The Whitesboro girls earned their eighth consecutive trip to the state cross-country meet while five area runners qualified individually following regional competition Monday in Lubbock and Fort Worth.
Whitesboro’s Jaxsen McBride, S&S’ Rhody Gingras, Whitewright’s Jonathan Flores and Tioga’s Jillian Rodriguez also punched their tickets to state with strong regional performances.
The UIL state cross-country championships are scheduled for Nov. 6-7 at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock.
At the Class 3A Region I meet at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock, the Whitesboro Lady Bearcats finished third in the team standings with 145 points to secure their eighth straight state appearance.
Nya Degraffenreed led Whitesboro with a seventh-place finish in 12 minutes, 44.2 seconds, while Karen Melchor placed 14th in 12:54.2.
Loretta Vawter finished 42nd in 13:39, followed by Tammy Lopez in 47th at 13:45 and Jasmin Hernandez in 57th at 13:54.6. Paisley Blevins placed 98th in 14:29.3, and McKenna Scoggins was 134th in 15:04.1.
In the boys division, Gingras earned an individual state berth with a sixth-place finish in 16:39.1. S&S teammate Matthew Flores placed 60th in 18:15.2.
Whitesboro finished eighth in the boys team standings with 216 points, led by McBride, who qualified individually for state with a 15th-place finish in 16:58.8.
Eric Flores finished 37th in 17:48.6, Bentley Meals was 45th in 17:58.3 and Slade Prock placed 59th in 18:13.3. Creede Newman finished 87th in 18:48.5, Chase Timulson was 102nd in 18:59.7 and Evan Delarosa placed 117th in 19:21.6.
Meanwhile, at the Class 2A Region II championships in Fort Worth, Whitewright narrowly missed a second consecutive team trip to state, finishing one place shy of qualifying.
The Tigers were represented by Logan Vehar, Levi Sallas, Luke Moetensen, Jack Philpott and Bobby Reynolds.
Whitewright junior Jonathan Flores earned an individual state berth with a personal-best time of 17:26. He will compete at the state meet Friday, Nov. 6.
Tioga’s Jillian Rodriguez also qualified for state after placing eighth at regionals with a personal-best time of 13:08.
The state meet will bring together the top qualifying teams and individual runners from across Texas, with the Class 2A championships scheduled for Nov. 6 and Class 3A competition set for Nov. 7.
