|
Mustangs bring home gold
By Evan Mohl
The Daily News
Published November 8, 2009
HUMBLE — Ryan Teel thought Friendswood didn’t make it to the state cross country meet.
At the Region III-4A award ceremony, he heard Magnolia West announced third. Then Lockhard got second, and Teel was almost certain the trip to Round Rock would have to wait another year.
But Teel’s mouth dropped when he heard the first-place team — the Friendswood Mustangs.
“I didn’t even know if we had gotten in the top three,” Teel said. “When they announced the third- and second-place team, I thought we were done.
“Oh man, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
With 102 points, the Mustangs advanced to their ninth straight University Interscholastic League state cross country meet, which will be held in Round Rock on Saturday at Old Settlers Park. Friendswood had not won the region meet since 2006, when it took home the gold five consecutive years.
Lockhart (109 points) and Magnolia West (114) finished second and third, respectively.
“With as many as six teams in the hunt for the top three places, it was really hard to gauge where we were,” Friendswood coach Steve Haffelder said. “So I think we were all a little surprised to hear our name called at the awards ceremony.”
Senior Brandon Swindler paced the Mustangs with a third-place finish at 15:23. He was just four seconds behind Brenham’s Will Antkowiak, who took first.
Teel was just behind Swindler and got fourth. The freshman ran a 16:09. Fellow freshman Levi Kessler got 21 while James Gregory placed 37th and R.J. Lowery took 52nd.
Haffelder said every team member ran a personal best by 10 to 20 seconds.
“It was just a good team showing,” Haffelder said. “It was pretty incredible.”
The Friendswood girls finished 11th. The Clear Springs girls got 14th, paced by freshman Sierra Soliz’s 24th-place showing.
Clear Creek’s two individual qualifiers, Chelsea Huebner and Dustin Hobaugh, placed 23rd and 27th, respectively.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter |
Comment
|
|
|
