Canyon Eagles boys team has sights set on history at state high school cross country meet
While the Wellington girls won the championship at last year's state cross country meet, no boys team from the Panhandle has won since Boys Ranch back in 2011. In fact, no individual boy has won a state title since Amarillo High's Butare Rugenerwa in 2016.
The Canyon Eagles have a chance to end both of those streaks and do even more.
Canyon won three consecutive boys cross country championships in the 1990's. As members of Class 3A in 1993, the boys team scored 30 points, an unprecedented number, before netting 50 points as members of 4A in 1994.
This time around, the Eagles have a chance to best that 4A number.
Canyon scored 24 at the regional meet, 46 points better than second place Big Spring, which beat out the previous best of 25 at a regional meet, according to head coach Wes Kirton. While getting under 30 at state would be a tall task, Kirton said, "It would be amazing to be below 50 points."
At regionals, the Canyon boys finished second, third, fourth, seventh and eighth in competition with second-place runner Alex Niemiec just half a second behind the first-place finisher. The Eagles have been preparing for this moment for some time and could seriously bring some hardware back to the Panhandle.
"These boys have been working since May," Eagles head coach Wes Kirton said. "We put over 500 miles in this summer before we got to August. They're running quite a bit and we're excited about what they're doing now and what they're going to do."
The meet begins with the 4A girls at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock. The competition ramps back up at 8:30 a.m. Saturday when the 3A girls take off.
Class 5A
Just one runner from the Panhandle qualified in 5A. Amarillo High's Emma Milsow finished in 15th place in the girl's regional with a time of 19:31.10.
Class 4A
It's not just the Canyon boys in good position to do some damage at state.
Though the Eagles may be the only 4A boys team competing, Angel Garcia of Hereford finished in 16th place at regionals with a time of 16:59.70. He'll look to bring some pride to the Panhandle in Round Rock.
It's the girl's side of 4A that boast the most Panhandle inclusion. Of the four teams that qualified at regionals, the top three come from the area as Dumas, Randall and Canyon all advanced.
Canyon boasts the top two individual finishers at regionals in Avery Brown (11:43.10) and Abree Winfrey (11:57.40).
Randall had three top ten finishers in Sierra Sanchez (fourth, 12:07.40), Hailey Robertson (fifth, 12:10.80) and Sadie Sanchez (eighth, 12:21.70). Dumas had three themselves in Sarai Chavez (sixth, 12:15.50), Mia Lujan (ninth, 12:23.40) and Yahaira Lujan (10th, 12:25.90).
Of the top ten finishers at regionals, eight came from Canyon, Randall and Dumas.
Class 3A
The girls boast the best chance for Panhandle success at the 3A level.
Dalhart finished second at regionals, while Canadian finished fourth. Both teams are running at state along with Friona's Yvonne Legaretta (second place, 12:30.10) and Tulia's Diana Briones (16th place, 13:09.30).
No boys teams will be running in 3A, but Dimmitt's Azariah Gonzales (fourth place at regionals, 16:23.00), Bushland's Zackary Nichols (12th, 16:55.80) and Tulia's Hugo Briones (13th place,17:05.30) will all be out there.
Class 2A
There's plenty of local representation at the 2A level.
As teams, the Gruver and Panhandle girls along with the Booker boys will be running this weekend. Gruver and Panhandle finished second and third at regionals while Booker took fourth.
Individually, Farwell's Isabella Jaime took second place at regionals with a time of 12:41.20 to join the field. Faith Gonzalez of Bovina will run as well after finishing 16th at regionals with a time of 13:25.50.
Two individuals will run on the boys side in Memphis' Ryder Robinson (fifth at regionals, 17:27.9) and Nick Martinez (13th, 18:10.0).
Class 1A
It's looking like the 1A girls will at least have an individual champion, if not more.
Taytum Goodman of Springlake-Earth, the defending 1A state champion, sailed to a first-place finish at regionals with a time of 10:55.20. The second-place finisher came in at 12:31.10.
It's not just the Goodman show, however. Springlake-Earth came in first at district as a team. Joining in will be second-place White Deer and third-place Nazareth.
Four individual girls will be running at state as well, making 1A girls one of the top groups from the Panhandle.
Bobbie Renee Fouquet (Claude, eighth place at regionals, 13:19.30), Shealee Brannon (Claude, 11th place, 13:22.30), Melody Rampley (Silverton, 12th place, 13:22.90) and Ali Friemel (Groom, 21st place, 13:51.50) will all be on the track this weekend.
In 1A boys competition, Texline and Happy finished third and fourth at regionals, respectively, and will both be running as a team this weekend.
Individually, the 1A boys lineup will consist of Silverton's Alex Acevedo (third place at regionals, 17:42.20), Nazareth's Bryson Brockman (10th place, 18:20.30), Claude's Hunter Lovell (13th place, 18:29.20), Hedley's Joshua Booth (14th place, 18:32.50) and Follett's Julian Barton (25th place, 19:11.10).
UIL STATE CROSS COUNTRY MEET
Old Settler's Park, Round Rock
FRIDAY SCHEDULE
8:30 a.m., Class 4A girls (3,200m)
9 a.m., Class 4A boys (5K)
10 a.m., Class 6A girls (5K)
10:40 a.m., Class 6A boys, (5K)
11:40 a.m., Class 2A girls (3,200m
12:10 p.m., Class 2A boys (5K)
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
8:30 a.m., Class 3A girls (3,200m)
9 a.m., Class 3A boys (5K)
10 a.m., Class 5A girls (5k)
10:40 a.m., Class 5A boys (5K)
11:40 a.m., Class 1A girls (3,200m)
12:10 a.m., Class 1A boys (5K)
* - Dates, times are subject to change due to weather.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: State cross country: Canyon high school has sights set on history
