It was a historic day for the Austin Independent School District (AISD) , as two of its runners, Eva Cragnolino of Austin LASA and Colby Huntress of Austin Anderson, claimed state cross country titles in less than an hour at Old Settlers Park. Remarkably, this marked the first time an AISD runner had won a state title in almost 40 years.

Cragnolino’s Record-Breaking Victory

The girls’ race began at a solid clip, with the expected front-runners hitting the first mile in 5:35. By the two-mile mark (11:18/5:43), the field began to stretch out, with a lead group of about eight girls establishing a small gap.

Defending champ Wingard is the favorite but the addition of Laney Barnes could make this interesting. Of course Easterwood could also play into the mix. I am curious how the Bridgeland girls will fit in. Will this be the race they dominate

The team race looks like a slam dunk for Bridgeland but you can never count out the experience of Flower Mound. The way it looks though is that it won’t get interesting until after the top-3 podium spots.

Despite the fact that their PRs were elsewhere, the Class 6A 3200 at the 2025 UIL State Track and Field Championships was the race of the year in that event. Six runners were within half a second of each other at the bell between 8:01.66 and 8:02.047 and if you wanted to make the podium you had to drop a sub-57 last lap. Caden Leonard held on for the win over Danny Torres and Benjamin Montgomery. Gavin Chapa’s 58.67 final lap was only good enough for fourth. Freshman Ruel Newberry’s 1:06 final lap left him in sixth.

For the second year in a row, Caden Leonard lead the way for the boys in the 1600m statewide. Leonard shaved a mere 0.05 off his time in 2024 to drop his PR to 4:02.41 at the Hoka Festival of Miles in St. Louis. Noah Strohman was able to drop his PR by almost a second and a half at RunningLane,

Probably what stands out most was that most of the best runs were after the UIL season or at premiere meets later in the season where the competition is stacked. Gavin Chapa, now at Texas A&M, won Texas Relays.

I thought I would take minute to review some of the top Texan results for the 2025 Outdoor Season now that the summer Nationals are complete.

Obviously no list or conversation can start without mentioning what Cooper Lutkenhaus did at the US National Championships. I was lucky enough to be in Heyward the afternoon he broke Michael Granville’s 29-year old record at Nike. The weather wasn’t great and I really didn’t think he’d have a legit shot. The day before when Luke Bone ran the 7th or 8th best all-time (at the time) during the U20 Final, the weather was much nicer. So when Coop broke the record, the place went crazy.

The UIL State Track Meet delivered an absolute spectacle, where the state’s best high school athletes turned the track at Mike A. Myers Stadium into a record-breaking runway! From thrilling middle-distance duels to grueling 3200-meter grinds, the distance events were nothing short of spectacular, highlighted by jaw-dropping new state and conference records.

A New State Standard in the 800m!

The headline performance of the meet belongs to Cooper Lutkenhaus of Northwest, who didn’t just win the Class 6A Boys 800-meter run—he rewrote the record book! Lutkenhaus clocked a scorching 1:47.04 , setting a NEW STATE RECORD. This incredible run cements his place as one of the state’s all-time greats in the event. Following him closely was Luke Bone of Austin High, securing the silver medal with a time of 1:49.23.

1A BOYS 1600 METER RUN
1 Ryker Haivala Cumby Miller Grove 4:34.78
2 Sebastian Talamantez Comstock 4:36.90
3 Jose Ventura Lasara 4:43.03
4 Caynden Mynear White Deer 4:43.71
5 Brett Macias Neches High School 4:46.47
6 Camden Lummus Roby 4:48.05
7 Brance Ferguson Happy 4:48.62
8 Hayden King Clyde Eula 4:51.80

1A BOYS 3200 METER RUN
1 Ryker Haivala Cumby Miller Grove 9:50.31
2 Sebastian Talamantez Comstock 9:54.75
3 Brett Macias Neches High School 10:08.39
4 Aaron Fagan Zephyr 10:14.44
5 Aiden Beversdorf Petersburg 10:14.96
6 Yair Martinez Balmorhea 10:17.79
7 Adrian Rosales Booker 10:19.42
8 Camden Lummus Roby 10:19.66
9 Eduardo Cedillo O’Donnell 10:25.71

Top runners only… commentary updated soon.

GIRLS 800M

GIRLS 1600M

The Northwest Texan Invitational 1k US High School Record attempt didn’t go as planned, however that does not mean it was a failure.

Sure, nobody broke the record and the entire field looked bummed after the race, but as someone who was there, it was definitely a success. This race gave all of those kids a taste of big time racing very early in the outdoor season. Some would probably say too early in the outdoor season, but with the way the UIL schedule is so compressed (that’s a topic for another day), there’s really not a good place to put it, unless you add it to TDF or an event like that.

Welcome to the second week of the Texas Distance Project, where we give you an update on how middle distance and distance runner excelled over the previous week.

Since we missed the girls last week, we will start there. One caveat, there were many meets that were cancelled due to the cold and wet conditions. Since meets around Austin were cancelled, many competed for their clubs at the Viper Distance Festival where there were some blistering early season results.