The sport of cross country is like no other. Out of the total amount of races that the cross-country team runs, only four matter: region, county, upper state, and state meets. This year, both the boys and girls teams were successful in region with four girls and two guys finishing in the top 15 to become All-Region. Their success carried over to county with the girls team placing 11th and the guys team placing 16th. Junior Taylor Reynolds finished 12th overall to become an All-County runner.

Although region and county were a great success, it is a top-six finish at upper state that qualifies you for state. This is something that the guys team has never failed to do in the past 15 years. The guys team lost more runners than any other 4A team in the state, losing seven out of their top eight from last year. Coach King said, “I thought maybe there was a 50-50 chance that the boys could make it to state.” The pressure was not unbeknownst to the guys team because they knew this was their most important run of the year. As Coach King stated, once the gun goes off, “everything that you were worried about goes away. Your anxiety is gone.” The guys team ran like it was the last race they would ever run as all of the top five runners ran faster than an 18:15 5k. Henry Waldrup became the second guy to run a sub 18-min race this season with a time of 17:54. This great effort pushed the guys team passed York and onto state. The girls team also qualified for state with a fourth place finish at upper state.

At the beginning of the season, some would have doubted that the weakened guys team would make it to state. For the girls team, their biggest race was still in front of them. To help with the nerves, Coach King decided to do something they have never done: go down a day early and run the course. Coach King said that “it allowed the kids to have less anxiety about the race the next day.” The girls team was up for the task, pushed on by top runner Taylor Reynolds’ 26th overall finish. The team as a whole placed seventh to tie their best finish ever from the previous year. The guys team went on to finish 14th. Top runner and TRHS junior, Parker Thieme, ran exceptionally well with a 35th place overall finish.