Championship Girls Team (from left top): Sarah Odneal, Gillian Mortimer, Cate Tracht, (from left bottom) Alison Esparza, Tig Archer, Olivia Arriaza and Kayli Jones
The girls Southlake CrossbrCountry & Track Club team took first place at the Nike Cross Regional meet, earning them their 10th trip to the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon,bron December 5. The boy’s team, led by Reed Brown who was the first-placebrfinisher overall, took second place, earning the boys their 9th trip tobrPortland. The Nike Regional meet includes teams from five states and only thebrtop two teams from each region qualify for the Nike Nationals meet.
In addition to the alreadybrtightly curved course, muddy conditions made it an even tougher battle for thebrhundreds of runners competing, many of them falling in the mud. The girl's teambrredeemed themselves after not earning a spot to Nike Nationals last year. Theybredged out Kingwood by a mere eight points in the extremely competitive race.
Head Coach Justin Leonardbrsaid in a press release, “It was great to see our boys and girls compete sobrwell at the Nike Cross Regional Championships. We had a bitter taste in ourbrmouths after the State meet and the kids just wanted to come out and get abrlittle redemption. I’m so proud of their efforts and the amount of energy andbrtime they pour into this program. This will be our 19th timebrqualifying for Nike Nationals since it began 12 years ago. There is no betterbrway to cap off a season or career than competing at NXN.”
The championship girls team wasbrled by Gillian Mortimer who came in 16th place followed by Sarah Odneal whobrcaptured 21st place, Tig Archer came in 24th place, Kayli Jones took 26th placebrand Alison Esparza came in 32nd to round out the scorers. Olivia Arriaza andbrCate Tracht also competed for the Southlake Girls team.
Reed Brown took the top spotbrin the race, running an impressive race despite the horrible condition of thebrcourse. He was followed by Charlie Gardner who came in fourth place, TimoubrToure in 22nd, Michael Waugh in 34th and Nicholas Fernandes finished out thebrscoring positions coming in 41st. Shea Whatley and Michael Simcho rounded outbrthe top seven runners for the Southlake team. br
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