Texas Cross Country Report

This is the first edition of the Texas Cross Country Report made specifically for Kempner Cross Country runners. This is to hopefully keep everyone updated on who is good in Texas, Region III and District 23-5A. (That’s our region and our district for those newbies out there.) I hope the team reads this and maybe prints it out to put in there log books.

We start at the state level where we will recognize last year’s 5A state champions. The Southlake Carroll girls were the state champions and went on to place 3rd at Nike Team Nationals, the highest by any Texas team ever. This matters to us because they use the Paavo Training system just like we do. The Kingwood girls placed third at the state meet and were the highest finishing team from our region. One of our goals this year is to race Kingwood as much as possible and try each week to get closer to them and eventually beat them. Cinco Ranch and Clear Lake placed 5th and 6th respectively. So teams in our region are among the best in Texas. District wise the Austin girls won the district meet last year by 20 points over our girls last year (31 to 51) and are returning virtually everyone. I feel like Bush, Dulles with Jessica Legendre, and Clements will also be good teams this year that we cannot underestimate. Austin’s top runner is senior Caitlyn Howell who ran a 5:08 mile last year. Howell was also 42nd at regional cross country last year with a pretty fast 12:08. The Clements girls have also organized a summer training program and should be ahead of a lot of district teams when the season starts.

On the boys side, The Woodlands won their 13th state championship over Southlake Carroll, as Colby Lowe of Southlake Carroll took the individual title. Kingwood, Strake Jesuit and Cinco Ranch finished 9th, 10th and 11th respectively from our region. These are teams we will see a lot. Strake Jesuit won the region meet and Cinco Ranch had 1st and 2nd place individually. Last year’s regional champion Zac Flowers, is returning for his senior season this year and will be one of the top runners in the state. District-wise freshman phenom, Spencer Buxton, who ran 10:08 for 3200m and 4:36 for 1600m last year will lead a Travis squad who will run varsity for the first time this season. Many of the Travis team have been training with Cinco Ranch all summer and are ready for this season. Austin is the defending district champ and return second place finisher Andrew Maes from last year. They beat us by 4 points and will still be a strong team. Austin is shooting for its 4th straight district championship as it ended Kempner’s run of 8 straight back in 2004. Bush and Dulles look to bring some good teams into district competition as Dulles is lead by Gavino Hernandez who ran a 4:35 1600m on the track last season and Roland Zech, whom you all know. Bush has the only non-Austin and non-Kempner top 10 returner in Carlos Rodriguez. Carlos had a great race at the Freedom 5k this summer and according to his coach, has been training very consistently.

It should be an interesting season. I did mention several teams but no team can be counted out. All 10 schools in the district have the potential to win and we never know what is going to happen until the race is run.