Lakeside's Joseph Bariola (who is now at Missouri) place runner up at Memphis Twilight in 2024 and 3rd in 2023. His team as well as others from Arkansas will not return to the meet this season as Arkansas does not allow cross country competitions before September 1st.
Itseems the Memphis Twilight Classic has led the way for years as one of the mostsought-after early season titles to get. There's a lot more of these early season races, from 3200M time trialsto regular 5K cross country races that have popped up over the past few seasons. In my opinion, the Twilight still stands outamong them all. It's not the numbersthat stand out, although having almost 1900 runners is still a hugenumber. It's not the course that really givesit the prestige either, a fairly flat but deceptively difficult course it stillremains. It's the competition. For the most part, if you have a fast cross-countryrunner, they are going to come here to run this race.
Current TN 5k Rankings: Boys | Girls
Thisrace does present a great early season gage for the local runners to get in ahighly competitive run without having to travel long distance. I don't have a prediction for who will win... Ifind trying to predict a CC race is fleeting at best since you just never knowwhat could happen.
Itdoes look like on the girl's side of the locals, Houston and Collierville mayhave the best groups. Houston doesn'tcome in with their major stud like last years Marsh, but comes in with ahandful of athletes all running low 20's and 19's. It's likely they'll run in a pack since they'reall fairly close together on times. Thattends to be an advantage in cross country. A few girls on the Houston team to keep an eye on as they try to defendtheir runner up spot (or higher) will be: Nora Newhouse - 19:58, Lindsey Barnes - 19:18, and MarthaKate Jessop 20:02.
For Collierville, Ava Lang comes in with one ofthe fastest times from last season. Sheran a 19:00 at the Jesse Owens course. And Scarlet Nash ran 19:38 at last year's State meet, so they have sometop runners that could tilt the scale Saturday. Bartlett's Kayley Bird was a top25 last year at this meet and her 19:28 PR is a good sign she could be evenbetter this year.
Some of the local boys to watch Saturday wouldinclude Arlington's duo of Clark Wade and Adian Hurst-Vasquez. Wade ran a 16:43 at the State meet lastseason which was a huge improvement from the previous season. And Adian's 16:56 is a good number that couldput him near the lead on Saturday.
Collierville also carries in a couple of guyswith numbers in the 16's. Ty Durst(16:21) and Jacob Roper (16:39) will be leading off a group that could contendin the top as well. A couple of theirguys are just sneaking into the 16, with John McAlvin (17:09) and CaydenLindsay (17:14) looking to improve and help their team on Saturday.
Memphis East's cross country star, GabrielGutierrez is also planning on running. Heran a 17:01 at Coleman Midgett invitational and 17:14 at Frank Horton (a tough competitivecourse). That could be a good sign he'llrun even faster on the Twilight course.
You will need to watch a few of the Houstonboys this year as well. They are rebuildingof sorts with graduations from last year but still carry a strong team. Tyler Schmitt - 17:31, Garrison Hickey - 16:59,and Landon Barnes - 17:31 will be leading the way for this team this season. Garrison has a 4:45 in the 1600 and so youknow he has some leg speed that could help him on Saturday.
Franklin High School is bringing in a few strong cross-country runners in Eli Pierce who ran a 17:07 at the Coleman Midgett last year and Nilsen Hurst has a 16:16 ran at the Chickasaw Trails.
As is the case every season at this event, the out-of-townteams will showcase their best athletes and be a force to watch. Rock Bridge is the defending boys and girls'champions and will be very difficult to bet against them this year. This Missouri team brings in a lot of talent,starting with Mae Walker, who at 18.28.79 was runner up at this event lastyear. She has run as low as 18:06 lastSeptember and has a track PR of 5:03.32 in the 1600 distance. She is certainly entering this race as thefavorite. Her teammates are no couchpotatoes either. Claire Richardson hasan 18:35 for a PR and ran to a 7th place finish last season at theTwlight. With a few others follow, suchas Kaitlyn Reid - 19:25, Madelyn Arnold - 19:33, and Amelie Crane - 19:42. They will be difficult to beat.
However, there is a girls team coming in fromTexas, the South TX Heat homeschool team that is an unknown at the moment but thatmay change on Saturday. This team is mostlyfreshman and includes the second fastest 1600 runner for 8th gradersin Elin Latta (4:45), the rest of the team practically doesn't run any slowerthan 5:15 for the 1600 distance. Beingnew to the 5K distance, it will be fun to see these young athletes perform onSaturday. It's these kinds of athletesthat make CC so very competitive and of course, so much fun to watch!
Another Missouri high school, Eureka, will be bringingsome fast girls with a handful of sub-20's. They include DaphneBishop, who ran 19:14 at their state meet and Sofia ho*rchler (19:32) and OliviaPierce (19:40). Franklin High School(TN) is bringing Mary Beth McKnight who has run a 19:39.
The Rock Bridge (MO) boys will be difficult totake down this year. Luke Sievers - was 6thlast season in 16:02.18 and boasts a 9:14.68 for the 3200 that gave him a top 4spot in their state championships last track season. Someone to keep a close eye on will be MathewKim who came in 23rd at the Twilight last year but made bigimprovements to get him a PR of 15:43.30 at their State Championships. And with teammates Ethan Hockman (16:06), CookHudson (16:09), and several others coming into this race, this team is clearlya front runner.
Afew other Missouri teams are bringing some strong individuals. Southern Boone HS (MO) has Brian Burns who rana 16:06 at last years MO state championships. He also carries a 4:18 (1600) and 9:27.61 (3200) which shows he canlikely drop that CC time even lower. St.Claire brings Tyler Yarberry who has a CC PR of 17:20, but has run 4:50 in the1600, so he may just be realizing how fast he can go.
Alabama'sPell City High has some boys with a bit of leg speed themselves. IsraelBaird, who ran 17:04 to get a top ten at Brooks HS River Classic last seasonand River Richard, 17:04 PR ran at the Jesse Owens.
As usual there's probably someone out therethat wasn't mentioned but with almost 1900 runners to review, you'll have togive me a break on that. And as usual, thebest way to fix that is to run fast on Saturday.
See you on the track... and the grass
Coach Ted
