Championship team pictured from top left: Eric Karl, Johnny Kemps, Michael Waugh and Ansel Richards. From bottom left: Eli Canal, Reed Brown, Timou Toure. Photo courtesy of Laurie Kemps.
by Laurie Kemps
For the fourthbrconsecutive year, the boys Southlake cross country club team took firstbrplace at the Nike Cross Regional (NXR) meet, earning them a trip to the NikebrCross Nationals (NXN) in Portland, Ore. on Dec. 6. The NXR meetbrincludes teams from five states and only the top two teams from each regionbrqualify for the NXN meet.
In addition to thebralready tight curved course, muddy conditions made it even a tougher battle forbrthe hundreds of runners competing. The boy's team won the extremely competitivebrrace by a mere two points, edging out the Woodlands cross country club team. The girl's team ran a great race and took fifthbrplace.
Head coach JustinbrLeonard said, “NXR is an exciting meet and a great opportunity for our kids tobrdisplay their work on a regional stage. The boys took care of business andbradvanced to the national meet for the eighth time. The girls ran abrstrong race and captured fifth place.” brHe added, “Our girls team that ran in the Open Race took first place andbrwe will look to build upon this base for the next season.”
The boys were ledbrby Reed Brown who took fourth place (15:56), Eli Canal came in sixthbr(16:02), Ansel Richards took 31st place (16:31), Michael Waugh camebrin 38th (16:37) and Timou Toure finished out the scoring positionsbrin 41st place (16:40). EricbrKarl and Johnny Kemps rounded out the top 7 runners for the Southlakebrteam.
The girls were ledbrby Sarah Odneal who captured 23rd place (19:28), Rianna Randolph tookbr41st place (19:50), Cate Tracht came in 54th placebr(20:09:22), Kayli Jones took 56thbrplace (20:09:91) and Tig Archer came in 57th (20:11) to round outbrthe scorers. Ari Lopez and Sarah McCabebralso competed for the Southlake Girls team.
The meet alsobrincluded an Open Race and the Southlake girl's team ran away with a first place win and included runners Denae Chapman, Ali White, Allison Esparza,brChantal Van Der Westhuizen, Sophie White, Olivia Ariazza and Izzy Dominquez. Thebrboys Open Race team took 6th place and included Luke Lanham, ChasebrHaddock, Enzo Mortimer, Eric Vetere andbrJeremy Gonzales.