Coming off district with a second place team finishes, the girls and boys cross country teams will compete Monday, Oct. 23, at the UIL Regional Cross Country Meet in Lubbock at Mae Simmons Park.

Last Friday, the teams competed at Thompson Park in Amarillo for the District 5A meet where seven girls and seven boys ran to advance their teams to the regional meet. The top runner for the girls, senior Ayse Allison, said the regionals course is a tough but fast one. 

“Within the first 400 meters, their is a terrible uphill, so whenever you try to take out fast you have to maintain up that hill before you can relax,” Allison said.

Allison said having the team advance to regionals and come out with a championship would be an awesome experience.

“Getting second place is not fun,” Allison said. “I’m definitely ready to get a regional championship under my belt and lead the team on.”

After taking second to Randall at district, Allison said she’s expecting the outcome of the regional meet to be different.

“We have showed a lot of progress from the last meet compared to Randall,” Allison said. “They are definitely the best team in the state. We’re really hoping to make a lot of progress these next few weeks leading up to state, and hopefully we can make a huge jump leading into regionals.”

With the boys advancing to regionals, freshman Sam Ashley, placed first over-all in the 5A district meet and said he feels prepared for regionals.  

“It felt good to win and beat Sergio,” Ashley said of Plainview’s top runner, Sergio Lara.  “I really do hope to set a personal record and to place in the top five through seven at the regional meet.”

As a team, Ashley said their work ethic helped them advance to regionals.

“I think we did well because of how hard we’ve been working this summer and this year,” Ashley said.