Volte Middle and High Schoolers Compete Well Despite Nike South's Muddy Course

Friday and Saturday was the annual Nike South Invitational cross country meet at Bear Branch Sports Park.

A little over 2,500 athletes from seventh to the twelfth grade competed for one of 22 middle schools or 62 high schools.

A year ago, because of the UIL's COVID-19 mitigation protocols, the middle school athletes weren't allowed to compete at Nike South.  

The UIL had required that junior high and high school meets be held on separate days.  It ended up costing a lot of middle school athletes the opportunity to compete.

The sons and daughters of many of our athletes and friends competed.

Normally, the distances are two miles for the middle school athletes and five kilometers for the high school runners, but due to heavy rains mid-week the courses were adjusted and rumored to be 1.75 and 2.88 miles, respectively.

In the eighth grade boys race, the only son of a Volte athlete was Brayden Park.

His dad and mom, Jerritt and Kristi Park, both run with us.

He was seventh overall in a field of 150 runners - and was fifth overall on his school's team.  If the 1.75 miles was an accurate estimation, his pace would have been about 6:02 per mile in the wet and muddy conditions.

The children of a few of our Volte friends ran in this race.

Jack Tresaugue, the son of Volte friend Jill Tresaugue, was second overall.

Also competing was Miles Delzer, the son of Volte friends Ronnie and Stefanie Delzer.  Ronnie is one of the founders of Vantage Point Endurance.

The eighth grade girls race featured three daughters of our runners.

Two of them - Madi Hanyzewski and Brooke Kramer-Caamano - finished within three tenths of a second of each other!

Madi, the daughter of Brian and Laura Hanyzewski, finished in 13:29.1 - about a 7:42 mile pace on a 1.75-mile course, while Kramer-Caamano, the daughter of our Mayra Caamano, was just a step behind, but she was the seventh fastest runner for her junior high.

Making continued improvements in her running was Brooke Hadden, the daughter of Darren Hadden, who finished in 15:40.9, an 8:58 pace.

On Saturday morning in the varsity non-elite girls races, where there were two races and 256 runners were included in the results, Chloe Kramer-Caamano, Brooke's older sister, was second among her school's runners in 19:23, which equated to a 6:44 pace.

Her and her teammate who finished in front of her both had times that were faster than their school's seventh place runner in the elite race, racing in the same course conditions.

Luke Tresaugue, the older brother of Jack and a sophomore at his high school, ran the "5K" course in 17:25 - 49th of 184 runners in two combined races.

Stoya Laydevant, a freshman at The Woodlands High School who trained with us at the track during the spring and summer, finished 23rd overall in the girls elite race.  

She was the Highlanders' third runner on a squad that finished second to Flower Mound.