The Scoop: Labor Day Weekend Produced Impressive XC Results

Sep 05, 2022

Texas Athletes Shine At Marcus Coach T. Invitational, FEAST Patriot XC Invitational

* Athletes ready at the start of the elite girls race at the Marcus Coach T. Invitational in Denton, TX on Saturday.

Photo Credit: Jan Smits/MileSplit Texas

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The Flower Mound (TX) girls varsity squad made its 5k debut for the 2022 season, and the national-caliber program lived up to the preseason hype it received.

Behind 5k personal records from sisters Samantha Humphries and Nicole Humphries, Flower Mound scored 58 points to earn the team win solidly ahead of the squad from Southlake Carroll in second.

The Humphries girls placed 3-4, with Nicole clocking 17:20.0 and Samantha finishing not far behind in 17:30.2, followed by a top-10 finish from sophomore Alexandra Fox in 17:56.0.

Behind those three sub-18:00 performances, Flower Mound recorded an impressive team average of 18:02, making for one of the current top team averages in the nation.

FLOWER MOUND	ALL RESULTS
EVENT	PLACE	ATHLETE	GRADE	RESULT	POINTS
F 5000m	3	Samantha Humphries	11	17:20.00	3
F 5000m	4	Nicole Humphries	11	17:30.20	4
F 5000m	9	Alexandra Fox	10	17:56.00	9
F 5000m	16	Natalie Spangher	11	18:27.50	14
F 5000m	32	Ava Cole	10	19:00.40	28
F 5000m	61	Abbey Coberly	12	19:34.30	55

But Flower Mound's girls debut wasn't the only eye-catching highlight from the state of Texas over the weekend. Some of the country's top individual performances came out of both the Marcus Coach T. Invitational and the FEAST Patriot 20th Annual XC Invitational in San Antonio.

Look no further than the Marcus Coach T. Invitational to find some of the best individual efforts of the weekend. Leading the way for Texas standouts were varsity field winners Shewaye Johnson (Prosper) and Angel Sanchez (Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis) with winning times of 17:08.8 and 14:58.90, respectively. Johnson's performance in particular made for a nearly 23-second PR and ranks her at US No. 5 for 5k.

Both Johnson's and Sanchez's times equate to impressive speed ratings of 145 and 187, already putting them in the conversation with the nation's elite racers with just two races under their belts for 2022.

But the Marcus Coach T. Invitational wasn't the only Texas meet to produce top times over the weekend.

A week after opening up her junior season with a 17:38.70 5k at the Vista Ridge Cross Country Invitational, Cedar Park's (TX) Isabel Conde De Frankenberg blew away her season's best with an all-time record of 16:56.62 to win at the FEAST Patriot Invitational.

That marked the first sub-17:00 5k showing for the junior and ranks her at US No. 2 on the season thus far. Only Williamstown (WV) sophomore Alyssa Sauro has also clocked a time in the 16-minute range at this point in early September.

Boys champion David Mora (Lubbock Monterey) also had quite the performance thanks to his second-straight sub-15:00 5k effort at FEAST. 14:51.59 earned him the win ahead of Marcelo Parra (San Antonio TMI), opening up his cross country season with a 14:54.62 PR and the first performance under 15 minutes of his career.

Needless to say, it couldn't have been a better weekend for Texas athletes, which makes a crucial statement going forward as many of Texas' best racers progress throughout the season.