But Taylor could not stay with him over the final two miles of the three-mile race, taking second at the District 5-5A meet at the University of North Texas in Denton. Taylor, a sophomore, finished in 17:05. Parker ran 16:36.
"He's a good runner and a senior that's made it to regionals and state," Taylor said. "We had a district preview where I ran with him for a while. I thought I could get closer today.
"[The course] was very tough. I got stumbled up in the mud and thought I was going to lose my shoes," he said.
Taylor led the Texans to a third-place finish. Northwest finished with 63 points. Central cruised to the title, scoring 28. All five of Central's top runners finished in the top 10. Keller took second with 48.
"Central dominated," said Northwest coach George Lutkenhaus. "We struggled some. We had too big of a gap between our third and fifth runners. This is a tough district."
Northwest's Brandon Steed took fifth, running 17:22. Stephen Johnson finished 11th in 17:42. Brian Cooper ran 18:32, taking 22nd. Northwest's fifth runner was David Piper, running 18:40 to finish 23rd. Nick Fowler took 26th, finishing in 18:47. David Dunford was 38th in 19:09.
