Texans sending two runners to Championship
Two Texan Cross Country runners will head to the UIL State Championship this weekend.
Ashlyn Royal placed fourth in the girls’ UIL 4A Region 4 meet finishing with a time of 12 minutes, three seconds in the two-mile race.
“She was coming off of the district meet, where she finished fourth after running a good time, but going into Regionals she wanted to beat those girls that had beat her in district,” Cross Country Head Coach Lacey Lambert said. “She did that. She probably ran her best race of the year and beat all three of them from our district.”
Griffin Neal placed fifth in the boys’ UIL 4A Region 4 meet finishing with a time of 16 minutes, 43 seconds in the five-kilometer race.
“Griffin led the race for the first mile and a half,” Lambert said. “There for a while it was him and a kid from Fredericksburg, but as the race progressed the front leaders ended up gaining more runners to six or eight people in front. Around the two-mile mark, some of the leaders started pulling away, but he ran a great race.”
This was the first time in years that the boys’ team qualified for Regionals as a team. They finished ninth overall out of 24 teams at Regionals. Alex Ursha was the second best finisher for the Texans running the race in 18 minutes, 55 seconds.
“Alex is a senior this year so it was his last race,” Lambert said. “He is a great kid, and he splits his time between Team Tennis and Cross Country. He has to do a lot of the workouts on his own and he stayed dedicated all year and put in those miles on his own time and stayed the number two runner the entire season even with the stress of two sports.”
The girls’ team also qualified for Regionals and placed 13th overall out of 24 teams. Ericca Zachgo-Peterson was the second best finisher on for the Texans with a time of 13 minutes, 22 seconds. Haley Hall was the third best runner finishing with a time of 13 minutes, 30 seconds.
“She was injured in the middle of the season and finally got back to her normal time in this race,” Lambert said. “It was good to finish the year on a high note for them.”
While two runners will advance to the state championship individually, it was a great season for each team.
“All my runners ran great,” Lambert said. “Every course is different, but we ran great. Both the boys’ team and girls’ team, and we finished where we expected to finish. It was an exciting year. It was the first time in a long time that the boys cross country team qualified as a team for Regionals. It was fun to take 16 kids down there and get some of these younger kids experience at a Regional meet.”
The UIL State Championship will be held on Saturday at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. Royal will run at noon. Neal’s race starts immediately following the girls’ race, which is expected to be about 12:20 p.m.