It was anything but a sprint for the cross country team as they embarked on a challenging course at Saturday’s Marcus Coach T Invitational in Denton.

“North Lakes is a difficult course of ups and downs with an unusual finish and the girls competed in the elite division for the first time, so with all that considered I thought the kids ran and competed well,” coach Ben Manning said. “We’re going to get right back into it, we don’t have a meet this weekend but the kids will be running hard in preparation for one of the best yet toughest meets in the state.”

Runner in the elite boys division, senior Chance Moore saw a better time but feels like he’s getting left behind by other Redhawks.

“Saturday’s meet was actually a hundred meters further than normal so times were skewed, but I’m not really satisfied with my results because I feel I’m being left behind by my faster teammates,” Moore said. “I’ve been skipping out on some hard practices due to a small injury, but now I’ll be running hard to stick with or beat my fast teammates and hopefully get back in peak performance.”

Freshman Caitlyn Ruback ran in the elite girls division on Saturday and although she didn’t get the results she wanted, she’s already looking towards the next meet.

“This was a super tiring course, I felt like I could barely stand after but I pushed myself mentally to the end because I would’ve been upset with myself if I stopped mid-race,” Ruback said. “I wasn’t happy with my time because I had gotten faster times from my previous meets, but I’ll be working even harder during practice this week.”