Butterflies flutter in their stomachs. Floppy-haired boys line up, their limbs shaking in anticipation.

Both boys and girls varsity teams will compete at the State UIL Cross Country Meet Saturday, Nov. 7, in Round Rock, Texas.  The girls will run at 10:50 a.m. while the boys will start at 11:30 a.m. Fans can follow the schedule and live results at txrunning.com.

The boys team placed second at regionals Oct. 26 at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock, Texas with a team score of 80 points. Sophomore Ayse Allison came in 6th at the regional meet, leading the Canyon girls to a third place finish. Her family includes older brothers who have run cross country.

“It’s not natural,” Allison said. “Everyone thinks ‘you’re an Allison, you’re going to be great,’ but that’s not a thing.”

At the regional meet, senior Treet Allison placed third and junior Dylan Knight placed fourth.

“It was a good meet, and there were a lot of groups and packs to race with,” sophomore Cade Rebstock said. “We did well, getting second place. The competition is very tough this year, so second place was a good finish.”

Boys cross country coach Wes Kirton said that the team is ready for state.

“I think we raced well,” Kirton said. “We are focusing on continuing to improve and do our best at state. We learned from last year, where we came in really hot, doing well, and we had such expectation that we over-raced ourselves. We’re trying to have a steady mind about our increase in ability and effort as we get into state.”

Senior Bailey Bach said that this steadiness is the main focus of the team as they move on to state.

“This year, we’re really working hard on that first mile, setting our pace and not going out so hard so fast,” Bach said. “A lot of other teams are going to do that, and we’ll be able to pick people off during the second half of the race. This year, we had higher mileage, but we didn’t have hard work, so now we’re starting to drop our mileage and get more speed work. Now we’re going to peak out perfectly at state, so it’s going to be really good this year.”

Kirton also said that less mileage was one of the team’s tactics to improve.

“We’ve dropped our mileage,” Kirton said. “So the energy uptake should help us out a little bit, so then we start increasing our speed and our aerobic turnover.”

Kirton said he would encourage students to wish the boys cross country team well.

“Tell these guys good luck, tell them to have fun,” Kirton said. “Tell them good luck and go race hard. and we’ll represent Canyon well.”