Waurika’s boys’ and girls’ cross country team traveled to Shawnee last Saturday for the Class 2A State Cross Country meet held at the Gordon Cooper Technology Center.
The Lady Eagles wrapped up a successful season with a ninth-place finish among the 21 teams that qualified from three regional meets held the week before.
Boise City-Keyes won the team title for Class 2A with 78 points. Waurika accumulated 244 points in the meet.
In the boys’ competition, Waurika finished in 12th place. Mooreland dominated the team competition with 55 points, while runner-up Lomega was well back with 137 points.
The Eagles finished with 333 points – just one point ahead of Carnegie.
Heading the Lady Eagles as she did through most of the meets this season was Asia Smith.
Her finish of 13th place earned her a medal. She covered the 3,200-meter course in 13:02.2 – her best time of the season.
Lexie Streeter also turned in a great performance in the state meet with a 25th place finish. Her time was 13:19.8 – less than one second better than her season-best time.
Rounding out the competitors for the Lady Eagles were Tallin Mora (63rd, 14:09.6), Faith Roberson (93rd, 15:03.3), Hope Cummings (114th, 15:37.8), Kacie Reynolds (129th, 16:11.6) and Dallas Fristoe (140th, 16:33.3).
A total of 157 runners competed in the state meet for Class 2A girls – which was a particularly tough division this year.
All of the team members for the Lady Eagles will return next year for Coach Joe Masoner’s cross country squad.
The Lady Eagles earned two runner-up spots at invitational meets and finished third in three other competitions.
Bryson Hernandez was the top competitor for the Eagles at the state meet. He was 52nd in the race and finished the 5K with a time of 19:23.
As he has been all season, Cache Arellano was the second-best performance for the Eagles as he earned a 60th place with a time of 19:40.5.
The other finishers for Waurika in the state meet that featured 160 runners and 21 teams were Kevin Garcia (77th, 20:07.7), Octavio Gomez (107th, 21:08.9), Edwin Garcia (116th, 21:32.7), Gustavo Gomez (132nd, 22:13.6) and Nicholas Alvarado (137th, 22:27.8).
All six of the competitors should return for the Eagles next season. Four of them are sophomores and two are juniors.
The Eagles, also coached by Masoner, finished with the season having won two meets – at Waurika and Cameron University and finishing second in two other meets.
