JESSIE MCCABE
Senior Nate Lannen
Southlake’s Cross Country teams faced tough competition at the Marcus 1 Invitational meet at Denton’s North Lakes Park on Saturday, August 31. But thanks to their offseason preparation, the Dragons walked away victorious.
“The Marcus 1 invite is a great opening 5K meet for our runners to participate in. The majority of our regional and state competition attend this meet, and it’s a great way to see how we stack up coming off of summer training,” coach Justin Leonard says via press release. “We have some ground to make up but we are excited to get started.”
The Varsity Boys Elite team placed second in the 5K meet, with Nate Lannen placing fourth overall for the team. He was followed by Tim McElaney in 14th, Chase Fisher at 16th, Antonio Florcruz at 25th and Chris Tracht in 33rd. The Varsity Boys Open finished first in their race with Solomon Chavez taking the first place finish. Michael McCabe, Jayden Chambless, Joe Gardner and Matt Hetrick complete the team’s top five performers at the meet.
Jenna Holland led the Varsity Girls Elite to its second place finish and finished second overall. She was followed by Kaylie Cox, Lydia Lo, Abigail McIivain and Katherine McElaney. The Varsity Girls Open team took first place, with Natalie Ng coming in second overall. Olivia Jones, Laurel Hook, Kristin Mader and Rachel Nguyen complete the team’s top five performers at the meet.
On the JV side, both elite teams took first overall. The JV Elite Boys top five finishers were Issac Chavez who finished first, Mason Alexander who finished second, Bruner Lind who finished third, David Fisher who finished fifth and Jack Meyer who finished sixth. The JV Elite Girls were led by Nikoletta Shockley who finished fourth, Lauren Lund who finished sixth, Brynn Floreano who finished seventh, Audrey Dunn who finished ninth and Mia Tesoriero who finished 11th.
Locals can cheer on these runners at their next meet, Saturday, September 7, at Bob Jones Park in Southlake.
“Next weekend we are hosting the Southlake Invite and would like to invite everyone out to watch our kids run,” Leonard says.