For months, they’ve been running. Mile after mile, day after day, with one goal in mind: making it to State. For five members of the cross country team, that goal came to fruition Tuesday at the Regional Meet held in Grand Prairie as Kendall Rose (2nd), Carrie Fish (14th), Yuilana Lorenso (15th), Josh Akin (12th) and Nick Wynne (16th) advanced to the State Meet Nov. 7 in Round Rock.

Wingspan caught with each of the five to get their thought on making it to state.

“Honestly the first thing that went through my mind was ‘how did i just do that?’ because I realized how drastically I improved from the beginning of the season. It was a shock to me,” sophomore Kendall Rose said. “We’ve just been doing the same thing, lots of mileage. I’ve been doing my own strength training but I haven’t done anything extra. I was just thinking “state”. I had made it to state on my own. I would be able to go no matter what. I was glad I was done.”

“I really didn’t prepare any differently than I have for other races,” sophomore Carrie Fish said. “I just worked on staying at a tough pace during practice. As I was finishing, I was really surprised it was actually happening. I wasn’t expecting to do that well. I was injured for three weeks. I felt relieved because I had been praying for that moment all year long.”

“I get to compete with the other girls again and improve my time from last year and see if I can beat my place and time,” junior Yuliana Lorenso said.

“I’m blessed to have the opportunity to make it and me and Nick have worked really hard this season,” junior Josh Akin said. “We’ve put in all the work over the summer, and we’ve been pushing every week, and we’re really grateful for this opportunity.”

“I think it’s pretty cool and it should be fun at state,” junior Nick Wynne said. “I’m excited about it.”