KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor
ROUND ROCK – After winning an individual title at last Friday’s 5A state cross country meet, Boerne Champion’s Elizabeth Leachman has now won two state medals in her running career as a Charger.
Her first gold medal was at last spring’s state track meet, running all by herself. The one she earned Friday came as her entire team ran with her.
The sophomore said having the team at the starting line with her made Friday’s gold medal that much sweeter.
Leachman’s first thoughts after winning the race were mostly about her teammates.
“The bigger satisfaction for me is that I got to do it with a team. Getting to be here and having the whole experience with the team was an amazing opportunity,” she said. “I’m excited for all our team was able to accomplish here today, it was a really great experience.”
The Charger sophomore is used to running with a watch but athletes were not allowed to wear one at the state meet. That probably makes it harder to gauge times, but Leachman did well with it.
“I was trying to trust what my body was telling me to do and how it felt,” she said. “I’ve run these races before so I know how it feels and I was trying to use that and I was paying attention to the mile markers and make decisions based on that.”
No watch – no problem, but another issue that Leachman faced was the weather. It was in the low-to-mid 50s when they started Friday’s race at 8:30 a.m.
Leachman was wearing ear coverings to go with gloves and sleeves to cover her arms. She said she prefers the hot weather.
“I’m a better runner with the heat but I just tried to get warmed up the way I needed to and it worked out,” she said.
Chargers head coach Jonathan Tate said Leachman can run in the middle of August with no problems.
“ The hot weather destroys some people but for her, it’s perfect,” he said.
It had rained early in the week and probably settled some of the dust and compacted the ground but wasn’t too muddy. Leach- man said the course ran well.
“The conditions were great and it was a really opportune time to go run a good race,” she said.
Leachman posted a time of 16:25.5, which set a meet record for the course, but how low can she go with her times?
Tate said he doesn’t think that Leachman has plateaued as a runner and faster times may lay ahead for her.
“She’s been consistent all year long but I think she’s still kind of finding out where her limits are,” he said. “It’s amazing that she’s running as fast as she is, but she hasn’t hit a point where it’s too much.'
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