Friendswood boys finish 4th
ROUND ROCK — Friendswood coach Zach Johnson knew his boys team had a chance to compete for a spot on the podium at the UIL Class 5A state cross country championships.
The Mustangs came up just short of a top-three finish but still had a strong showing and took fourth Monday afternoon on the course at Old Settlers Park.
Friendswood, the top team from the Greater Houston area, finishedwith a score of 135, just four points back of Denton. Grapevine won the state title at 61, and Boerne Champion was the runner-up at 104.
“The first thing that stands out is how they ran together as a team,” Johnson said. “They’ve done that all season long, and that’s them to a T. It’s the first trip here for most of them, so there were a lot of nerves, but they just showed up to race. They ran fantastic. Third, fourth, doesn’t matter. They should be happy.”
The Mustangs were led by freshman Zade Kayyali, who finished 21st overall with a time of 15 minutes, 40.37 seconds. Teammates Seth Thompson (34th place, 16:02.68), Eli Karg (52nd, 16:13.07), Ronan O’Donnell (68th, 16:26.76) and Carlos Henriquez (71st, 16:29.68) rounded out the scoring runners. Daniel Armstrong (73rd, 16:31.79) and Brycen Jones (81st, 16:37.35) also competed.
Lake Creek sophomore Carter Gordy made history as the first boys runner from the school to compete at the state meet. He finished 12th overall with a time of15 minutes, 17.99 seconds. It was the top performance by any runner from the Greater Houston area.
“It was a really fun experience,” Gordy said. “Last year, I didn’t make it, so it was cool getting 30th at regionals last year and then coming back and getting 12th at state.”
Lake Creek also had a representative in the girls race with junior Emma Little. She also qualified for state last year but had even bigger aspirations this time around.
“I was really nervous at the start for sure, but I got a PR and dropped 42 places off last year,” Little said. “My goal was to get top 30, and I finished 30th, so Iwas just happy that I accomplished my goal.”
Magnolia had a pair of regional champions in the meet with seniors Emma Ellis and Dylan Sequeira. Ellis finished 19th with a time of 18 minutes, 28.06 seconds.
“I’m happy that I made it to state my senior year,” Ellis said. “It wasn’t my best performance, but I’m happy with my time and it was my best race here. … It was definitely a little sad that it was my last race, but I’m very excited that it’s not the end and I get to continue my career at (Texas) A&M.”
Sequeira finished 17th overall in the boys race, clocking in at 15 minutes, 30.24 seconds.
“It’s definitely amazing to be able to run at state, especially with the kind of year we’ve had with COVID (-19) and everything,” he said. “They limited the amount of runners, so that’s evenmore of an experience to qualify for such a rare race.”