I went with a baker’s dozen runner here because my simulated times had a bunch of runners grouped together along 8-13. What initially stands out is the fact the top-3 runners from Region 3 sit at the top. They also happen to be the top-3 returners from a year ago. Fitzgerald (2nd), Huntress (6th) and Asbill (5th) have shown they belong and their performances a week ago at the regional meet only emphasize that fact. Malan was 12th a year ago and Arceneau was 9th.

Over the past year or so I have collected data from cross country races across the state. By setting a single meet at a distance I was almost 100% confident about (not 5000m), I have written a program to estimate an equivalent distance for every meet across the state. I do not list all of the meets here. I started with the top runners across Texas and made sure I had most if not all of their meets. I used a also very good sampling of meets from the various regions across Texas (and Woodbridge).

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.

1k High School Record Breaking Attempt
Friday, around 8 PM at Justin Northwest Texan Stadium

I think one thing we can all agree on is that the 1k US High School record attempt at the Justin Northwest Texan Invitational this coming Friday should be exciting. There should definitely be more odd distance events like this.

The current US High School Outdoor record is held by Marcus Reilly of Massachusetts, who broke the record last June in Montreal, Canada in a time of 1:21.81. Reilly is currently a freshman at Michigan.

I apologize for not having this completed in time to be posted on MileSplit. The Boys’ version was an experiment on the format of what I wanted to accomplish. It will change a bit from week-to-week, but try to honor kids in each event (800, 1600, 3200) every week. Of course there will be times when I expand, but that’s the premise.

This week’s girls’ roundup will be short. I stuck with the following standards: 800m (sub-2:20), 1600m (sub-5:20) and 3200m (sub 11:20). Asa I stated on the boys’ post, these standards will change from week-to-week.

We are happy to be a part of Texas MileSplit as a part-time contributor. I want one thing to be clear, I am not paid by MS, nor am I a coach. I am a parent with kids who run and enjoy publicizing kids who run fast. I started this because I felt that much of the coverage gets splintered throughout the year. What I mean by that is, there seem to be a lot of freelancers who cover areas of the state or specific events. Sprints tend to get a lot of coverage. This is all great, but I like to get a little more in depth on what is happening in events like the 800, 1600 and 3200 (as well as Cross Country).