Once again, cross country has wiped the floor with the competition by winning first all throughout their district season and placing first in state for both boys and girls this past Saturday, November 2, 2025 in Round Rock, TX.
This year marks the girls team’s second win in a row, and the boys team winning for the fourth time in a row. Individually, senior Noah Cooper and freshman Presli Pool placed third, closely following junior Domenic San Miguel who placed first in boys and Addy Bristow, who placed first for the third year in a row.
“My mindset going into this race is to enjoy my last ever high school cross country race and leave it all out there because there are no retry’s after this one.” Bristow said. “I don’t want to leave the race thinking that I could’ve tried harder. Even though I’ll still be racing after high school, this course is one of my favorites and I want to leave behind good memories with it since I won’t be running on it again.”
In cross country, it’s challenging to be consistent as you face different challenges every week, but San Miguel conquered them all. After winning top individual at both district and regionals, he went into state prepared and confident.
“[I] Just stay focused and know that there’s nothing to worry about because I’ve done bigger, faster and more difficult races.” San Miguel said. “So I’m going in with the mindset, just do what you do best, and know that it will hurt, but it’ll be over eventually.”
Within sports like cross country, a champion’s mental state is just as important as their physical state. This strong mental mindset taken on by San Miguel is a very clear reflection of the morals the boys cross country Wesley Kirton tries to instill within his athletes.
“We always talk about this not being a final race, it’s a mindset that we’re racing beyond.” Kirton said, “We don’t want to drop off, don’t want to think about things ending, we want to think about things continuing. So we go in with the mindset of ‘Let’s focus beyond here and don’t think that we’re stopping’.”
