Charger boys place 3rd, girls are 7th at state

KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor

ROUND ROCK – The best 5A girls runner in the state is from Boerne Champion and Charger Elizabeth Leachman may be the best high school girls runner in all of Texas.

Leachman ran away with the individual title Friday morning in Round Rock at the 5A state meet and set a new course record at Old Settlers Park.

It was a chilly morning but the sophomore blazed her way through with a record-setting time of 16:25.5 to top the old mark of 16:25.8.

Leachman beat the second-place runner by more than a minute and helped the Lady Chargers to a 7th-place finish at state, while the Champion boys placed third to earn bronze medals.

This is Leachman’s second gold medal. She also earned one at last spring’s state track meet. As Leachman crossed the finish line, the sophomore raised her hands in victory.

“It was so much excitement; this is what I’ve been working for this all these years,” she said. “I love track and so glad I got to have that opportunity last spring but cross country is where my heart is at, so to see it all come together is an amazing experience.”

Varsity Girls

Leachman’s 1st-place finish helped the Lady Chargers score 210 points for 7th. She was first in a field of 151 individual runners.

Chargers coach Jonathan Tate he’s running out of words to describe Leachman.

“She’s amazing, she really is amazing,” he said. “She has the potential to be the best high school runner in the country.”

Besides Leachman’s time of 16:25.5, Kynley Albright placed 19th with a 19:02.3, Grace Mondini finished 56th after running a 20:07.3, Breanna Hempton came in 65th in a time of 20:16.2, Emma Rice recorded a 20:19.3 for 69th, Kiley Johnson was 79th in 20:40.7 and Luciana Zazueta Ibarra turned in a time of 20:46.9 for 87th.

Lucas Lovejoy won the 5A team title with 40 points, Aledo was second (81) and Georgetown earned bronze (131).

Varsity Boys

The Champion boys cross country team may have surprised some people with its 3rd-place finish at Friday’s 5A state meet, but their bronze-medal performance came as no surprise to head coach Jonathan Tate.

“We wanted to be on the podium and we looked around and said, ‘we’ve beat this team and that team’ and so we felt pretty good about our chances,” Tate said. “But you have to go out there and do it and they did. It’s a great group.”

The Chargers tallied 133 points to earn bronze medals behind state champs Lucas Lovejoy (56) and 2nd-place Georgetown (109).

Luis Tovar paced the Chargers and was 16th with a time of 16:14.1, Charlie Houck posted a 16:19.7 for 18th, Caleb Dehart finished 24th in 16:27.2, Ben Matamoros placed 35th with a time of 16:39.2, Matthew Duran came in 40th after running a 16:44.6, Noah Perez competed the course in a time of 17:11.4 for 71st and Luke Grametbauer rounded out the team after clocking in at 17:21.1 for 75th.