Hours and hours of training.

Thousands upon thousands of steps adding up to hundreds of miles. 

All the work is going to be put to one final test as senior Amelia Jauergui, sophomore Jada Williams, and freshman Grace DeShetler go for a title on Friday in the girls 5A state cross country meet in Round Rock beginning at 1:10 p.m.

“We’ve been training all season and we’ve worked really hard at the beginning of the season and then when we come closer to the postseason stuff, we take down our mileage a little bit and we do more precision stuff,” Jauergui said. “We still have all of that baseline that we got from the beginning of the season but now we’re really working on being prepared for these harder meets and getting better places and times and really saving all we’ve got to peak at these postseason meets.”

Running at state brings new challenges for Williams. 

“This meet is definitely a bigger meet so its more competition and some scouts do come to watch people run,” Williams said. “It’s a lot of pressure on the runner because everyone wants to do good.”

Making her first appearance at state, DeShetler takes inspiration from Jauregui running at state all four years of her high school career.

“All season she just been a big inspiration,” she said. “She’s pushed me during practice and during meets.”

For Jauregui, her final cross country meet as a Redhawk means something special after three years of going to state.

“It’s pretty surreal, I just know that it’s been really fun, this year is kind of different because I’ve qualified individual and the past few years it was with a team, but I’m very grateful that I’ve came with,” Jauregui said. “I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, there have been ups and downs through all of these seasons, but it’s just shown me that my hard work will get me success if I continue to work hard and push myself. I’m really just proud of myself, this is my last high school meet through Liberty and I’m really excited to just go out and have fun and really just push myself one final time and to represent the Redhawk uniform.”