After a day-long delay due to poor weather conditions, cross country competed in the District 9-5A meet at Warren Park on Friday, with the boys’ team finishing in 3rd, and the girls’ team finishing 7th.

“I think that the kids competed well given the conditions,” head coach Khera Vay said. “We’re in a really competitive district so they’re able to set some goals for next year.” 

Due to UIL COVID-19 restrictions, only the top two teams advance to the regional meet, bringing the season to an end for both teams.

“The meet went just about as good as we expected,” sophomore Chance Moore said via text. “We honestly did good, but we were just disappointed we couldn’t get the 2nd place spot.”

As for the girls team, some athletes like, junior Jada Williams, have made it to state the past two years.

“The girls team did pretty well, we all gave our best effort and that’s all I or coach Vay could have asked for,” Williams said.  “I didn’t do as well as I wanted to but I ran a really smart race, I was hoping to make it past districts but it is really hard to do that individually, overall I was glad that I ran well but a little sad I won’t be going regionals or state this year.”

Both Reedy High School, 1st place, and Wakeland High School, 2nd place, finished ahead of the boys in 3rd place. The girls team on the other hand took home 7th with junior Jada Williams finishing in the top 15.

“Our team started practice way later than any other school and I think that affected us from getting the 2nd and 1st spot,” Moore said. “Our hard work throughout the little practices we had really helped us get into the shape we needed which got us 3rd.”

Looking forward to future seasons, Vay is confident in the boy’s future hoping to find some more athletes to help bring up the team’s numbers.

“On the boys side of things they have a really strong sophomore class,” Vay said. “I’m looking forward to those guys stepping up to a leadership role as juniors and then hopefully we can do some more recruiting from the middle schools and find some younger freshman kids.”

Though the team did not finish where they had originally hoped, they are still optimistic about seasons to come due to what they consider their leg up on other schools.

“Based off today’s results I believe if we start off practices early and get into the right mentality we should be able to be 2nd or 1st in districts next year,” Moore said. “We have a lot of young talent, sophomores, that no other school has.”