Cross country teams run to Regionals

Both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams will head to Regionals after both teams placed third at district last week.

“This is the first time in a long time the boys have made it to Regionals as a team, so that feels pretty good,” Head Coach Lacey Lambert said. “Everyone ran their best race of the season, and we dropped a ton of time. I think the cool weather had something to do with it, but we also got to run the same course on back to back weeks, which I think helped a lot.”

Griffin Neal came in second place in district with a time of 16 minutes and six seconds in the five-kilometer race.

“He ran a great race,” Lambert said. “It came down to the last 200 meters, and (Fredericksburg) beat him out. But he ran really well. He is peaking at the right time.”

Neal’s second place finish would have qualified him for Regionals individually, but it wasn’t necessary as the entire team of Alex Ursha, Quinton Mendoza, Andreas Bilger, Jacob Wheeler, Declan Duggan, Zane Sutton and Neal qualified.

Every varsity boy runner finished the race in less than 20 minutes.

Ashlyn Royal similarly helped propel the girls’ team into Regionals. She too would have qualified individually but the team of Haley Hall, Ariana Hernandez, Rachel Kimble-Jack, Julia Rennels, Marika Spector, Ericca Zachgo-Peterson and Royal finished third.

Royal finished in fourth overall with a 12 minutes, 10 seconds. Zachgo-Peterson finished 11th with a time of 12 minutes, 50 seconds.

“Haley Hall just came off an injury last week after not running the three previous races,” Lambert said. “She ran her first race in 17 minutes, and in district dropped her time to 13 minutes, eight second to finish 18th. It was really impressive.”

The UIL Regional Cross Country meet will be held on October 28 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.