The Running Scots competed well against a very deep lineup of 6A & 5A teams at the Marcus Coach T XC Invitational on Saturday at North Lakes Park in Denton.

The varsity team of Jacob Baumgartner, Bennett Blevins, Spencer Haag, Luke Hall, Luke Johnson, Akash Shah, and Beau Stewart finished 18th out of 30 teams in the field. The varsity elite team posted an outstanding team time of 16:34 which was the best overall performance for the Running Scots in the Marcus meet since the team has been attending. Junior Spencer Haag led the team with his first sub 16:00 performance, finishing the race with a time of 15:48 and 33rd overall in the individual standings against a top tier lineup of runners. Senior Bennett Blevins also turned in an outstanding performance finishing 54th and almost eclipsing his personal best at Southlake last season with a time of 16:10. Juniors Luke Hall and Jacob Baumgartner both turned in strong performances with sub 17 times. Freshman Beau Stewart rounded out the top 5 by posting a time of 17:00 in his first 5K. Akash Shah (17:04), Luke Johnson (17:50) and Haag all turned in personal best times.

The Varsity Open finished 19th out of 29 teams and were led by Freshman Antonio Sanchez who finished his first 5K with an outstanding time of 17:31. Junior Preston Mallat (18:15), senior Spencer Luu (18:19) and sophomore Charlie Hamilton (18:19) all finished with personal best times. Senior Captain Archer Stahl completed the top 5 with a time of 18:28 giving the team a strong 1-5 runner split of 57 seconds.

The Junior Varsity ran in the Elite division and finished 15th out of 29 teams overall. Freshman Collin Krantz led the team finishing 30th out of 376 competing and a time of 18:45. Seven freshmen competed for the Scots and did a great job in their first 5k of the season.

The Running Scots will compete next Saturday on the Regional course at the UTA Region II High School Preview XC Meet at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie. Race time is 7:30 am.

Go Scots!!