Individual Performance of the Meet: Brooklyn Biancamano and Keegan Leverett
Another easy pick for the best individual performances of the day are the fastest performers of the MHSAA State Meet, nearly solo efforts, and that is Brooklyn Biancamano at 18:03 and Keegan Leverett at 15:47. Obviously, picking the 2 runners with the fastest times is the easy choice for the best individual performances of the meet, but it's really the way that they did it is why they're taking this award.
Biancamano had the fastest time of the meet by nearly 40 seconds... And won by over 2 minutes. She 18:03 in essentially a time trial on Choctaw Trails, and basically replicated her time that she ran at Jesse Owens and got pushed in that race. It was also a hot and sticky day for the Long Beach senior but still came through 2 miles at 11:20. Once she puts down that kind of effort at RunningLane in the Gold Division, we could see something in the 17:30's.
Leverett also had the fastest time of the meet, yet had slightly worse conditions than Saturday's meet - He ran on Monday in 80 degrees weather, and essentially soloed the back half. And, it's not like there wasn't any competition - 15:54 runner Jack Hewes was also in that race, yet Leverett still won by over 45 seconds. It's almost like Leverett was unaffected by the hot conditions on his way to running a 15:45 5k. Keegan is also signed up for RunningLane in December where he will probably make the Gold Division. With his tactical awareness and consistency, it will be very interesting to see what he does against some national-caliber competition.
Team Performance of the Day: Ocean Springs Girls and Brookhaven Boys
Team performances of the meet go to some of the most dominant team performances I've ever seen, and that was the Ocean Springs girls and the Brookhaven Boys.
On the girl's side, Ocean Springs put 5 in the top 8 and 6 in the top 10, with all of those same girls returning for next year. They had a 31 second 1-5 spread and were oh so close to having all scoring 5 break 20 in the 5k - their 3,4, and 5 all ran between 20:04 - 20:06, placing in 6th, 7th, and 8th. Ocean Springs showed a phenomenal pack running in a deep field going up against the likes of Hernando, and they proved that they are the #1 team in the state in the 2021 Mississippi cross country season. With all of their crew returning, I'm already looking forward to watching the Ocean Springs girls chase some records next year.
Moving over to the boys, winning a state title was just another box to check off for the Brookhaven boys with the year that they have had. They won the class MHSAA 5A title with 22 points and put 4 in the top 4 against a strong Saltillo squad, all under 17 on a hot day - they were the only runners under 17 in that class, and there were only 2 other runners under 17 on that day. With their win, Brookhaven successfully completed the 3-peat and continued their winning streak of 28 races straight against Mississippi teams dating all the way back to the 2018 season. Next up for the Panthers is RunningLane, where they will surely try and tackle their own 16:14 5k average in the Silver Division.
