The Dragon and Lady Dragon Cross Country teams continue preparing for their championship season by competing at some of the toughest meets in the state week after week.

The first 5K of the season took place this week at the Marcus I Invitational in Denton. The Dragon's Elite Varsity and Dragon's Varsity Open finished 2nd while the Lady Dragon's Varsity Open finished in 2nd and the Lady Dragon's Elite Varsity finished in 5th.

Tim McElaney finished 2nd in the Boys Varsity Open race with a time of 16:36. In the Boys Elite Varsity Nate Lannen finished in 10th at 15:43 which is a National Elite Standard time. (Note National Elite Standard times for boys is 16:30 or below and for girls is 19:45 or below. ) Several other Dragons also were National Elite times this weekend. Steven Torres, Drew Bliss, Henry Gardner, Vishnu Nair, Antonio Florcruz and Jack Meyers all had times of 16:30 or below.

On the ladies side the Lady Dragon Elite Varsity finished 5th while several ladies achieved National Elite status. They were Sofia Santamaria, Katherine McElaney, Grace Williamson, Tatum Foreman Payton Wichman, Kate Reppoto and Lydia Lo.

Coach Justin Leonard pointed out that the early season is about development. "Marcus I is typically our team's first 5K of the season. Its a great measuring stick to see where we are at as a team and individually...we home some room to grow and develop. Next week is our home meet and we are excited to host 3,000 runners from around the state and even a few out of state teams as well."

Next week the Dragons will host the Southlake Invitational at Bob Jones Park on Saturday, Sept. 8th.