TheWoodlands girls, boys take 3rd at state
ROUND ROCK — Even during an unprecedented season due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Woodlands cross country program has continued to prosper.
The boys and girls teams each took third place at the UIL Class 6A state championships Tuesday afternoon at Old Settlers Park.
“To have both our programs up there on the podium, it’s a special thing because this is the state meet,” The Woodlands coach Juris Green said.
The Woodlands girls finished third with a score of 108 in their first appearance at the state meet since 2016 when they also took third place. Lewisville Flower Mound (75) won the title, and Southlake Carroll (96) was second.
“It’s a really big deal because last year we didn’t even make it to state,” said junior Natasja Beijen, who placed 10th with a time of 18 minutes, 13.5 seconds. “To even make it to state was a big deal for us, and then to make it on the podium, we’re just really happy.”
Beijen was followed closely by freshman teammate Katarina Hodgson (18:20.70), who finished 14th. Junior Brooke Forbes (39th, 19:08.98), freshman Gia Kurp (42nd, 19:10.84) and senior Sohalia Schoen (52nd, 19:17.76) rounded out the scoring runners.
“We had really big performance from, really, the whole team,” Green said. “You can’t look at one any more than the other. These are team championships, and it takes five (runners), and in many cases, it takes seven. We had girls that had phenomenal runs like Natasha and Kat, and we had girls that had team runs – no bad runs. Everyone lines up to do their best and to do well. Unofficially, at the (one) mile (mark), we were third, and we just hung on.”
TheWoodlands boys finished with a score of 99, following Southlake Carroll (78) and El Paso Eastwood (84).
The Highlanders were led by junior Kyle Easton, who finished 16th with a time of 15:47.28. He was followed by sophomore Pablo Lesarri (22nd, 15:54.16), senior Chance Gibson (24th, 15:56.34), senior Caden Cymbala (47th, 16:18.61) and senior Brian Sewell (58th, 16:25.37), who rounded out the scoring runners.
“The guys, we’ve had issues, just health problems, and kind of struggled with consistency in training,” Green said. “That really makes it hard to come here and say, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to win at the state meet.’ It’s nobody’s fault. It’s life, and you learn how to deal with adversity. I’m really proud of them. I had fingers crossed, hoping to get on the podium. Early on, we were fourth, and they battled back, battled back, battled back to get into that third spot.”
Cinco Ranch finishes 2-3
Cinco Ranch seniors Sophie Atkinson (16:57.44) and Heidi Nielson (17:38.13) capped their careers by finishing second and third, respectively, in Class 6A. The duo was only beat out by Denton Guyer senior Brynn Brown, who set a state record with a time of 16:25.89. Cinco Ranch was fifth as a team.
Klein senior Christopher Daniels (15:29.38), Pearland Dawson junior Noah Haileab (15:32.19) and Bridgeland senior Randy Smith (15: 39.64) led the way for Greater Houston in the boys race, finishing fourth, sixth and 10th, respectively.
Atascocita finished fourth behind The Woodlands as a teamwith a score of 113. Strake Jesuit and Klein each had 161, but the former earned the sixth spot through a tiebreaker.
Huffman-Hargrave sophomore Jetzibe Trevino (12:09.03) took eighth place in the Class 4A girls race earlier in the day. The boys team finished fifth with a score of 193.