The boys’ and girls’ cross country team competed in the 5A State Meet at Round Rock Nov. 7.

The varsity boys placed fifth with 160 points overall. Junior Dylan Knight finished 23rd for the boys, followed by senior Treet Allison, who came in 38^th, and senior Joseph Trevino at 40^th. The varsity girls came in eighth with 189 points with the contribution of sophomore Ayse Allison, who finished sixth with junior Angel Hayden coming in 19^th.

“Technically, I improved place-wise,” Ayse Allison said. “I received 18th place as a freshman, and this year I moved up twelve spots. This year, a girl passed me at 300 meters to go and honestly I wanted to give up at that point, but then at 150 meters to go I thought, ‘this is the last race of my sophomore year’ so I started hauling buns. Turns out, the girl still beat me, but by .1 seconds. Still I was pretty excited.”

Treet Allison said in closing his final season his emotions were bittersweet.

“I was really sick that day, and I feel like I did not perform to my full potential,” Treet Allison said. “The race itself was awesome though, so I kind of come off with a mixed feeling, because I loved the race. It was an awesome experience, but at the same time, it’s my senior year.”

Sophomore Rachel Jones placed 117^th at her first state meet.

“It was a little nerve-wracking,” Jones said. “We could have done better, but overall we did pretty well. The course was a little different and it was really hard to get traction, but the overall running experience was great.”

Ayse Allison said the course was a whole new experience in terms of terrain.

“It was pretty tricky, because the course had conditions we weren’t use to,” Ayse Allison. “They were so drastically different from last year, and you had to take in a lot in such little time. We really had to calm down and just run. Last year, everything was just dry and dirt was blowing everywhere, but this year there was a lot of rain and everything was flooded, causing there to be a ton of mud and no traction under your feet.”

Treet Allison said he is very proud of how his team performed this year.

“I thought it was a very successful season,” Treet Allison said. “We got first place in district, got second place in regionals, and then we went to state, and had an awesome, really fun experience. So I am very pleased with this season.”

Jones said her favorite memory took place after the state meet with all of her teammates.

“We all got done racing and taking pictures, and then we all attacked each other with mud,” Jones said. “That was really fun and something I will always remember.”

Jones said team chemistry helped them become more of a family.

“No matter if we lost, if we won, whether we did good or bad, we were all still great as a team,” Jones said. “We never had anybody fight over anything, and if we did it was something little that was easily resolved.”

Ayse Allison said what she is going to miss most about this team is how well they got along as a team.

“I think we all genuinely liked to be around each other,” Ayse Allison said. “No one was really like, ‘dang, I really don’t want to go to practice, because I hate everybody,’ and I liked that. I feel like we enjoyed each other’s company and we yearned to see each other every morning.”