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DyeStat News
South Region
Bear Branch Sports Fields, The Woodlands TX
November 17, 2007
MS - TX - OK - AR - LA
| | Winners Table - Pix and stories
Results | Photos
Preview |Seeds | Schedule |
Prior Years |
the meet's own web site
| Girls - Southlake Carroll TX, Keller TX Fourth straight trip to NTN Finals for South #1 team, each year led by an Upshaw, while Keller makes up for that near miss last year. Girls Race Story by John Sullivan.
Boys - The Woodlands TX, Southlake Carroll TX With or without their #1s!! Woodlands TC scores 70, wins w/o #1 Reed Conner, while the 1-2 of Colby Lowe and C.J. Brown paces Carroll XC (third trip to finals for both).
Texas Trio's Been There, Doing It Again - Lead Story by SteveU
Experience doesn’t count for everything when it comes to earning berths to Nike Team Nationals. But it sure doesn’t hurt. In the South Region, if you’ve been-there, done-that … well, you’re a good bet to do it again.
| NTN Webcast - Regional highlights online on Nov. 15, Nov. 22 and 29,
followed by live webcast Dec. 1 of NTN finals in Portland. |
South Region Winners Table click event for stories and pix
| Boys Championship
| Woodlands TC TX 70; Colby Lowe, Carroll XC (Southlake) 15:06
| Girls Championship
| Carroll XC (Southlake) TX 88; Tara Upshaw, Carroll 18:25
| Boys Sub-Varsity
| Woodlands TC TX 15; Ian Adams 16:31
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Texas Trio's Been There, Doing It Again
by SteveU
 | Layne Nixon and Drew Butler get it done for Woodlands TC.
Photos Bert Richardson
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Experience doesn’t count for everything when it comes to earning berths to Nike Team Nationals. But it sure doesn’t hurt. In the South Region, if you’ve been-there, done-that … well, you’re a good bet to do it again.
Going into Saturday’s NTN South Regional at Bear Branch Sports Fields in The Woodlands TX, the clubs representing the boys and girls teams of Southlake Carroll HS in TX and the boys from the host school had combined for a total of seven NTN berths in the first three years of the event.
Now you can make that 10.
With jr Tara Upshaw leading the way with a victory in 18:25, the Carroll XC (Southlake TX) girls built on their momentum from last weekend’s controversial state meet win, and scored a narrow victory with 88 points. With a similarly strong race up front and through the pack, the Keller RC (Keller TX) girls added a newcomer to the experienced trio. Their 93 points edged a disappointed Kingwood RC (Kingwood TX) club (103), with Hereford CC Club (Hereford TX) 4th with 122.
On the boys side, Carroll XC got the expected 1-2 from Colby Lowe and C.J. Brown, with the former ripping to a course record 15:06. That, plus some pretty reasonable depth, was enough to score 96 and beat everyone but the host school. Despite missing #1 man Reed Conner, Woodlands TC (The Woodlands TX) put two in the top seven and scored a very good 70 to win with room to spare. In third, the magic season of Rogers Arkansas XC Club (Rogers AR) hit a roadblock as they were third with 111. Then it was a good 61 points to Seven Lakes Harriers (Katy TX) in 4th (172).
No one was a clear enough winner, even The Woodlands, that they knew they had their Portland ticket before the Awards Stand Drama unfolded. So the Carroll XC girls will be the third boys or girls club to appear at every NTN, while the Carroll XC and Woodlands XC boys will make it three for four. Indeed, of the nine schools that have made it to Portland at least three times (so far), three are from Texas. The Rogers and Seven Lakes boys, and Kingwood and Hereford girls, will each have to wait and hope for some at-large magic.
Everyone's got a back story
Each of the qualifying quartet had to overcome some clear adversity to get on the podium with Nike’s Dan Lincoln (new American Record holder in the steeple and Arkansas grad) Saturday. For Woodlands TC boys, it was nothing less than the loss of their #1 man Reed Conner. Last weekend, The Woodlands fans at the Texas State Meet witnessed the painful site of their leader crawling across the line in 34th. He was treated for dehydration and later found to have excess blood enzyme levels in tests this week. Doctors would not clear him to run, though he started feeling pretty decent a few days ago.
So Reed’s teammates had to really step up, though it wasn’t necessarily the burden of replacing a #1 man, in effect, since the team had still won with Reed as their #5 last weekend. Well, they did more than enough. Layne Nixon (15:37) and Drew Butler (15:42) produced a 4-7 finish for the strong 1-2 punch the guys needed. Richie Spearman (16:03) was 14th, giving the team the lead, in effect, then Michael Golden (16:12) and Mitch Blakeley (16:13) were easily the best 4-5 men in 22nd and 23rd.
“This really says a lot about the team, because it really is a team,” said Coach Dan Green. “A month ago (at Nike South), Reed was 5th and we finished 3rd. Today, we didn’t even use him and we get 1st, against basically the same teams. I think our kids ran well, and were out to prove that that race was a fluke.”
Last week was also kind of a fluke for C.J. Brown. Suffering with dehydration, the junior was 3rd in the Texas 5A State Meet last week, the only meet all year he hadn’t finished 2nd behind his Carroll XC teammate Lowe. Saturday, he looked like his old self. “I was exhausted the whole week until Thursday. I kept hydrating and in my workout Thursday, I felt great. Today, I was feeling pretty tired at 2 miles, but I bit my lip and dug deep.”
The runner-ups also featured Neal Smith in 24th (16:13), John Depinto in 30th (16:25), and Ahmed Toure in 39th (16:35).
 | The Carroll XC and Keller RC girls celebrate. Photos Bert Richardson
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Tara takes it to the house
Speaking of tired athletes, Tara Upshaw has had banged up and tired legs most of the year and Carroll XC teammate Taylor Stephens has in the three weeks dealt with mono and a sprained ankle, on top of the plantar fascitis she suffered from to start the season. In other words, neither has spent much time running like the 1-2 punch for which their talent has them pegged.
Saturday was different. A typically hard starter, Upshaw got out there and felt fresh. When she hit the mile in 5:27, she not only had a 10-second lead, but was able to keep on going. She slowed, but kept gaining ground and at 2.5 miles, her margin was 22 seconds. Then, the combination of the bear jumping on her back and some hard-kicking followers cut her margin all the way to :05. But the Tired Tara would have lost the race.
Meanwhile, Stephens was taking 7th in 18:44. But Keller had taken 4-5 and Hereford 3-9 in the team race, so the battle was just beginning. Carroll’s 3-4 of Jessica Harper (10th, 18:54) and Lauren Hill (28th, 19:40) played a huge role in building a lead that held up as Caitlin Gilbert closed the deal (42nd, 20:06).
 |  | | Winners Colby Lowe and Tara Upshaw. Photos Bert Richardson |
“I felt amazing,” said Upshaw. “I feel like I went out just right and not too fast. My legs finally felt right today.” Regarding the motivation of getting a 4th straight NTN berth, she added, “Some of our teammates haven’t had a chance to go to Portland yet. So, I wanted to help them out, because it’s a great experience and really fun. We all wanted to make it pretty bad.”
Keller wanted to make it pretty bad, too. Their adversity wasn’t overcoming something in the same way as the others … except maybe a chip on their shoulder from feeling like they should have made it last year instead of Tupelo MS.
They had a pretty super 1-2-3, too, as Laleh Mojtabaeezamani (18:33), Kelly Dawson (18:37), and Chelsea Scott went 4-5-13. When Ashley Vincent (19:48) and Julie Durrwatcher (19:57) followed in 32nd and 39th, Keller RC had 10 points on Kingwood RC.
So Keller will be the newcomer among NTN South teams, but the others have a thread of history that continues. Nowhere was that more evident than the site of Tara Upshaw talking on her mom’s cellphone shortly after finishing. Who was on the other end? Why, sister Brooke, of course; Brooke Upshaw, who with Miranda Walker were the lead architects of the first two Carroll XC teams to race in Portland, with the sisters running together in 2005. And it’s a good bet that few people realize this club has finished 8th-3rd-3rd in its three appearances.
“I couldn’t have done any of it without following her,” Tara said when she hung up. Spoken like someone with experience.
Preview - reprise of Nike South and TX State Meet rivalries.
South regional editor John Sullivan's preview
Prior Years - South representation at NTN finals has been dominated by Carroll TX (Southlake) - five Carroll teams have competed at Portland, with the girls team making it all three years. The Woodlands TX boys are two-time finalists.
This is the first South regional championship meet for Nike Team Nationals. In previous years, regional representatives were selected by a committee. This year the decisions will be settled on the course. The top two teams here (both boys and girls) will qualify for the 4th national championship race at Portland Meadows race track, Portland OR, on December 1.
Schedule
8:00 AM Boys Sub-Varsity race
8:30 AM Boys Championship race (NTN Qualifier)
9:00 AM Girls Championship race (NTN Qualifier)
9:30 AM Awards
NTN meet index | NTN news on DyeStat | |
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