Texas
Emma Wade, with Cedar Park Vista Ridge high school in Texas is making the trip to the Twilight and bringing a solid resume with her. Emma is one of the top Austin Metro area athletes and consistently runs the 5K in 18 minutes with a PR of 18:28. That may be deceptive though since her 3200M track time is 10:38 that she ran at the Texas Distance Festival this past March. She has run a few sub-5-minute 1600's clocking 4:48.67 as her best. Add in the leg speed you need to get by running 2:13 in the 800, experience as a two-time District Champion, and having run a 17:48 for 3 miles, this is one fast athlete to watch Saturday.
On the boy's side of this Texas team is Pierce Nowell who
boasts a 15:49 for the 5K and 15:30 for 3 miles. Pierce has some strong track times as well
with a 4:19 in the 1600, 9:38 for the 3200 and sub 2 in the 800. That kind of speed endurance can make for a
strong kick, especially once you enter the lighted - and loud - stadium at the
end of this race. These athletes from
Texas are pretty familiar with heat and humidity, so the Memphis weather may just
be another comfort level for them at this race.
Another Texas athlete to watch is Michael Lopez of Leander High School. Michael has a 5K best of 16:07, was District Champion in the 3200 last spring and also has a 3 mile best of 15:31. His strength does seem to be in the fact that when the races get longer, he gets stronger.
Arkansas
Arkansas standout Joseph Bariola, third place finisher last season at the Twilight, will be lacing them up again this year. Joe comes off a pretty outstanding track season where he earned State Champion status in the 1600. He finished off the track season with a 4:09.99 in that event and a 9:06 for the 3200. He doesn't lack leg speed either having run a 1:56 in the 800. My guess is he will be shooting to better his 5K best of 15:26.80.
Joseph Bariola after his 3rd place finish at last year's meet.
River Hardman (16:09) and Paul Rivera (16:22) both from Russellville HS are also a couple of Arkansas runners to watch that have solid running resume's.
Caleb Hogue of Vilonia HS ran a mid a 16:27 for cross country and seemed to focus on his 800 during last track season. If that speed translates well to his 5K, he could be a wild card to watch.
Out of Catholic High School, an Arkansas sophomore
might be in line to make some noise at this meet as well. Asher Found has some good qualifications that
may put him in line to set a good PR at this meet. His 5K best is 17:10 and backed up by a 9:54 in
the track 3200. That 3200 was the second
fastest time for an Arkansas freshman last season! He does come from a running family with his
older brother running for Ouachita Baptist and both Mom and Dad ran in college
as well (Kansas State and University of Colorado respectively). Let's see if that pedigree carries him to the
front pack Saturday.
Coming in for the Russellville girls' side is Brooklyn Nicholson. Brooklyn ran to 10th place
finish in 2022 Twilight race in a time of 19:56 and then later that season set
a PR of 19:00. She then finished off her
season getting 3rd in the Arkansas state 5A championships. During last track season, she also set a new
800 PR and won the event at the Arkansas Meet of Champions. I
have no doubt this senior is making the three-hour drive with the intent to
improve on her top ten finish from last year.
From Mount St. Mary's Academy, Sophomore Virginia Milwee may be a younger runner but she was top 10 in the Arkansas state meet where she set her PR in the 5K by dropping over a minute and a half. She's also a 6A Central conference champion and a top ten in the state for the track 1600M. You can tell she understands the importance of showing up at the big meets.