Once again the boys cross country team advanced to the state meet, after taking first at the regional meet on Monday, Oct. 23, at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie. However for the girls team, their season came to an end with a ninth place finish at regionals.

The girls’ top finishers were junior Carson Hockersmith at 20:08 coming in 26th overall, followed by freshman Amelia Carothers who finished 51st overall at 21:01, and sophomore Zoe Bessa at 53rd at 21:01:8 just a step behind.

“Unfortunately the regional meet did not go as well as we had hoped, but that is not to say we did not make a lot of improvements throughout the season,” Hockersmith said. “From my experiences of being on this team, this is the closest group of girls I have seen come through the program. Statistically we have had the fastest group of girls that the program has ever had.”

For the boys, the regional title added another win in an undefeated season that started back in September. The boys’ top finisher was sophomore Brady Laboret at fifth overall with a time of of 16:13. After Laboret came sophomore Will Muirhead at 12th overall at a time of 16:30. Other top finishers for the boys were senior Bradley Davis at 18th overall with a time of 16:35 and senior Ryan Spruell at 21st overall with a time of 16:46.

“Although the race conditions were not ideal, we still ran well as a unit and I’m looking forward to us running our best times at state,” Laboret said.

The boys will look to repeat last year’s state championship at the state meet on Nov. 4 in Round Rock. Since late May, the team has been doing a variety of workouts and training for the chance to compete to win state again, and the moment is finally here.

“For state we want our team to have closer splits and perform at our peak, which is what we have been training around since the summer,” sophomore Whitson Bedell said. “We will look to go back-to-back state champions.”