The Frank Horton cross country meet typically brings out some fast athletes and this year's event pretty much delivered on schedule! Coach Dwyer and the Christian Brothers High School cross country team were the hosts of the event and Jim Kaiser did the timing for AllTrax. To start with, that's a pretty good mix even before the races started. So with that in place, the rest was up to the athletes to do their thing.
Starting out with some cloudy skies and a little cooler than we've seen lately, the girls' varsity 5K got the gun. Darting out front from the very beginning was a relative newcomer, and I say that only because she's a freshman, Skylar Boogerd of Arlington High. Having run a best of 19:42 a couple times prior to this meet, seeing her at the early front was probably a small surprise. But no matter, coming through to the second mile point she was still at the front. Spartans Running Club lead runner, Elle Hamilton, was just a few strides back and Collierville's Sammy Brainard a couple more strides behind each.
This race wasn't all that typical to some of the other cross country meets I've seen this season. Except for the first three quarters of a mile or so, there wasn't a real lead pack. I'd say through the top 8 or so runners, they practically all ran on their own once they settled into their mid-race pace. The closest to a pack for the front runners in this race was with Hattiesburg's Leah Johnson and Arlington senior runner Amanda Leatherwood. These two ran fairly stride for stride till about a bit past the two mile point where it broke up just a bit. Running behind them was Emilee Hudsmith of White Station and then SBA's Meghan Underwood.
All that was about to change though as Sammy seemingly got
her gears rolling and started pulling ahead of each of the two leaders. By the finish, Sammy took to a strong
finishing surge to the finish in a time that was over thirty seconds faster
than what she ran this race last season.
A 19:07.55 was also her PR for the 5K distance and giving her a very
strong boost as they head towards the last half of the season. Freshman Skylar Boogerd was runner up about
eight seconds later in 19:15.48. Making
up the top 5 finishers was Elle Hamilton third in 19:22.83, Leah Johnson fourth
in 19:29 flat and Meghan Underwood matching her TN Classic place with another
fifth in a time just shy of her PR at 19:35.64.
Three other girls that made it in the under 20 club were Dyer County's Anna Claire Lusk by running a 19:47.56 to get 8th overall. And at 7th place was White Station's Emilee Hudsmith (19:45.55) and in sixth overall was the senior out of Arlington, Amanda Leatherwood in 19:39.56 which was her fastest time at this race to date!
With Skylar and Amanda leading the way for the Arlington girls, and Erica Fisher also getting a top ten finish, they were able to capture the Frank Horton team title with 91 points. Collierville's girls looked very tightly packed with their fifth runner getting in the 38th position and tallying 132 points for the runner up team spot. Collierville's third through fifth runners were only five positions apart, so their working together may be a big part of their success at this meet. With a major improvement from SBA's second place runner, Maddie Rose, running a PR of 20:57.80, the SBA girls were able to get a third place team finish with 150 points. The top five teams overall at this race were not very far apart from each other and so you know that extra effort the athletes make at the end of the race is a huge deciding factor on how they end up!
On the boy's side, Javan Winders (Henry County) came into this race with a goal to get the record of 15:38.00. Unfortunately he missed it by just over half a second. Yea, half a second (0.64) from the fastest time clocked on this course in quite a while. And believe me, if you were watching the race, you no doubt had to be super impressed with the way Javan sped through the course. Right from the very beginning, and I mean in the first 100 meters, Javan took the lead and never relinquished it at all! At the first mile point, he came around the uphill turn with only USJ's Jack Goodwin anywhere in site of him. And behind those two was a very impressive pack at the mile point. In the pack was Arlington's Sena Murray, SBA's Ray Wynne, White Stations Foster Hudsmith, and looking pretty focused himself was Javan's brother, Titus Winders.
I was standing near the finish line as Javan took to the last final loop before entering the finish shoot. He was running all by himself at that point. Most of the conversation around me was on that point too… a lot of 'look at that guy run' comments for sure… I'm sure it was a good trip home having tackled the win at this course with that fast a time (15:38.64). That ride was probably even sweeter with Titus getting very close to his PR with a 16:21.25 to get the runner up spot just ahead of Arlington's Sena Murray (16:25.11). In fourth, was SBA's Ray Wynne who ran a 16:25.66 to capture yet another PR in a season that is quickly racking up more and more season best performances. There are a lot of discussions on what helps cross country runners in the off season. Some say swimming is a good aerobic conditioner for distance runners since it doesn't add to the pounding on the joints. Ray by the way is a water polo player and so I'd say that balance works pretty well for him! And to finish off the top five finishers, Foster Hudsmith ran his fastest time for the Horton getting a 16:27.41. As always is the case at this meet, it was a fairly fast race with the top twelve finishers dropping under the 17 minute mark.
Arlington boys took the team title with 86 points and prevented the host of winning their own meet as CBHS boys took second overall in 94 points. A pretty tight race for the top spot this year. CBHS was a great host of the event and their boy's team is slowly creeping up to the top at races as they gain experience. The next step will be how much can they stick through a tough race and gut it out to the finish without giving up. That of course is the one difference that comes from within the athlete. With it, you win. Without it, well, you get the picture.
So as another race winds down and we get ready for the next one, it's time to review how you're running, how much effort you're giving into the sport, and make a determination on how fast will you go this season!
See you on the track…and the grass!
Coach Ted