The Leopards cross country team will be competing in the region 2 – 5A meet tomorrow at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie. The girls will run at 11 a.m. and the boys will run at 11:30 a.m.

Since May, the Leopards have been working out every evening of the week, all in preparation for regionals and state. Long runs, hill training, progression runs, and speed workouts are what the team has been doing throughout the late summer and fall.

“I feel the workouts we have been doing up to this point have put us in a position to where we will continue to run faster each race and have our best races at the end of the season when it counts,” said senior captain Grant Tiff.

The top teams that the boys will compete against are Frisco Wakeland, Highland Park, Mesquite Poteet, Dallas Conrad, and The Colony. For the girls, the main focus will be Frisco Liberty, Prosper, Highland Park, who beat the Leopards at district, Frisco Wakeland, McKinney North, and The Colony.

In the past district meet, the boy’s team took first with 5 finishers in the top 10 and the girls performance got them second with sophomore Carson Hockersmith winning the race.

“Everyone had a pretty good race and it gave us a chance to see what teams we need to watch out for at regionals,” said junior captain Emily Gueller.

The top three runners for the boy’s team were Tiff, taking first overall at 16:04, freshman Brady Laboret, third, at 16:26, and sophomore Brett Pedersen, at 16:27, finishing at fourth overall.

“We performed really well, but there are a few things we need to improve on,” said senior captain Nate Hartter. “Our pack running has been phenomenal this year but has seen some distance created in the last few meets, and we need to tighten that gap. Our pack also needs to focus on closing out the last 1/2 mile, so that we can drop out score.”

The girl’s top runners at district were Hockersmith at 20:10, taking first, freshman Sofia Estes at 20:50 in seventh place, Gueller at 11th, with her time of 21:01.

Last season, the boy’s team finished second at state, losing by only a couple points to Frisco Wakeland. If the team advances in regionals, they will have the chance to seek redemption from last year. The girls too, will look for the chance to go to state and compete.

“Our training is where it needs to be so we all just need push ourselves and trust our training,” said Gueller.