AUSTIN \u2014 Southlake Carroll\u2019s Caden Leonard talked last year at the Class 6A state track meet about how he had been working with a mental coach to focus on just winning races rather than worrying about his time.<\/p>\n
Saturday morning, the North Carolina signee got to enjoy the best of both worlds \u2014 a state championship and a new state meet-record time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was to just go out and win, but it\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI remember my freshman year the state meet [record] got broken. The previous one before that was Reed Brown. After the race I told my dad that by the time I graduated I was going to get the record back. I didn\u2019t intend to do it today, but it just happened like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, a former Carroll\u00a0phenom, is the only high school runner from Texas to ever break 4 minutes in the mile, running 3:59.30 in 2017. He is now a Carroll assistant coach, and Leonard has been able to seek advice from him while running workouts designed by his father, Carroll coach Justin Leonard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to just have him at practice,\u201d Caden Leonard said. \u201cHe talks to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard said he still uses his mental coach periodically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t done it in a little bit, but I\u2019ll still use it sometimes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have when you\u2019ve got to stay on top of your stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s 3,200 win gave Leonard seven individual state titles in his career when combining track and cross country. Last year, Leonard completed the distance triple crown, winning state titles in cross country and the 1,600 and 3,200 in track. He completed the first two legs of that this year but finished fifth in the 1,600 later Saturday night, running 4:13.74.<\/p>\n
With three laps remaining in the eight-lap 3,200, there was a pack of five runners at the front that Leonard was a part of. He didn\u2019t take the lead until right before the last lap, then he closed with a 1:02.22 final 400 meters \u2014 his fastest lap of the race \u2014 to hold off Denton\u00a0Guyer sophomore Ruel Newberry, who finished second in 8:53.23.<\/p>\n