 11:44
Carothers          12:15 / 13:06
Silliman           12:32 / 13:00
Estes              12:43 / 12:53
Bessa              12:43 / 13:37
Richardson         12:49 / 13:49
Armstong           12:50 / dnr
Piccirillo         12:51 / 14:09
McCutcheon         12:56 / 14:28
Ashley             13:15 / dnr
Carty              13:29 / 14:08
Bouldin            13:37 / 15:21
Rouse              13:37 / dnr
McGowan            13:39 / 14:14
Szczesny           13:46 / 14:54

Boys               Today / Last Season
Muirhead            9:40 / 10:03
Laboret             9:43 /  9:56
Bedell             10:02 / 10:23
B Pedersen         10:10 / 10:27
Gueller            10:16 / 10:43
DuBois             10:18 / 10:40
O'Brien            10:19 / 10:55
Day                10:24 / 11:13
Edwards            10:29 / dnr
Jones              10:31 / 11:34
Armstrong          10:33 / 11:55
Malik              10:36 / 11:11
A Pedersen         10:51 / 10:59
Mehta              10:53 / 13:01

In scoring the girls vs last season's team ... this year's team wins by a landslide putting all 7 scorers in front of last season's #2 girl. The boys lose by 1 point 26-27 ... but the encouraging thing is our depth and that was the one thing I was most worried about coming into the season. We are going to be fine with our front runners ... we just need to make sure that both teams slam the door in scoring with our 4-7 runners.

All in all a lot of fun and having Coach Puckett only added to the flair ... Carly and Logan will be sending out complete rundowns but I was very pleased with the results.

Greg

The girls' squad featured a couple of new wrinkles. First, the girls squad is once again as large as the boys with over 50 runners. Based on District participation, the largest the girls' squad had previously gotten was 30 runners for the Fall 2014 campaign. So squad depth is a big plus for the girls this year. Second, the girls had their game faces on during preparation and the run. They got casual after the running, but the seriousness of their attitude early on was noteworthy.

This year's top 5 girls averaged 28.4 seconds faster than last year's top 5.

Click here for the complete results.

The boys looked great, but have the unenviable task of replacing 3 Varsity graduates who played key roles — Ryan Brands, Mr. Bradley, and Ryan Spruel. But today's results show a large number of candidates available to step up.

This year's top 5 boys averaged 1.8 seconds faster than last year's top 5.

Can they three-peat? Well, it's probably bad luck to discuss such a feat so early on in the season, so I won't. But it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Click here for the online gallery. All photos have been uploaded.