Kingwood girls capture bronze
Mustangs leave state as region’s top 6A program
ROUND ROCK — Kingwood coach Jeremy Dye said his girls team entered Friday’s UIL Class 6A state cross country meet with the goal to assert itself as the top program in the Houston area.
Mission accomplished. The Mustangs took third place with 116 points on the wet and muddy course at Old Settlers Park to earn a state plaque, finishing only behind perennial powers Flower Mound and Southlake Carroll.
“This was our goal,” Dye said. “We knew that Flower Mound and Southlake would be a bit ahead of us, and we knew Klein and The Woodlands are really good — but we wanted to be the best team out of Houston. When we found out that was the case and we were third — we were pretty excited about it.”
Senior Carly Ahrens led the way for Kingwood, finishing 15th overall with a time of 18 minutes, 45.50 seconds.
Clara Dye (21st), Jenna Carter (27th), Anastasia Small (29th) and Eliana Contreras (30th) all placed in the top 30 of the team scoring for the Mustangs, with the latter three all finishing within five seconds of each other.
“We knew where each girl needed to be to finish third,” Dye said. “But we really talked before the race about not focusing on place or time, but worrying about effort. And our girls gave the best effort they could.”
Ahrens, who also paced the team to a second-place finish as a freshman in 2019, noted getting back on the team podium as a senior was a good way to end her career.
“We set our mind (to getting third), and it’s really cool to accomplish what we’ve been working so hard to do this season,” she said. “The hills on this course are challenging as we don’t have a lot of hills in Kingwood, but we handled them well.”
Pearland junior Madison Peters (18:21.10) marked the Houston area’s lone medalist as she finished ninth.
She was one of only two non-North Texas medalists, with the other being Edinburg North’s San Juanita Leal, who took fifth.
“I’m really proud of myself — this is my first time at state,” Peters said. “I just tried to push through the pain, … and running in these conditions was a lot different than the heat I’m used to.”
Staucie Lees of Grand Oaks just missed a medal by finishing 11th, while Klein Oaks’ Lydia Butler (16th), The Woodlands’ Stoya Laydevant (17th), George Ranch’s Sophia Nguyen (18th) and Tompkins’ Rowan Saacke (19th) all had top-20 showings.
The Woodlands (176 points) was fifth in the team standings.
Boyd, Maldonado place for 6A boys
Patience paid off for Klein Oak senior Jack Boyd, who finished second in the Class 6A boys race with a time of 15:41.40.
“This is what I wanted to do, so I’m really happy,” Boyd said. “I came out and executed the plan of being patient in the bad weather, and I just wanted to put myself in a position near the end where I could perform well.”
Boyd noted the muddy course and rain during the race affected the competitors.
“It definitely slowed things down,” he said. “It helped out the guys who are more endurancebased compared to the faster guys, and I think that worked to my advantage today.”
Atascocita senior Oliver Maldonado gave the Houston area two of the three spots on the individual podium as he came in four seconds behind Boyd to earn the bronze.
“I’ve been working at this for a long time, and over the summer I wanted to finish in the top three, so this was a really big goal,” he said. “The second half of my race was strong. The past two years I’ve gone out too hard and kind of burned out, so it was about working my way up. I didn’t want to take the wind in the first mile, so being smart was key.”
Strake Jesuit’s Reese Vannerson took eighth to mark the area’s other medalist.
The Woodlands’ Pablo Lesarri (12th), Atascocita’s Michael Archie (13th), The Woodlands’ Straton Miller (14th) and Clear Lake’s Sam Golla (17th) all had top-20 showings.
In the team standings, The Woodlands (135) took fourth, missing a spot on the podium by nine points.
Trevino takes 3rd to lead area in 4A
In Class 4A girls, Huffman Hargrave senior Jetzibe Trevino took third in the 3,200-meter race with a time of 11:38.60.
Liberty’s Patrick Flowers finished 13th for the area’s top-20 finish in Class 4A boys.