Still, the consolidation of such spectacular national talent at a single championship made it well worth attending. Hopefully Amy can be joined by more of her Lovejoy teammates next December. Amy's fan base today included her mom and Coach Littlefield. Lots of high school coaches and parents attended. As expected, an unsurpassed collection of college coaches attended.

Generally speaking the qualifiers from the NXR South Regional did not fare well again this year. For the boys, Southlake Carroll and The Woodlands finished 14th and 15th out of 22 teams while El Paso Eastwood was last for the second year in a row. For the girls it was worse — Southlake Carroll and Propser finished 21st and 22nd. You have to wonder how the South runners would do if the event were held in say Ft. Lauderdale or Scottsdale.

Coming into the race several prognosticators had discussed who could beat 3-time national champion Katelyn Tuohy, and one of the names mentioned was Denton Guyer's Brynn Brown. But Brynn finished 23rd and yet was today's top finisher amongst the NXR South individual qualifiers. Let's face it: Texas kids just don't run as well in 40° rainy weather. There's a reason why the University of Oregon's mascot is the duck.

One of the coaches from one of the perennial New York qualifying teams said that the weather today was actually warmer than last year. He also said the Nike should rotate the NXN to a different region every year — more fair to athletes and fans, and better marketing for Nike.

Regardless of the weather, Amy had a great race representing Lovejoy well. She finished 160th out of 201 runners in 20:09.7, which is fine considering the competition she was facing. Well done and definitely worth the trip up to Oregon to watch.

The Girls NXN Championship race was won by Katelyn Tuohy as expected, but it was very close at the finish with the top 3 times of 17:18.4, 17:19.1, and 17:19.4 spanning only a second. The top girls finisher from the NXR South Regional was Brynn Brown (23rd in 18:08.8). The Boys NXN Championship race was a runaway for Nico Young (14:52.3) from the start. The top boys finisher from the NXR South Regional was Austin Vandergrift's Anthony Monte (12th in 15:17.8).

[results]

Carly Littlefield

One observation from this years state meet was that the 5K times are becoming faster and faster each year. The all time UIL State 5K record was broken twice yesterday. The average team times are getting faster each year. See the graphic below from Jim McGuinness showing times are improving each year. The red triangles represent Lovejoy boys teams. All teams across the board are improving each year.

On the drive back from the state meet I felt very motivated to make sure we have a great track season, raise the bar, and get back on the podium next year. We will need all runners to give it their all this track season and raise the bar even higher. Runners are getting faster across the state and so do we. We will have 5 of our top 10 returning next year and we have other runners wanting to help fill the shoes of the seniors that will be leaving. Running is a cyclical process. Summer Training carries over to the Fall Cross Country season, Winter Training carries over to the Track Season, and the Track Season carries over into the runners overall progression. Let's get to work!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

The Lovejoy community made its most significant appearance ever. So many parents, teammates, alumni, and administrators made the trek down to Round Rock to give our harriers their best support ever.

In the 5A Girls Championship race, the Lady Leopards put an exclamation point on a fantastic season. In two short years the girls have come a very long way from not having a single representative at State to placing 6th overall in a ridiculously competitive field as well as having the 3rd overall finisher on the podium.

At the McNeil Invitational in late September, the top 5 Lovejoy girls averaged a time of 19:38.84, but today they shaved 37.78 seconds off that to average 19:01.06. That's a huge improvement. And all 5 positions showed time improvements: Freshman Amy's Morefield's drop of 40.96 seconds was not even the largest improvement.

Finishing #1 for Lovejoy came all-world frosh Amy Morefield (3rd overall in 17:34.74) with a nice improvement over her 18:15.70 time at the McNeil. Amy has gone 3 for 3 in UIL championship races against London Culbreath. Today's 5A champion Colleen Stegmann from Frisco Reedy can only boast a 2-4 record against London. Since Colleen is a junior, Amy will get another shot at her next fall. Junior Amelia Carothers (41st in 19:10.18) actually managed a slight improvement over her McNeil time which didn't seem possible. Senior Zoe Bessa (46th in 19:17.60) hit another PR and had the kind of final race we hope all seniors have. She dropped 1:30.50 off her McNeil time — amazing, but that's what you'd expect from a money runner. Sophomore Rachel Malik (54th in 19:28.55) had a great race. She tracked Sofia Estes throughout most the race and then pushed ahead at the finish. Senior Sofia Estes (58th in 19:34.25) almost dropped under the 19:30 mark, but a huge 1:36.65 improvement over her McNeil time. Fantastic final race for her. Sophomore Katie Armstrong (80th in 20:00.54) had an off day, but the State experience will be invaluable for her. She'll continue to be a Varsity mainstay for the next couple years. Senior Andee Richardson (110th in 21:55.22) ran injured, but since this was her only chance to run State in her 4 years on the Varsity she gave it her best effort and did so without complaint — a gutsy, tough performance.

The girls 2-5 split time of 24.07 seconds is what you want to see at State. Next year they'll just need to work on advancing the scoring pack farther up in the field.

From the perspective of the photography staff, the girls hit all their goals this fall by qualifying for State and having Amy on the podium. Great job, ladies. For those looking ahead, the girls squad has a very promising future.

[results]

In the 5A Boys Championship race, El Paso Eastwood won it going away with a score of 51 points and an average time for their #1 to #5 runners of 15:19.06. The Lovejoy coaches thought they needed 5 times under 16:00 minutes — but that would not have come close to beating Eastwood on this day. Looking at the 6A Boys Championship, Eastwood would have beaten Southlake Carroll for 1st place if Eastwood had run 6A today.

Lovejoy hit a solid average of 15:57.28 with only two runners under 16:00. In vying for 2nd/3rd place with Grapevine, Boerne Champion, and El Paso Hanks, the guys came up short by a score of 110-128-151-178.

Senior Will Muirhead bettered his previous best Lovejoy time with another sub-15-minute performance at 14:59.28. From a Leopard perspective, this performance alone justified the trip down to Round Rock. This PR for Will was on a proven 5K course length. That's exactly how you want to finish as a senior. Will completes his Lovejoy XC career as simply the fastest harrier in Lovejoy program history — none better and none close. As fast as Eastwood was today, Will beat all of the Eastwood boys to the finish line.

Senior Brady Laboret (23rd overall in 15.44.54) has been a Varsity rock for 4 years, and extremely consistent in the past 3 State Championships where his times have ranged between 15:40 and 15:50. Two years ago, Brady finished 5th overall with a time that was 3.4 seconds slower than today when he finished 23rd overall. The boys won State two years ago, but finished 5th today. This may perhaps be the most telling indicator of how fast the 5A competition has gotten in recent years.

Getting more comprehensive on that analysis, the adjacent chart shows how fast the average 5A times per team have gotten over just the last 4 seasons. In 2016 and 2017 Lovejoy won the 1st place trophy with average times over 16:00, but today the Leopards dropped to 5th place with an average of 15:57.28. At the same time, the average it took to win 1st dropped from 16:03.65 in 2016 down to 15:19.06 today. That's a ridiculous 44.59-second average drop in 3 years.

Simply put, the boys did not lose today, they got beat. There's no shame in acknowledging superior competition that deservedly performed better. Using Will and Brady as anchors, the plan was to have two other Lovejoy runners finish between the anchors. We've seen that in prior meets this fall. But today we saw a 45.26-second gap between #1 (Will) and #2 (Brady), and then a 27.79-second gap between #2 (Brady) and #3 (Whitson). At State such gaps will definitely push you off the podium.

Coming in at #3 was senior Whitson Bedell (42nd overall in 16:12.33). Whit is one of the many 6-year XC runners in the 2020 senior class. Quite a contributor to the program and Varsity. Next came a still recovering junior Trevor Malik (51st in 16:22.51). Trevor was #7 for Lovejoy at the 2-mile mark, but kicked it in the last mile and delivered a solid time as Lovejoy's #4 finisher. His return to form has been spectacular, and he just ran out of races in his recovery to last fall's form. But as a junior, he'll be one of next fall's solid leaders. At #5 came junior John Armstrong (58th in 16:27.72) with a noteworthy 7.95-second improvement over his great time on the short Region II course 12 days ago. Over the years John has shown smoothly consistent improvement, and he'll be another big factor next fall. Senior Erik Day (60th in 16:34.70) completed one of Lovejoy's success story XC careers. Erik started running in 7th grade and worked his way up though the JV ranks to the championship-level Varsity this season. Gotta love those veterans. Finally came senior Grant Gueller (71st in 16:49.02). Probably not how Grant wanted to end his Lovejoy XC career, but he's been recovering all season, and the sport is set up to expect an off day from one or two runners per team. Still Grant (like Erik) is one of those 6-year vets who worked his way up to be a major contributor to team success.

[results]

Coach Kelly will have to be extremely creative in rebuilding his Varsity next fall. He's losing 5 of his top 7 performers. Lovejoy's ridiculously deep JV will provide great relief, but next fall should be a barn burner for the Leopards. Stay tuned.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

Full meet results from Region II HERE.

Region I Results HERE
Region III Results HERE
Region IV Results HERE

Updated All Time Top 20 5K Girls List

Carly Littlefield

Updated All Time Top 20 5K Boys List

Let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

We equally congratulate the boys on qualifying for State for the 12th year in a row. While Lovejoy is extremely proud of the boys winning District for 13 years straight (both JV and Varsity), their State appearance record is even more impressive. Qualifying out of Region to State is not easy — ask the girls. The boys uncontested 1st place finish today adds another exclamation point to their ongoing annual dominance at Region: the boys have finished 1st at Region for the past four years.

The weather in southwest Dallas was cool and overcast with a slight breeze around noon when the 5A races went off. Recent rains have nicely softened the course, but it was not muddy and the traction looked great.

The Lovejoy Faithful attended in spades — great to see considering today is a Monday and the Jesse Owens Sports Complex is almost 41 miles away from Lovejoy High School requiring a trek through downtown Dallas. Notable administrators attending were LHS Principal Chris Mayfield, LISD Athletic Director Jim Bob Puckett, and Assistant AD Kyle Herrema. Coach C was also on hand and not touring in Mexico as rumored.

As examples of the commitment our parents, boosters and teammates have for this magnificent thing we call Lovejoy XC, dad Joe Estes and sophomores Cassidy Day and Hailey Malik were at the meet limping around in orthopedic boots while cheering on the Leopards.

The UIL appears to have solved the mystery of this fall's timing issues. The condemned culprits were the Apple watches so many of the runners have been sporting lately. Something about the Apple watchOS communications protocols were confusing the timing systems. So today all the Apple watches were banned and only a single runner got missed by the scoring system in the 5A boys race. Does this put the runners unable to use their Apple watches at a disadvantage? Perhaps, but UIL official Jerry Sutterfield summed it up saying "You're not racing for a time, you're racing against your opponents." As an FYI, all of the Apple Watch communications signals can be shut off by both (a) putting the watch in airplane mode, and (b) turning off Bluetooth. We'll see what the UIL decides to do at State.

The 5A Region II Girls Championship race was a competition between the four top teams: 1. Highland Park, 2. Lovejoy, 3. Frisco Reedy, and 4. Frisco Wakeland with a final score of 81-82-88-99. None of the other 20 teams were in contention. Texas Milesplit placed Lovejoy 4th in its 5A Region II preview, so our girls missing 1st place by a single point has opened quite a few eyes.

Freshman Amy Morefield (2nd overall in 17:29.90) proved that beating North's London Culbreath (3rd overall in 17:35.12) at District was no fluke. Reedy's Colleen Stegmann (1st overall in 17:14.57) got her first UIL championship victory over London. According to North's coach, Jessica Richards, London is recovering from injuries. Still the three of them went at each over for two solid miles before Stegmann separated followed by Amy's separation from London. While their times differ from last year, the 2018 Region course was shorter yet muddy, so you really can't draw meaningful comparisons.

Arguably Lovejoy's best race of the day came from junior Amelia Carothers (9th in 18:45.16) who sliced over a minute off of her time from District. Really amazing and exactly what Lovejoy needed to ensure a top-4 finish and a trip to State. When Amelia crossed the finish line, you almost certainly knew the girls were headed to State. What came next almost handed them the Region Championship. Senior Sofia Estes (21st in 19:18.24) wins today's MVP for hauling in the scoring pack at high velocity: senior Zoe Bessa (24th in 19:24.60), a surging sophomore Rachel Malik (26th in 19:26.73), and for extra measure sophomore Katie Armstrong (28th 19:29.79). The 3-6 split time for the scoring pack was 11.55 seconds. So that's Lovejoy's top 6 all in under the 19:30 mark and in the top 18% of one of the UIL's most competitive Region Championships at any level. Senior Andrea Richardson (60th in 20:37.97) turned in her best performance of the season improving on her District time by 15.57 seconds. All the girls upped their game today — they would not be denied a podium spot.

While District (6 teams) and State (16 teams) have relatively uncrowded fields, today's Region had a flood of 173+ runners for the 5A Girls Championship. Very keen competition and truly a gauntlet to pass through in order to qualify for State.

[results]

Next up for the girls is State — it brings a smile to your face just saying that. The girls gained valuable experience with the Round Rock course during the McNeil Invitational. Lovejoy knows how to beat HP. But can they hurdle Cedar Park and Grapevine? Come down to State and find out. This year the 5A girls race doesn't go off until 1:10 pm, so everyone can make a day trip of it — no reason for spectators to stay in Round Rock the night before.

The 5A Region II Boys Championship race turned into another showcase for Lovejoy. The coaches' only concern coming into the race was Wakeland, but the Leopards dispatched the Wolverines convincingly with all 7 Lovejoy runners getting in before the Wolverines' #3 crossed the finish line. Upstart Frisco Reedy actually bested Wakeland by 20 points and took 2nd place. Wakeland only beat Reedy by 1 point at District, so the flip at Region is not really an upset. One notable factoid is that all the Lovejoy runners finished before Highland Park's #1 did. In Lovejoy's early years, the HP boys were a benchmark across the state. Now Lovejoy is the Region II benchmark and well known all across Texas.

Senior Will Muirhead (1st overall in 14:59.30) had the 3rd best time of any runner today edging this season's nemesis Judson Greer (15:02.80) of 4A Melissa. Spencer Cardinal (14:38.86) of The Woodlands and Anthony Monte (14:41.41) of Austin Vandergrift pushed each other to better times than Will in the 6A Boys Championship race. But a fantastic start to Lovejoy's scoring. With Will's time in the bank at under 15 minutes, next came ... senior Brady Laboret (6th in 15:31.31) who roughly equalled his time from last year's Region. Amusingly today's 6th place overall finish is Brady's worst performance in his four Region II Championship races. His previous three finishes were 5th (2016), 4th (2017), and 3rd (2018). After Brady came a gap of over 36 seconds before seniors Whitson Bedell (15th in 16:07.84) and Grant Gueller (16:09.38) came in.

But then another 17+ second gap before senior Erik Day closed out the scoring. Against Region II Boys competition, the Leopards can waltz to 1st place, but at State the coaches predict we'll need 5 runners under the 16-minute mark. Whit and Grant are close, and for a #5 runner how about junior Trevor Malik (28th in 16:34.61) — that's 62.51 seconds faster than his District time. But can he shave off another 35 seconds at State? We'll see. Trevor had a huge finish today — lots left in his gas tank at the end of the race. Finally with another solid performance came junior John Armstrong (30th in 16:35.67) — also a nice improvement over District. That put the 3-7 split time at 27.83 seconds which works nicely. But the scoring pack will have to get closer to Brady (but not Will — no one is catching Secretariat).

One other notable: the boys' white shorts are back!

El Paso Eastwood, El Paso Hanks, Boerne Champion, and Grapevine will all be waiting for the boys at State. Since Boerne was not seriously challenged in the Region IV Championships, it can be hard to gauge how they'll do at State. But the other three dueled it out at the Region I Championships with only 17 seconds separating their top-5 average times. We've been talking about Eastwood for over a year, but Hanks and Grapevine should also provide some serious competition. Bring it on.

[results]

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

It was such a totally cool day, and much like Will's win last spring at the Texas Relays in the Steeplechase, one I won't forget for a loooong time.

There is a lot to do yet for those moving on to Regionals ... those moving on will focus on rest, speed, and getting healthier so we can put our strongest 7 on the line from here on out ... Those not moving on, but racing at Nike Regionals have time to train hard without the burden/joy of racing to maybe hit goals not yet reached ... and those whose racing is done except for the Race Over Depression have time to reassess commitment levels, heal, and follow the examples of excellence set for them to ensure days like yesterday are the norm !!!

I am leaving today to visit family, but will be back early next week to support Carly and Logan in to Regionals ...

Run Happy Run Long Follow Your Arrow

Greg

Going into the meet, we set some major goals as a team and as individuals. I knew it would not be easy to achieve, as we have McKinney North in our district, and they are a top program in the State. Their girls team is never one to count out, so I knew we would have to race well to reach our goals. That we did! Right from the sound of the gun we commanded both races and it was clear that our girls were not shying away from a repeat of last year. Obviously, Amy shocked and rocked the State with her big win over Culbreath — though I must admit I am not surprised. The rest of the Varsity squad executed the race plan to finish almost exactly as we hoped. Amelia continues to be a strong, consistent force and yesterday Zoe brought out her A-game like she always does this time of year!! We continue to learn as individuals as we prepare to really shine at the Regional meet on the 28th — that will be where each young woman must have her best day in order to get to the next level of competition.

The JV squad (#2 ranked JV squad in the State, by-the-way 🙂) raced even better than expected. I was beyond excited for this race. It says a lot about the work ethic, training, and passion of a team when you have the depth and dedication that we have in our JV group (boys and girls). We had 10 PR's on a tough day of racing! And for me, one of the coolest parts was the way our SENIORS raced!!! 3 seniors led the charge (going 1, 2, 3 ...) and proved how much this team means to them! Senior Andee Richardson has been so consistent in her training and racing this season, and yesterday it all came together for her as she not only WON the race, but had her best time of the season and showed that she's not quite done yet!! It was a tearful moment for me; I love when kids have that moment of "I can do this" ... and then they do. Maci and Lily Mac followed Andee to complete the senior trio! Sarah Rouse also had a big day and raced hard for her team! Carissa Dresser, Madeline Sanders, Emma Smith, Mia Szczesny all had their best races of the season. When you have these types of kids/Seniors leading your team ... you just can't go wrong!!!

• Varsity Girls Individual District Champion — Amy Morefield
• Varsity Girls Team Champions
• JV Girls Individual District Champion — Andee Richardson
• JV Girls Team Champions (15 points, perfect score)
• Top-10 medals for 6 of the 7 Varsity Girls
• Top-10 medals for 7 of the JV Girls
• Girls District MVP, Newcomer, Freshman of the year — Amy Morefield

CLICK HERE for full results.

Workouts Going Forward

With the district meet now concluded we will break off into 3 different training groups.

• Group 1: Runners Training for Regionals and State Meet. This group will continue to train on the plan mapped out.
• Group 2: Runners who have run sub 21:30 this season, but are not training for the Regional and State Meet. OR runners who are close to running sub 21:30 and are wanting to continue to train to Running Over Depression race. These runners will run some workouts that are the same as our regional/state group and some workouts will be altered accordingly.
• Group 3: Runners who ran in the JV meet and not training with Group 2. These runners will run easy mileage until Thanksgiving break.

Over Thanksgiving break Groups 2 and 3 will take a 1 week break from training. When we return from Thanksgiving break runners will run 3 days during the week with two of the days being off days.

When we return from Thanksgiving break we begin our base mileage phase of training for the track season.

Carly Littlefield

CLICK HERE for full results.

Although we did have a dominating race performance placing wise, we still need to run faster at the Regional and State meet for our varsity squad. We need 7 runners running sub 16:30 to secure Regional and State titles. Ideally sub 16:15. We are working toward that goal and will have to perform at Regionals and State. Looking through results, El Paso Eastwood looks favorable to our team and their 5th runner is beatable. We will need to be on our A game at Regionals and State to beat them and that is very doable.

Workouts Going Forward

With the district meet now concluded we will break off into 3 different training groups.

• Group 1: Runners Training for Regionals and State Meet. This group will continue to train on the plan mapped out.
• Group 2: Runners who have run sub 21:30 this season, but are not training for the Regional and State Meet. OR runners who are close to running sub 21:30 and are wanting to continue to train to Running Over Depression race. These runners will run some workouts that are the same as our regional/state group and some workouts will be altered accordingly.
• Group 3: Runners who ran in the JV meet and not training with Group 2. These runners will run easy mileage until Thanksgiving break.

Over Thanksgiving break Groups 2 and 3 will take a 1 week break from training. When we return from Thanksgiving break runners will run 3 days during the week with two of the days being off days.

When we return from Thanksgiving break we begin our base mileage phase of training for the track season.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

The weather at Myers Park was pleasantly overcast with a nice breeze. Even in mid-October, this summer's heat has not fully dissipated. But even warm, humid weather could not slow down Lovejoy today. Everyone was on hand including LISD Super Dr. Michael Goddard. LISD Athletic Director Jim Bob Pucket and Boys Athletic Coordinator Kyle Herrama helped run the awards ceremony. And as ever, Head Trainer Susan Smiley and some of her staff were on the ready to tend to athletes' injuries.

The parent turnout was excellent.

Getting back to Lovejoy's dominance today, here is a list of what our harriers cumulatively accomplished for the 2019 UIL 5A District 10 XC Championships ...

• Varsity Girls Individual Champion, freshman Amy Morefield
• Varsity Girls Team Champions (21 points)
• Varsity Boys Individual Champion, senior Will Muirhead
• Varsity Boys Team Champions (15 points, perfect score)
• JV Girls Individual Champion, senior Andrea Richardson
• JV Girls Team Champions (15 points, perfect score)
• JV Boys Individual Champion, junior John Armstrong
• JV Boys Team Champions (15 points, perfect score)
• Top-10 medals for 6 of the 7 Varsity Girls: freshman Amy Morefield, junior Amelia Carothers, senior Zoe Bessa, senior Sofia Estes, sophomore Katie Armstrong, sophomore Rachel Malik
• Top-10 medals for all 7 Varsity Boys: senior Will Muirhead, senior Whitson Beddel, senior Grant Gueller, senior Brady Laboret, sophomore Riley McGowan, senior Erik Day, sophomore Matthew Murray
• Top-10 medals for 7 of the JV Girls: senior Andrea Richardson, senior Maci Martelloni, senior Lily McCutcheon, freshman Callan Snider, junior Lily Bouldin, senior Sara Rouse, freshman Malia Bowling
• Top-10 medals for all 10 of the top JV Boys: junior John Armstrong, sophomore Rohan Sharma, junior Trevor Malik, senior Zane Edwards, senior Brendan Dunleavy, sophomore Carson Person, junior Cameron Kennedy, senior Sam Mena, senior Shalin Mehta, junior Luis Sandoval
• Girls MVP, freshman Amy Morefield
• Boys MVP, senior Will Muirhead
• Girls Freshman of the Year, freshman Amy Morefield
• Girls Varsity Newcomer of the Year, freshman Amy Morefield
• Boys Varsity Newcomer of the Year, sophomore Riley McGowan
• Girls Coach of the Year, Carly Littlefield
• Boys Coach of the Year, Logan Kelly

For the sake of comparison, here's a list of what Lovejoy did not win this morning ...

• 1 of the Top-10 medals for the Varsity Girls
• 3 of the Top-10 medals for the JV Girls
• Boys Freshman of the Year

Other than that, Lovejoy won it all. The Runnin’ Leopards have always been dominant, but today they took dominance to a whole new level.

Lovejoy has great student athletes, and supportive parents and ISD administrators. But so do many other high schools. Lovejoy's big differentiator is coaching. From the very beginning Lovejoy has been blessed with great XC coaches who dedicate themselves to this program. By comparison take a look at McKinney North, truly a quality XC program in our District. North's head coach, Jessica Richards, clearly knows distance running, but there's only one of her. Of her two assistants one is the soccer coach, and the other is a science teacher. Conversely at Lovejoy all of the coaches who work with our harriers have deep knowledge of distance running and know how to coach it. Our athletes are willing and dedicated, but without the coaching their effectiveness would be limited. So a big thank you to our coaches and also to our LISD administrators who keep the Lovejoy XC coaching brain trust intact.

Watching Lovejoy collect almost every award during the awards ceremony was somewhat embarrassing. But realizing how much more competitive the other schools could be with effective, comprehensive coaching was actually depressing. The other schools' runners deserve a big thank you for staying through the entire awards ceremony and behaving in a respectful and attentive manner. That hasn't happened in years past.

But back to the racing.

The Varsity Girls Championship race started out as a cozy tempo run. If you study London Culbreath's past victories, you'll see her success lies in distancing herself from opponents and building up an insurmountable lead. She hasn't shown break away speed at the finish. Letting Amy Morefield stay with her until the last 1500 meters was fatal. Unlike London, Amy is an absolute flyer at the finish. The last Lovejoy girl to attack the finish with such speed and ferocity was 2013 grad Mackenzie Miller.

This duel was the big excitement point of the race, and quite frankly all the races. From there on out it was all Lovejoy. The Varsity girls scored 21 points which is a slight improvement from the 25 points they scored last year at District. The point spread with 2nd place McKinney North and 3rd place Wylie East was 21-56-74. Lovejoy's order of finish was 1-3-4-6-7-8-11 with a 1-5 split time of 2:16.07, which the girls will need to tighten up for Region.

After Amy's blistering performance came junior Amelia Carothers (3rd in 19:49.7) with Lovejoy's only other sub-20-minute time. Amelia was exactly 6.0 seconds faster today than 2 years ago as a freshman at District. [Note: We're avoiding comparisons with last fall's District Championships since that was more about mud wrestling than running.] Senior Zoe Bessa (4th in 20:12.54) also turned in her best District performance by 20.51 seconds over her 2017 time. Senior Sofia Estes (6th in 2018.59) basically matched her time from 2 years ago. Sophomore Katie Armstrong (7th in 20:31.94) concluded Lovejoy's scoring and locked down the 1st place trophy, although her time was almost 39 seconds slower than at the Fall Festival last month. Today's run for sophomore Rachel Malik (8th in 20:40.23) presented her with a couple of firsts: running without sister Hailey, and running on a dry, stable Myers 5K course. Sophomore Jordyn Caro (11th in 20:56.28) was also behind her Fall Festival time by about 22 seconds. As great as the girls performed today, they'll want to tighten things up for Region and especially State. But today they could coast to the District title by just doing a tempo run.

[results]

The Varsity Boys Championship race started a string of 3 perfect scores for Lovejoy. Lovejoy took 7 of the top 8 finishes with a lone Denison runner breaking up the Lovejoy love-fest. This was a particularly senior heavy Leopard squad composed of 5 seniors and 2 sophomores. Again Lovejoy did not need to turn on the afterburners to lock down the 1st place trophy as they defeated 2nd place McKinney North and 3rd place Wylie East by a score of 15-58-80.

Senior Will Muirhead (1st in 16:01.80) won his 2nd consecutive District individual title with a nice 30-second improvement over his District time from 2 years ago. One of this year's candidates for most improved is senior Whitson Beddel (16:28.75). In the absence of the injured/recovering Trevor Malik, Whit has clearly established himself as Lovejoy's #2 runner, the chaser (the runner trying to catch the hammer). Senior Grant Gueller (3rd in 16:42.70) gets faster (and taller) with every race since coming back from his lay off. Senior Brady Laboret (4th in 16:47.54) ran with an illness today. Sitting out today was an option for Brady, but that's just not his style. Sophomore Riley McGowan (5th in 17:04.56) and senior Erik Day (6th in 17:05.09) ran on par with their Fall Festival times in today's much less competitive environment. Sophomore Matthew Murray (8th in 17:45.10) was the only Varsity guy appearing to have an off day, but the coaches still have big plans for him at Region and State.

[results]

Lovejoy continued its dominance in the JV Girls Championship race with the Lady Leopards taking the first 7 finishes and 14 of the top 20 finishes. Lovejoy ran 45 JV girls today, which was more than the 38 JV girls that the other 5 teams ran combined. Cross Country is a very cost-effective sport, but Lovejoy XC must have quite a uniform budget. Lovejoy defeated 2nd place McKinney North and 3rd place Princeton (not Wylie East) by a score of 15-50-94. Unfortunately for Princeton, there is no trophy at the JV level for 3rd place.

Senior Andrea Richardson (1st in 20:53.54) had her best time of the year and finally got back under the 21-minute mark at Myers Park for the first time since she was a sophomore. Andrea finished 32.80 seconds ahead of senior Maci Martelloni (2nd in 21:26.34) who led in the scoring pack. The next 5 runners for Lovejoy were senior Lily McCutcheon (3rd in 21:32.78), freshman Callan Snider (4th in 21:51.32), junior Lily Bouldin (5th in 22:06.75), senior Sara Rouse (6th in 22:23.44), and freshman Malia Bowling (7th in 22:30.94). A fantastic job for the State's #2 ranked 5A JV girls squad.

[results]

The JV Boys Championship race is where things really got ugly. If you look at the photo above, that's not the team accepting the 1st place trophy, that's the top 10 finishers receiving their individual medals — all Lovejoy Leopards. Even more embarrassingly, Lovejoy took 16 of the top 18 finishes. The other 5 teams threw a combined 48 runners at Lovejoy's 42-runner JV boys squad to no avail: Lovejoy defeated 2nd place McKinney North and 3rd place Wylie East by a score of 15-50-92. Alas, Princeton only had 4 runners and did not register a team score. But congrats to those 4 runners for suiting up and getting after it out on the race course.

Junior John Armstrong (1st in 16:51.58) won the individual championship. He dueled throughout the race with sophomore Rohan Sharma (2nd in 16:57.55). These two were the only JV runners under the 17-minute mark, and they'll be heavily counted on next fall after the Varsity boys graduate so many seniors in May. Next in came junior Trevor Malik (3rd in 17:37.12) running in his first meet of the season. Great to see Trevor back in action. Next was senior Zane Edwards (4th in 17:40.37) who finally cracked the 18-minute barrier on the Myers course. This has been a particularly successful 2019 campaign for Zane who has stayed healthy and steadily improved his times. Senior Brendan Dunleavy (5th in 17:46.15) had an off day, but still delivered a solid performance to clinch the team title. So that's a 1-5 split time of under 55 seconds, and the most dominant team performance in a dominating day.

[results]

The Region II Championships come next on Monday, October 28th with the 5A Girls and 5A Boys racing at 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm respectively. Should be a great meet for Lovejoy — you won't want to miss it.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

The traditional Open 10K beginning at 7:30 am (in the morning) was the only general race this year. The Open 5K was cancelled by the race organizers because they had to add a second round of college races for both the men and women. The University of Arkansas will host the NCAA D1 South Central Regional meet on November 15th, so there was a lot of extra interest this year by top college teams eager to gain experience on UofA Agri Park XC course.

No matter — Coach Littlefield was planning to use today as a progression run anyway, and the Open 10K is perfectly suited for that. The Varsity girls had been pushing it for the previous 3 weekends at competitive meets. Today needed to be all about a relaxing run, having some fun, enjoying the rewards of being at the Chile Pepper. The girls typically held hands every time they jogged by the Lovejoy Faithful who had come up to Arkansas to cheer them. You almost expected the girls to break into a chorus of Kumbaya. They were allowed to push it for the last 2 miles of the Open 10K, but even that was mostly a friendly affair. In the photographs (link below) if the girls look like they're goofing around and having fun it's because, well, they're goofing around and having fun. Well deserved.

This article won't spell out when and where each girl finished because the girls were not racing competitively. But take a look at the results if you're interested (link below).

While most of the boys ran in the afternoon's competitive high school races, a couple of guys braved the Open 10K and its early morning start time. While freshman Logan Pedersen led the JV to victory on Thursday at the Ken Gaston Invitational, today his Open 10K was just his weekend long run — no racing for Logan at the Chile Pepper. He was joined by older brother Brett (LHS 2019) who came down from Brigham Young University in Utah for the event. They had a great race together. The legend of Mr. Bradley Davis is still alive and well in the Lovejoy XC community.

[results]

Brett was one of 3 alums from the LHS Class of 2019 to race today. In the first/competitive Women's College 5K, Carson Hockersmith (147th in 19:31.5) ran for Oklahoma, and Avery Silliman (256th in 21:30.8) ran for Abilene Christian. That's a Lovejoy first to have 2 runners in the Chile Pepper collegiate races.

The Chile Pepper gives our athletes the opportunity to see some extremely competitive college racing, and for college coaches to see our athletes in action. Today's college races featured 71 men's teams and 68 women's teams. Both Carson and Avery got a chance to visit with our girls and give them some firsthand insights into the college running experience.

[results]

Between the last college race and the first high school race, the race organizers inserted a skydiving exhibition put on by the the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Parachute Demonstration Team. Five guys jumping out of a helicopter from a few thousand feet up with glider parachutes and then making pinpoint landings in the start area. Yet another first for Lovejoy at the Chile Pepper — we're usually all on the road back home as soon as the college races conclude. The Chile Pepper has always had its unique features which helps make it such a great experience for our harriers.

Lovejoy's top 8 (healthly) Varsity boys ran in the overcrowded Boys El Caliente race amongst 103 complete teams and 771+ runners. The last place team from Sarcoxie (in Missouri) scored 3,363 points. Seriously out of bounds.

Lovejoy finished a very respectable 3rd. The winning team from UIL 6A Southlake Carroll is ranked 3rd by the CCCAT coaches for the 6A conference. While the Lovejoy community does not typically hear about 2nd place finisher Fayetteville High School, its boys XC Varsity is currently ranked 5th by Nike for the South Region. No team broke 100 points, and the top 3 scored 101-161-228. But this level of competition was one of the most significant reasons why the coaches put our boys in the El Caliente. The next highest UIL 5A team finishing was Grapevine in 7th with 365 points. Sadly Bishop McGuinness finished 58th with 1,793 points.

Senior Will Muirhead (11th in 15:53.6) finished #1 for Lovejoy as is his trademark, but said afterwards that he did not have a particularly good race. Senior Whitson Bedell (21st in 16:05.3) had an excellent race followed by senior Brady Laboret (31st in 16:10.7). So a solid start to the team scoring, but then it took 34.6 seconds and 46 more runners before another Leopard crossed the finish line. Today the #4 and #5 runners for Lovejoy were senior Grant Gueller (78th in 16:45.3), and sophomore Matthew Murray (87th in 16:48.7). For Grant this was an 9.6-second improvement over his Fall Fest time as he continues to come back from injury. And this is Matthew's first time in the Varsity top 5. So well done for them both.

Lovejoy's final 3 runners finished in a batch: junior John Armstrong (122nd in 17:02.1), sophomore Riley McGowan (125th in 17:03.0), and senior Erik Day (153rd in 17:13.3). So everyone was in under 17:15. Overall a very solid effort by our #1 Varsity, but the 55.1-second 1-5 split time will be a work on for State.

[results]

As an interesting side note, the scoring system at the finish did not pick up John Armstrong's time, and what's reported was reconstructed by race officials. So yet more problems with chip scoring. In this season's previous meets, the issue can probably be traced to faulty RFID tags in the cheap CowTown bibs. Today, however, the RFID tags were quite reliable, but affixed to each runner's shoe by a single twist tie. Toward the end of the day, you could find jettisoned tags littering the course. Perhaps next year the University of Arkansas can spring for a second twist tie to help ensure the RFID tags stay attached to runners' shoes.

The High School Boys Open 10K was another great showing for Lovejoy's #2 Varsity boys as they took 2nd place behind UIL 5A Lockhart which ran its #1 Varsity in this race and skipped the El Caliente. Truly a two-team race by a score of 55-78. The 3rd place team scored 151 points and only two other teams broke 200 points. This was another large field with 74 complete teams and 931 runners finishing — by far the largest field of the day.

Today the Leopards were led by senior Brendan Dunleavy (9th in 17:29.0) who had another money performance — Lovejoy's only top-10 finish of the day. The rest of Lovejoy's scorers were right on Brendan's six: sophomore Rohan Sharma (11th in 17:30.5) led most of the race for Lovejoy, junior Cameron Kennedy (14th in 17:33.9) who made the most of his Chile Pepper debut, senior Sam Mena (21st in 17:41.6), and senior Zane Edwards (23rd in 17:48.5). All under 18:00 — nice! All but 2 of our 13 guys in the race finished in the top 100 of an obscenely large field, hopefully the largest Lovejoy will ever have to contend with. The Bishop McGuinness JV finished 44th with 1,338 points.

[results]

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

This weekend's Ken Gaston, Chile Pepper, and Sunday long/rest bring to a close the second phase of the 2019 campaign, namely Competition Season. Bright and early Monday morning begins the most important and defining phase: Championship Season. In a relatively short period of only 26 days all of the hard work the Leopards have put in since last May will be tested and measured: District, Region, State. Ultimately this is what an XC season is all about.

The girls are looking to qualify out of Region to the State Championships and maybe win some State hardware for the first time sine 2011. Quite a drought. The boys are staring down El Paso Eastwood in a rematch of last November's State Championship, and Eastwood has not slowed since then.

While Competition Season has been tons of fun, it's time to get serious, down, and dirty. The first challenge is on Tuesday, October 15th at the UIL 5A District 10 XC Championships. So every athlete needs to put on his or her game face and dive into the thick of it. Starting Monday, everything counts.

The 6A-5A JV Girls race went off about 20 minutes early. The race organizers were seriously overlapping the races. Despite the top 20 girls not running (they're headed to Arkansas), the 30 Lady Leopards who did run ended up trampling the competition. In a race with 26 complete teams, Lovejoy scored 39 points and defeated the 2nd and 3rd place finishers from Arlington Martin and Frisco Independence by a score of 39-63-76. None of the other 23 teams broke 100 points.

Lovejoy was led by Eliza Coit (4th in 23:31.4) who was immediately followed in by Lovejoy's other scorers: Gracelin Taylor (6th in 23:41.5), Katelyn Andrzejewski (8th in 23:43.2), Ashlyn Cardwell (10th in 23:44.6), Catie Koh (11th in 23:46.7), Fabiana Rey (12th in 23:55.4), and Genevieve Jones (17th in 24:21.3). So that's a 1-5 split time of only 15.3 seconds, and a 1-7 split time of 49.9 seconds. Serious pack running.

[results]

The 6A-5A JV Boys race appeared more competitive with Lovejoy scoring 73 points compared to 2nd place finisher Hurst Bell at 90 points. But yet again this season the scoring system failed to pick up runners crossing the finish line. Regardless, Lovejoy's 23 guys still were the best of the 33 complete teams in the race.

Lovejoy's lead runner, Jorge Thomas Otero running as Logan Pedersen, should have been 3rd overall in about 18:20, but his chip did not register when he crossed the finish line. Had his chip registered, Lovejoy's score would have dropped to 53 points giving the Leopards a more comfortable 41-point margin of victory over Hurst Bell. Lovejoy's scorers ended up being Blake Hinton (6th in 18:51.7), Kyle Easley (7th in 18:58.3), Landon Heruska (16th in 19:18.5), Josh Bittlestone (17th in 19:19.2), Davis Mosel (27th in 19:32.1), Joey Farkas (33rd in 19:45.4), and Grayson Mousavijam (36th in 19:48.1).

[results]

A great start to this weekend's racing by all the JV Leopards.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

Generally the weather was quite nice, perhaps a bit warm. The humidity was high for Lovejoy's first race and the sun was shining. But for the second race, overcast skies and a nice breeze made for relatively pleasant running.

The Varsity Girls Gold race went off promptly at 8:30 am, and for the Leopards it turned into a real battle of ranked 5A teams between Boerne Champion (Region IV), Grapevine (Region I), Highland Park (Region II), and Lovejoy (Region II) who would all finish in the top 10 out of 71 (not a misprint) teams. The race saw 505 girls finish, so a huge field. Just outside the top 10 came 5A Amarillo (Region I) and 5A Frisco Reedy (Region II). The only other noteworthy/ranked 5A team in Region II not at this meet was Wakeland. (As a reminder, the top 4 teams from Region qualify for State). One of the advantages of such a huge field of runners is that you get to go toe-to-toe with other top teams as opposed to the limitations of just a numerical comparison on paper.

Lovejoy did not keep up with Boerne and Grapevine today, and then lost out on the 7th place tiebreaker to HP because the Scots got their #6 in before Lovejoy did. So the top 5A teams finished as follows:

Yes, all the scores look ridiculously high, but that's what happens in a very competitive race with so many runners. We see the same ballooning of scores at State except not so severely because the field at State is only about 150 runners per race. The winner of this race was 6A Flower Mound with 153 points (a far cry from a perfect score of 15 points). Here's another magnitude statistic: between the 19:00 and 20:00 minute marks, 88 runners crossed the finish line, and between the 20:00 and 21:00 minute marks 124 runners crossed the finish line. The point being that gaps in your team's finishers will quickly balloon your score, and all teams encountered this.

Where Boerne and Grapevine had the advantage was in keeping their #4 and #5 runners at or below 19:30. For Boerne, four of its top 5 finished under 19:30 with its #5 at 19:36.7, and for Grapevine three of its top 5 were under 19:30 with its #4 and #5 at 19:39.1 and 19:43.1 (so fairly close). Lovejoy actually had a better average time than HP, 19:38.8 versus 19:44.1, but the HP pack was tighter. HP's top runner, junior Sophia Oliai, has been out of the HP lineup since the Marcus I meet. It's unclear whether she'll return for Region and State.

While the times are fun to play with, remember that everything except the order of finish is just a statistic.

Freshman Amy Morefield (5th in 18:15.7) had an exemption from today's 'training' plan. She got the green light to try and run down McKinney North's London Culbreath. And Amy almost pulled it off coming up only 7.4 seconds short (and despite the fact that Amy lost her right shoe in the first 200 meters of the race). Five other girls did surpass London (more about that later).

Junior Amelia Carothers (32nd in 19:11.2) turned in a massive 1:40.2 improvement from her time here at State last fall (20:51.4). Sophomore Katie Armstrong (89th in 19:51.3) was slightly faster this weekend than last as was senior Sofia Estes (112th in 20:07.9). Then came a 40.2-second wait before Lovejoy's #5 could close out the scoring. Senior Zoe Bessa (183rd in 20:48.1) had the expected slow down from last weekend (25.5 seconds) that we expected to see in most/all of our runners. Come State, all of Lovejoy's top 5 should (?) be under 20 minutes. Sophomore Jordyn Caro (248th in 21:18.1) and freshman Callan Snider (290th in 21:46.0) closed out a very successful race for Lovejoy. Finishing 8th out of 71 teams is a solid result. And for Lovejoy, today was all about the experience (well, mostly).

[results]

McKinney North's London Culbreath (6th in 18:08.3) is no longer undefeated in UIL Cross Country — 5 runners beat her today led by national phenom Brynn Brown (1st in 16:57.1). London Culbreath is no longer undefeated in UIL 5A Cross Country — 5A Frisco Reedy junior Colleen Stegmann (2nd in 17:45.4) may continue today's success by taking London's Region II crown next month. Of course, this all probably makes London even more dangerous come District in a few weeks. Note that London turned in a 16:58.52 time here at State last fall. So when UIL titles are on the line, count on better performances from her. Today may have been just a training run for London as well.

The 5A Varsity Girls race was a lot of fun for Lovejoy for a couple reasons. First, the girls took the 2nd place trophy with only 5 runners. Second, our top three finishers engaged in the battle of Maci amongst the Lilys. The photography staff was parked out on the back 40 (far south side of the course), but would have loved to have been at the finish line to see the conclusion of this little intra-squad duel. Senior Maci Martelloni (16th in 21:03.0) narrowly edged out junior Lily Bouldin (17th in 21:03.3) by 0.3 seconds and senior Lily McCutcheon (20th in 21:10.7) by 7.4 seconds. Now that's the way to kick off your team's scoring. Seniors Andrea Richardson (28th in 21:32.9) and Sara Rouse (48th in 22:03.9) were quick to close out the scoring and secure the hardware. So 2nd place out of 26 teams while running only 5 in what was supposed to be an experiential training run. A serious LOL and nicely done, ladies.

[results]

Between today being mostly a training run, and some tired legs from three straight weekends of meets, the girls numbers were down across the board from where they typically would be. Looking at their past three meets, the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival should have produced the slowest times. The Gerald Richey-Region Preview times were understandably high because of the heat. But today should have seen noticeably lower numbers assuming the girls were competitively pushing it and had fresh legs. Based on our Varsity Boys experience at District (Myers Park) and State (Old Settlers Park), the girls times should have averaged 15 to 20 seconds faster today than last weekend. The State course is a little short while the Myers course is notoriously difficult and a full 5K. Instead, the table shows that today the girls averaged 8.3 seconds slower. Yes, Hailey Malik did not run today, but that's only one data point which does not substantially skew the other 12 results.

The takeaway is that when the girls get to State in November (and they will get there), expect better times which could well vault them onto the podium.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album. Apologies to Zoe Bessa, but due to the size of the Varsity Girls Gold race and the circular nature of the course (providing limited photo opportunities), the photography staff was unable to get any photos of her today. But that will be remedied when she runs again at Old Settlers Park for State in November.

We are three weeks away from our district meet on October 15th. This week we will not be racing and this is an important week of training for our team. Friday's tempo run will be a key workout and we will run at 6:15 AM. We are doing this to beat the heat and have a more effective tempo run.

Lovejoy XC Fall Festival full results HERE.

All post-race videos HERE.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

You can find results from Saturday's meet HERE.

Photos are also posted to tx.milesplit HERE.

Post race interviews should be posted soon on tx.milesplit.com.

Carly Littlefield

Overall many of the Lovejoy runners looked a little tired today, which is completely understandable since it takes a while to recover from a competitive meet like last Saturday's UTA Region Preview. Then consider how draining the heat was during the Preview meet. But the coaches report that their runners achieved 30 PRs today. Go figure. All in all, the Leopards really had a great day competing against excellent opponents. [For what it's worth, the photography staff is still somewhat drained from the Preview meet without even running the 5K course.]

Both of the Lovejoy Varsity #1 squads came up a few points short of 1st place, and took home the 2nd place trophies. Properly rested and fully staffed, you have to believe they would have shaved off the needed extra points and secured the victories in style. Still they all represented Lovejoy exceedingly well in their home meet — arguably the best in North Texas.

The winning teams in the 5A/6A Varsity races didn't run in the Elite Varsity races, so Lovejoy's 2nd Varsity squads were facing the other schools' #1 Varsity squads. Wakeland is a prime example. If you weed out the schools running #1 Varsity squads and the 6A teams, the Lovejoy #2 Varsity squads end up on top.

As you can see from the chart above, the girls were only 3 points behind 1st place Bridgeland (6A) in the Elite Varsity race. But by running 10 girls, Lovejoy Lovejoy had its #11-#19 Lovejoy girls going in the 5A/6A Varsity race against the 1st team Varsity girls from the other top contenders. Yet Lovejoy still came away with 2nd place. By the time Lovejoy got to the JV Girls race, the Leopards were racing their #20-#46 runners.

The situation got even leaner for the boys as the races progressed since the #1-#12 runners went in the Elite Varsity race leaving the #13-#31 boys for the 5A/6A Varsity race and finally the #32-#52 boys for the JV race.

Then again, it would not have been polite/hospitable for Lovejoy to gobble up all the trophies and medals at its home meet. Instead let the guests enjoy themselves — this is only pre-season. When Lovejoy gets to District, Region, and State, then it will be time for our harriers to gorge themselves on hardware. And when that time comes, good luck to Lovejoy's opponents — they're going to need it.

Highland Park is officially worried. The Lady Leopards clearly bested them in the Varsity races, although the Scots bettered Lovejoy in the JV race. In the Elite Varsity race, Lovejoy's top 10 girls finished 64 points ahead of HP's top 7 girls. In the 5A/6A Varsity race, Lovejoy's #11-#19 girls finished 74 points ahead of HP's #8-#14 girls. So this was an across the board affirmation of what we saw at the Marcus I — the Lovejoy girls have definitely vaulted HP.

The Elite Varsity Girls race went off earlier than the scheduled 7:30 am start time. It was a great battle between Lovejoy, Bridgeland, Smithson Valley, Wakeland, and Highland Park with 10 different teams putting runners in the top 20. Atypically Lovejoy only had 3 top 25 finishes, but that's a reflection of the competition today.

This week freshman Amy Morefield (18:17.15) was satisfied to simply beat the competion and finshed 1st overall. Bravo! Last weekend's attempt to eviscerate the competition did not work out as planned. So tremendous learning by the freshman in just one short week. And Amy now holds the Lovejoy girls record for the 5K at Myers Park. Not bad, rookie. Junior Amelia Carothers (13th in 19:35.61) posted her best Myers time. [Note: in comparing times, the Myers Park times require a category of their own because of the course's difficulty.] Sophomore Katy Armstrong (18th in 19:53.07) actually improved her time from last weekend — an impressive feat! Senior Sofia Estes (32nd in 20:08.61) again led in the scoring pack of senior Zoe Bessa (38th in 20:22.60) and sophomore Jordyn Caro (46th in 20:34.15). While Sofia and Zoe were exactly where we expected them to be (and we are thankful for that), Jordyn's continued improvement really stands out. Her confidence seems to keep growing and thus enabling her to continue such meteoric improvement. Jordyn clocked a 33.45-second improvement from last weekend. No other Varsity athlete — girl or boy — came close to that today. In a flurry came the final four: freshman Callan Snider (60th in 20:53.05), sophomore Hailey Malik (20:53.08), junior Lily Bouldin (21:07.86), and senior Lily McCutcheon (21:08.22). Callan and Lily B had especially strong finishes breaking into all out sprints as they passed competitors (and teammates) at will for the last 75 meters.

[results]

The Elite Varsity Boys race was every bit as tough as the Marcus I with Lovejoy coming up 2 points short of 1st place. Brutally close. Senior Will Muirhead (1st in team scoring, 2nd overall in 15:25.23) actually improved his time today by 18.9 seconds from the Region Preview, the only one of the Varsity boys top 7 to have a reduction. Senior Brady Laboret (5th in 16:02.59) actually had his best Myers time 2 years ago at District with a 15:44.7. Another reflection of the Region Preview hangover. Senior Whitson Beddell (24th in 16:39.55) has become a rock for the team this fall. Exemplary senior leadership. In his return, senior Grant Gueller (36th in 16:54.87) looked strong. The rest has clearly done him good, and he wasn't taxed by last weekend's races and heat. As a benchmark, he demonstrated how good the Lovejoy boys are this season. Sophomore Riley McGowan (41st in 16:58.76) provided the biggest surprise for the Varsity boys in closing out the scoring in the #5 position. Wow! Did not see that coming. Riley edged out senior Erik Day (42nd in 16:58.94) by 0.18 seconds. And right behind this little duel came sophomore Matt Murray (44th in 17:01.89), junior John Armstrong (17:02.18), and sophomore Rohan Sharma (17:09.09). Not too far back came senior Brendan Dunleavy (17:29.00), senior Shalin Mehta (17:35.58), and senior Zane Edwards (18:04.20).

The best the Lovejoy boys have ever posted at Myers Park is the 12-Oct-2017 District averages of 16:08.8 (5 runners) and 16:18.8 (7 runners). Today those numbers were 16:12.2 (5 runners) and 16:26.0 (7 runners). Very close. Expect those numbers to improve come District in a few weeks. Note that junior Trevor Malik is still out. When he hopefully returns for District, that should cause a noticeable performance jump.

[results]

The 5A/6A Varsity Girls race saw Lovejoy come up 18 points short of 1st place Wylie East who ran its #1 Varsity squad. Still Lovejoy's #11-#19 girls ran great races. Senior Maci Martelloni (9th in 21:05.11) turned in a better time than 2 of Lovejoy's Elite Varsity girls today. The next 4 finished in staggered fashion over the next minute: senior Andrea Richardson (15th in 21:21.64), freshman Bella Landrum (23rd in 21:40.46), freshman Emily Reyna (32nd in 22:03.58), and senior Sara Rouse (33rd in 22:05.24).

This race featured 218 finishers and 27 complete teams, so a 2nd place finish for Lovejoy is something to be quite proud of.

[results]

The 5A/6A Varsity Boys race saw a lot of 5A and 6A teams running their top Varsity runners. So with Lovejoy running its #13-#31 guys, their score dropped them into 5th place, which is just fine all considered. Junior Cameron Kennedy (21st in 17:33.59) led in a top 7 with 1-5 split time of only 27.44 seconds. Nice! The others in the top 7 were sophomore Carson Person (31st in 17:45.99), senior Same Mena (36th in 17:50.79), junior Luis Sandoval (39th in 17:56.50), sophomore Tate Barr (44th in 18:01.03), senior Sam Rouse (66th in 18:17.88), and junior Reid James (85th in 18:30.12). Kudos to Luis and Reid for their first appearance in Varsity race scoring.

If the finishing places seem high, remember that this was a race with 282 finishers, so Lovejoy's top 7 all finished in the top 30% of the race. Very solid work.

In the sibling rivalry division, the match up that has garnered the most attention is freshman Logan Pedersen vs big brother Alex (a junior). Alex has been steadily regaining his form and closing the gap on pesky Logan who has been winning all the early match ups. But today Alex finished 3.70 seconds ahead of Logan. Some would argue that Logan lost a shoe during the race which accounts for the difference. So District will have to decide the issue. Cross Country always has its fun angles.

[results]

The JV Girls race was an all in affair — no division between the 5A/6A schools and the 1A-4A schools. Go big or go home. And this was definitely a big race with 348 finishers and 30 complete teams.

Lovejoy finished 3rd behind Marcus and Highland Park. That's very respectable. Junior Karly Greenwood (5th in 22:33.66) had a great race and scored a top 5 finish. The scoring pack was led in by sophomore Catie Koh (23:23.89) who was followed by senior Mia Szczesny (22nd in 23:30.02), senior Fabrina Rey (25th in 23:37.67), and freshman Savannah Starr (29th in 23:44.69).

The Lovejoy Girls squads are now officially larger than Highland Park's All-Girl Army. Yesterday the Leopards had 46 girls finish, while the Scots only brought home 45. A lot of the Lovejoy girl runners mentioned in this article are freshmen, so the future for the Lady Leopard looks very bright.

[results]

The JV Boys race was the biggest of the day with 521 finishers and 39 complete teams. Yikes! And in all this melee Lovejoy managed a 7th place finish even though its top 31 boys had run in the two Varsity races. Probably the greatest JV depletion in program history. So great kudos to the remaining Lovejoy JV boys for carrying on.

All of Lovejoy's top 5 finished in a 27.57-second 1-5 split time. Great form and textbook team running. The scorers were junior Grayson Mousavijam (35 in 19:40.65), sophomore Davis Mosel (38th in 19:44.73), sophomore Joey Farkas (42nd in 19:49.62), senior Chase Stout (54th in 20:02.35), and junior Jacob Beets (62nd in 20:08.22). That put Lovejoy's top 5 in the top 13.25% of the race. Excellent work fellas.

[results]

A quick note about the middle school races: the WSMS girls easily took 1st place led by Kailey Littlefield, Sara Morefield, and Kate Carlson. The WSMS boys finished 2nd to Highland Park (maybe the Scots boys team will be something to worry about again in the future). The boys were led by William Carlson, Andrew Poulton, Jack Thompson, Aaron Wimbish, and Tyler Morefield.

CLICK HERE for the meet photo album.

The Lovejoy coaches had projected that Lovejoy's last race would start at 10:40 am, but the actual start time was 11:20 am.

In spite of the heat and delays today, this is shaping up to be an incredibly fun season for Lovejoy XC. The boys are cruising and the girls have the strongest set of top 10 runners ever. The Lovejoy girls have always had a good top 3, but it's the 4-7 runners that win you championships, and in this case their current 4-10 are fantastic.

The 5A/6A Varsity Girls race was not particulary crowded with only 140 finishers. Lovejoy easily defeated the 2nd and 3rd place teams from McKinney North and Reedy by a score of 26-85-120, and the scoring by the other teams only got worse from there. The 4th and 5th place teams from Belton and Wylie only scored 184 and 186 respectively. Last place Greenville scored 484 points.

Reedy (ranked around 16th in 5A) and McKinney North (ranked around 18th) were Lovejoy's only real competition.

Lovejoy freshman Amy Morefield had her problems with the heat and the course as well. She passionately attacked throughout the race, but unfortunately had to quit only a few hundred meters from the finish line. She was on pace to break the 18:15 mark which would have been a full minute ahead of the 2nd place finisher from Wylie.

You'd think that losing your #1 runner would have dented Lovejoy's score, but it didn't. Junior Amelia Carothers (2nd overall in 19:21.4) was first in a string of Leopards who took 6 of the top 11 finishes. Amelia was fairly far out in front of Lovejoy's #2, senior Sofia Estes (3rd in 20:00.5) who led in the loaded scoring pack of sophomore Katie Armstrong (5th in 20:08.8), senior Zoe Bessa (6th in 20:11.4), sophomore Hailey Malik (10th in 20:24.2), and sophomore Rachel Malik (11th in 20:27.6). With a 2-6 split time of only 27.1 seconds the Lady Leopards decided this race early. It was particularly nice to see Zoe up toward the front of the pack.

Rounding out the squad, sophomore Jordyn Caro (21st in 21:07.6), freshman Callan Snider (25th in 21:19.4), and senior Andrea Richardson (27th in 21:33.5) put all Lovejoy runners in the top 20% of the field. Across the board it was a solid performance, and one that Lovejoy would repeat in its other 3 races.

[results]

If these times look a little slow to you, that's just a good indication of how difficult the course and heat were today.

Missing from McKinney North's lineup was all-world senior London Culbreath. Her coach, Jessica Richards, reported that London was on a recruiting visit this weekend.

The 5A/6A Varsity Boys race had even less drama with Lovejoy distancing itself from the competition more notably. The guys defeated the 2nd and 3rd place finishers from Wylie and Rackwall Heath by a score of 24-97-107. District opponent McKinney North finished 7th with 204 points. Once again the guys had to race without senior Grant Gueller and junior Trevor Malik. Still they had 2 runners under 16:00 and 6 runners under 17:00. By Region, they could have 6 or 7 runners under 16:00, which would be really something.

Lovejoy was led by senior Will Muirhead (1st overall in 15:44.2), and right on his heels was fellow senior Brady Laboret (2nd in 15:45.8). They looked like Batman & Robin out there. Senior Whitson Bedell (4th in 16:31.7) came next with another solid time. Whit is showing great leadership for the scoring pack which is especially important while Grant and Trevor are out. The scoring was closed out by senior Erik Day (8th in 16:45.2) and sophomore Matthew Murray (9th in 16:47.9). As an exclamation point, sophomore Riley McGowan (12th in 16:57.5) followed less than 10 seconds behind Matt. Seniors Zane Edwards (25th in 17:27.2) and Brenden Dunleavy (26th in 17:28.2) closed out Lovejoy's race putting everyone under 17:30 and in the top 17.5% of the field.

With Will and Brady so far out in front, it really doesn't make sense to consider the 1-5 split time, at least not until Grant and Trevor are back.

[results]

Lovejoy actually had 9 runners finish this race, but sophomore Rohan Sharma's chip didn't register with the scoring system. He finished with Zane and Brenden. Let's hope UTA has a more reliable scoring system for the UIL Region Championships on October 28th.

The 5A/6A JV Girls race started the Lovejoy route with the girls taking 5 of the top 6 finishes, and 11 of the top 16 finishes. This one was really lopsided. Give McKinney North (2nd with 68 points) and Belton (3rd with 87 points) for keeping it respectable because no other team scored less than 125 points. North's 68 points was the closest anyone got to Lovejoy all day, and still our girls had a near-perfect 19 points.

Junior Lily Bouldin (1st in 21:31.3) led out front the whole race. Senior Maci Martelloni (3rd in 22:12.4) paced the scoring pack, which included freshman Bella Landrum (4th in 22:25.1), senior Sara Rouse (5th in 22:30.6), and freshman Malia Bowling (6th in 22:42.2). So that's a very nice 2-5 split time of 29.8 seconds.

[results]

The 5A/6A JV Boys race really got out of control with Lovejoy harriers taking the top 9 finishes to register a perfect score with lots of room to spare. The boys were an absolute wrecking crew with one coach commenting that they could finish in the top 10 at State. Arguably if Coach Kelly had evenly split our JV boys into 3 separate squads, they would probably have won the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies. A great way to punctuate Lovejoy's dominance at what had once been a competitive meet for the Leopards.

Senior Shalin Mehta (1st overall in 17:43.9) took a big, early lead and never relinquished it. Sophomore Carson Person (2nd in 17:58.4) gave chase throughout, but there was no catching Shalin. There was a lot of jockeying for position in Lovejoy's large scoring pack today, but ultimately junior Cameron Kennedy (3rd in 18:20.9) crossed the finish line first. Cam was instantly followed by junior Luis Sandoval (4th in 18:21.4), junior Stefan Lingenfelder (5th in 18:21.9), and senior Sam Rouse (6th in 18:22.1). About 10 seconds later came senior Sam Mena (7th in 18:30.6), sophomore Tate Barr (8th in 18:31.9), and freshman Logan Pedersen (9th in 18:34.8). A real stampede at the finish line.

And plenty of other great Lovejoy finishes followed.

[results]

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

Next up was the Open varsity where leader Lily McCutcheon had her best and most competitive race to-date breaking the 21:00 minute barrier and just missing a medal. The squad placed 6th overall with 186 points and 7 runners under 22:00 minutes — which is by far the most we've ever had under that mark.

The 2 JV races that followed were also exciting as many of our young ladies raced to new PR's as the confidence in their summer mileage and training continues to grow.

Paula Delfin had a new PR and her strongest race ever (in my opinion). Lily Bouldin had her best race in a long time and was only 9 seconds off of her PR. Freshman Emily Reyna got spiked, fell down and still got back up and ran her heart out to be the #3 runner for us! Devin Sharp has made one of the biggest improvements I have ever seen an athlete make in a year! She had over a 5 minute PR and was our top finisher in the JV open race!

We had 16 total PR's on the day, not counting freshmen and newbies!! Marcus is known as a fast course, but it's still quite a way to start off the season!

Please note that Skylar George ran under Dresden Colston and Avery Ashely ran under Emily Piccirillo. For some reason they did not have printed bibs.

Full Results from Marcus I Invitational can be found HERE.

Carly Littlefield

(Note that because of a gator driver malfunction in the Elite Varsity Girls race, the distance was adjusted to 3 miles. So we added 50 seconds to the times of the girls in the Elite race in order to get to 5K comparable times with girls from the other true 5K races.)

So today especially HP and also Grapevine were the Lady Leopards true challengers, and not Wakeland. The most recent Tx.MileSplit rankings of the other teams confirm this. If you convert this season's 3-mile races to 5K races using the 50 seconds factor, then the top 5A teams facing Lovejoy are ...

Only HP is in Region II. And count on HP getting tougher by Region — HP Coach Susan Bailey always has her girls razor sharp come Championship Season. The Lovejoy coaches also expect Wakeland will improve greatly by Region. Long way to go until the end of October.

Freshman Amy Morefield (6th in 17:26.09) had a terrific first high school race for the girls. Junior Amelia Carothers (39th in 18:22.19) fit into a buffer between Amy and the scoring pack which was led by senior Sofia Estes (51st in 18:48.09) who was followed by sophomore Katie Armstrong (54th in 18:49.66), sophomore Hailey Malik (57th in 18:54.64) and sophomore Rachel Malik (60th in 18:55.34). That's a 3-6 split time of only 7.25 seconds — way better pack scoring than anything we've seen from the girls (or boys!) in a long while. And it's still so early in the Competition Season.

For the boys today's re-calibrated 5A results across all of the races looks like ...

At first glance at the results, it looked as if Wakeland was providing the boys with competition, but the more detailed analysis shows Grapevine was much closer to Lovejoy. Note that the boys 1:25.93 split time should drop to under a minute once Trevor and Grant are back in the lineup.

The current Tx.MileSplit listing of Lovejoy's pertinent 5A opponents is ...

So Wakeland will wake up and get a lot more competitive, while Grapevine and El Paso Hanks will be pushing both Eastwood and Lovejoy. This season should be a lot of fun.

Senior Will Muirhead (7th in 15:37.40) was up front with the other top finishers. Senior Brady Laboret (17th in 16:00.12) should have been in the middle of the scoring pack if Trevor and Grant had been running. Senior Whitson Bedell (49th in 16:33.05) had a solid first meet. The boys effectively had no unified pack, but still junior Erik Day (70th in 16:45.95) and sophomore Rohan Sharma (96th in 17:04.72) did a fine job of closing out the scoring in a brutal race with lots of ranked 6A competition.

Our JV runners had a field day in the other Varsity and JV races. Lots of great times turned in. By the numbers Lovejoy ran 98 harriers and 1 guest wrestler yesterday. A very busy day that started with a 4:45 am bus departure. Some of the top non-Elite performances yesterday were ...

• senior Lily McCutcheon, 20:55.80, #1 in Open Varsity Girls race
• freshman Callan Snider, 21:04.90, #2 in Open Varsity Girls race
• freshman Chloe Schaeffer, 21:07.63, #3 in Open Varsity Girls race
• senior John Armstrong, 17:03.33, boys 5th best time today
• sophomore Rohan Sharma, 17:04.72, Elite Varsity debut
• senior Zane Edwards, 17:07.02, Elite Varsity debut

For the results:

• CLICK HERE for the full race results
• CLICK HERE for Lovejoy only results

CLICK HERE for the latest threshold run results.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Carly Littlefield

I shared with our boys this past week that becoming the best runner you can be is an easy yet hard process. Our program here at Lovejoy is proven to work. Show up to each workout, complete your workouts with your best effort, run your weekend long runs, eat and hydrate well, and get plenty of rest. That sounds easy right? For some it is and for some it is not. Fortunately for the majority of our team here at Lovejoy understand the importance of these steps to success. There are a lot of runners and programs across the state that do not follow these steps to success fully. It is easy to wake up on a weekend and say to yourself, "I'll run my long run next week." ... or during the summer "I think I'll go to the (fill in blank here) instead of the practice today." To be the best you can be and WIN you must be willing to do what others won't and can't do. You must be willing to be different. Most runners across the state are average. Those runners are the ones who forgo a long run, miss a workout, or don't get enough sleep. Our boys must be willing to be different form the norm so that we can be different from the norm at the end of the season. The teams who are on top of the podium at the end of the year are the teams that were willing to be different and pursue their goals with an intentional set of acts. I am looking forward to the rest of this season! Its going to be a lot of fun!

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

CLICK HERE for the results, which include today's order of finish as well as each runner's 5K equivalent time (based on the Jack Daniels V dot calculator) and past times.

Here's a quick breakdown:

Carly Littlefield

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Logan Kelly
cell: 903-821-8399

A notable observation is that the girls were interspersed with the boys at the finish, and not lagging behind as in prior years. And the boys were not taking a casual run — everyone was pushing it. There were no stragglers coming in at the finish. This is Lovejoy Cross Country, so unabated effort is par for the course. Yet the girls competitiveness with the boys stands out for this year's Time Trial.

This looks like the Varsity Girls' year to finally get back to State as a team (it's been 8 seasons since the girls last appearance in 2011). Today the girls showcased a very solid top 4 with another 6 contenders that make up a highly competitive scoring pack. It will be fun to watch them progress and gel into a formidable force come Championship Season in late October. Although they lost Carson Hockersmith and her leadership, they gained Amy Morefield who is already a better runner. Ultimately the consequential factor should be the emergence of such a strong 4-7 scoring pack, which is how team championships are won. Today, the girls placed 7 runners roughly inside the 20-minute mark posting an average time of 19:46 (according to the 5K equivalents calculated by the coaches). That compares with Lovejoy's average of 20:00.93 from Region II 5A last October. The average time for the 4 teams who qualified out of Region were 19:14.13, 19:21.20, 19:49.94, and 20:01.22. And it's only August — these are fantastic numbers for so early in the season.

[results]

As an aside, the girls team has historically been smaller and sometimes equal in size to the boys team. This fall the girls' participation has surpassed the boys: today, the boys turned in 45 times, while the girls had 48 finishers.

Senior Brady Laboret has always been a consistent benchmark for the Varsity Boys, so analyzing the guys arguably boils down to how well everyone did compared to Brady. Today's comparison is impressive: 3 runners finished ahead of Brady and 13 others finished within 60 seconds after him. 7 runners were +/- 30 seconds from Brady, so a tight pack especially this early in the season. And 7 of those who trailed Brady improved their event times from 2018. Nice! Needless to say it's no longer the Will & Brady (plus Trevor/Grant) show. And while Whitson sometimes starts the season slow, he's already in the top 5. And right behind Whit you had Matt, Erik, and Zane today. With Will out front as a definitive hammer and Trevor Malik close on his heels followed by Grant/Brady and the rest of the extensive scoring pack, Lovejoy will undoubtedly give Eastwood a run for its money come November.

Playing with the numbers a little, the boys top 7 today had an average 5K equivalent of 15:56, which compares very favorable with their State average last November of 16:04.86 (in better weather). As an FYI, Eastwood and Austin Johnson posted runner averages of 15:55.24 and 16:34.33 at State.

[results]

It seems like a yawner to say the boys stand an excellent chance of making the podium at State (again) this year. But now is a good time to step back and appreciate the significance and extensive effort that went into their history of success. Lovejoy High School opened its doors in the fall of 2006 (way back when our new LISD Superintendent Dr. Goddard effectively invented Lovejoy High School — very nice work, sir). And 2006 was the only year in which our boys team did not win the boys UIL XC District Championship for both Varsity and JV. Since then we're talking 12 years of District domination. Further, the boys team has been consistently competing at State since November 2008. How many Texas high schools can say that? Nevertheless, our boys team will have to get out there and get it done in 2019. No team gets handed a trophy at State — ya gotta earn it.

Here's hoping/believing that all of our XC athletes will have the year they deserve, both in the classroom and on the XC course. This morning was a solid stride along that winding road that leads to Round Rock (and beyond).

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