Austin Vandegrift Readies For Its First National Championship Appearance

On the final Monday practice before the end of the high school cross country season, the Austin Vandegrift boys met in the parking lot below Texas Highway Loop 1.

This was a normal occurrence by all standards, since the Vipers had always met on Monday mornings before their journeys out to Town Lake for the week’s training.

Then again, they had never met this late in the season; nor had they ever huddled into the 40-degree chill of December; nor had they ever needed to, because the Austin Vandegrift boys had never qualified for the national high school cross country championships.

But now it was official, and things had indeed changed.

On Saturday, the Vipers were officially added to the Nike Cross Nationals boys field for the December 7 championship race, held annually and sponsored by Nike at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon.

Selected as one of four at-large programs to join the 22-team field, the Vipers’ inclusion was historic because it marked the first time since 2008 that a Central Texas team was a part of the national championship race.

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Sixteen years ago, it was the Cedar Park boys who made history. Vandegrift, meanwhile, will become the first Austin program on Saturday to reach the final meet of the season.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity to represent the school and represent the area of Austin as a whole,” said Colin Sully, the nine-year head coach of the Vandegrift cross country program. “I just think the running community is so amazing here and I think we’ve had some pretty awesome results for quite a few years now.”

Paired with UIL Class 6A champion Southlake Carroll and third-place Bridgeland, Vandegrift will occupy one of three spots for Texas teams in the boys field.

“They know how good they are and what their potential is,” said Sully, whose team has recorded three straight Class 6A runner-up finishes at the state championships. “But I think this is the last race of the season for them, the last time these boys will compete together and I think they’re ready to throw everything at it.”

Of course, the Vipers weren’t without a sense of anxiety before their addition to NXN.

Failing to automatically qualify as one of two automatic teams from the Nike South Regional on Nov. 23 prompted a wait-and-see approach following the California State Cross Country Championships, which acted as the ninth-and-final qualifier of NXN – structurally, two teams from each regional locked in spots for nationals.

Vandegrift, a team consisting of four seniors, two juniors and a sophomore, finished third at NXR South 10 days ago, which was the same as 2023. Last year they missed the cut.

This year, they were on the bubble. The fate of a season was left to a phone call by a selection committee.

Sully was tasked with waiting for it.

Luckily, he had always believed his team was worthy.

Five years earlier, in 2019, the Vandegrift boys and girls had flown to California, using a booster club budget allocation to attend the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic that September.

To even consider such an opportunity – an in-season trip for a high-performing cross country team – took some long-term vision and thinking about what a team’s true north should be.

But Sully knew the Vipers’ ambitions weren’t simply within the state lines of Texas.

“I think our boys were in the blue varsity race, while Anthony Monte was in the championship,” he said. “But we knew our results would be compared to the other results out there.”

Two straight Texas state individual titles followed in 2021 and 2022 for Kevin Sanchez and an All-American performance at Foot Locker Nationals in 2021.

Hudson Haley, a junior last year, qualified for NXN as an individual. He became the third athlete from Vandegrift to achieve the feat, following Monte and Sanchez.

“Last year, the biggest setback was not having the team overall,” Haley said. “It was a nine-out-of-10 trip. I think this year will complete it.”

What enabled the Vipers to even get to this year’s national race was their flaming-hot start, with shiny wins in August and October, followed by a 16-point outing at the District 6A-25 meet and a 27-point win at the Region 6A-4 Championships. They were nearly perfect outcomes.

Few teams were as deep, as fast or as dominant.

“Scoring 16 points at District was pretty huge,” Jackson Stafford said.

But Vandegrift was not perfect, either, carrying with it pains and disappointments. There was the four-point loss to Southlake Carroll during the UIL Class 6A State Championships, preventing the program from earning its first state title.

Stafford was disappointed in his 86th-place finish, as was Miles Nutt, who followed in the 100s. Haley was off the mark in 26th.

Then again, time had given the top seven runners perspective and a renewed sense of worth.

“I’m just ready to see what I can do,” Nutt said.

Failures can sometimes prove launching points, like burdens undone by simple reminders of faith and boxes checked, of tying one’s shoes and looking forward.

The hope of tomorrow is not worrying so much about the fear of yesterday.

“The second I get off that plane, I want to race,” said Christian Castro-Cruz, who was 18th at state and 37th at NXR South. “That’s it. I want to get out there and I want to compete. I want to go out there and prove we deserve to be there.”

Sully, like the rest of his team, was excited on Monday.

It was one final opportunity to take a team picture, only this time the entire squad was wearing Christmas sweaters.

It was one last practice at Town Lake and a reminder that the season was not over yet.

“I’m always going to remember this specific group of guys,” said Kai McCullough, who was sixth at the state championships in November. “This is a really special group here. This is probably one of the best teams we’ll ever have. It’s very cool to share this moment with the guys.”

How To Watch:

Nike Cross Nationals is the season-ending high school team cross country championship held at Glendoveer Country Club in Portland, Oregon. Twenty-two boys and girls teams from around the United States will compete for a national championship on Saturday, December 7. The last time a Texas team won an NXN title was in 2009 and was achieved by Boerne Champion High School. The Southlake Carroll boys finished third in the 2023 race.

Nike will live stream the race for free on RunnerSpace starting at 9:00 a.m. PST. The girls championship race will take place at 10:05 a.m. PST, while the boys will follow at 12:30 a.m. PST.

Texans To Watch:

Caden Leonard, Southlake Carroll (TX): The Dallas-area superstar is among a select few contenders who could win the race on Saturday. A Texan has not won NXN since Craig Lutz secured the title back in 2009 – coincidentally enough, Lutz was also in his junior year at Lewisville Marcus. Leonard has won five straight races since Woodbridge.

Benjamin Montgomery, Bridgeland (TX): The BYU recruit has no reservations about running with the front pack and getting out hot. He was second to Leonard at the UIL Class 6A race and second to Leonard at NXR South. He was first, however, in the 3,200m outdoors, beating Leonard by seven hundredths of a second.

Kai McCullough, Vandegrift (TX): McCullough has been Vandegrift’s best runner in 2024, with a win at Districts to his name, along with third-, sixth- and 16th-place finishes at regions, states and NXR South. He should be in the hunt for a top 20 finish, which would net him an All-American performance.

Hudson Haley, Vandegrift (TX): He’s the only runner from Vandegrift who returns to NXN. A year ago, he finished 31st. This year, that experience should help him attack the course and improve upon the performance.

Noah Strohman, Holliday (TX): The high school junior is a fast-emerging star. He’s coming off a UIL Class 3A championship in cross country and may be a sleeper to earn a top 40 finish at NXN.

Fun Facts:

The Southlake Carroll boys have reached NXN a Texas record 16 times, only failing to miss the national championship race five times since 2004. The Woodlands High School boys have qualified for NXN 10 times.