2nd Place Boys Team (from left top): Michael Simcho, Charlie Gardner, Michael Waugh, Nicolas Fernandes, (from left bottom) Shea Whatley, Timou Toure and Reed Brown.
Championship Girls Team
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 SouthlakebrCross Country & Track Club team took 1st place at the Nike CrossbrRegional meet, earning them their 10th trip to the Nike Cross Nationals meet inbrPortland, OR on December 5th. The boy's team, led by Reed Brown whobrwas the 1st place finisher overall, took 2nd place, earning the boysbrtheir 9th trip to Portland. The Nike Regional meet includes teams from fivebrstates and only the top two teams from each region qualify for the NikebrNationals meet.
In addition to thebralready tightly-curved course, muddy conditions made it an even tougher battlebrfor the hundreds of runners competing, many of them falling in the mud. Thebrgirl's team redeemed themselves after not earning a spot to Nike Nationals lastbryear. They edged out Kingwood by a mere 8 points in the extremely competitivebrrace.
Head Coach JustinbrLeonard said, “It was great to see our boys & girls compete so well at thebrNike Cross Regional Championships. We had a bitter taste in our mouths afterbrthe State meet and the kids just wanted to come out and get a littlebrredemption. I'm so proud of their efforts and the amount of energy and timebrthey pour into this program. This willbrbe our 19th time qualifying for Nike Nationals since it began 12bryears ago. There is no better way to capbroff a season or career than competing at NXN.”
The championshipbrgirls team were led by Gillian Mortimer who came in 16th placebrfollowed by Sarah Odneal who captured 21st place, Tig Archer came inbr24th place, Kayli Jones took 26th place and AlisonbrEsparza came in 32nd to round out the scorers. Olivia Arriaza and Cate Tracht also competedbrfor the Southlake Girls team.
Reed Brown took thebrtop spot in the race, running an impressive race despite the horrible conditionbrof the course. He was followed bybrCharlie Gardner who came in 4th place, Timou Toure in 22nd, MichaelbrWaugh in 34th and Nicholas Fernandes finished out the scoringbrpositions coming in 41st. Shea Whatley and Michael Simcho roundedbrout the top 7 runners for the Southlake team.
Information and photos provided by Laurie Kemps.