Elite Dragon Teams Compete in California

Dragon senior runner Charlie Gardner

NORCO, CALIF. – The top runners of the Southlake Carroll Cross Country teams traveled to Norco, Calif. to compete at the 36^th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, a 3-mile race held under the lights at night. The elite boys and girl’s teams faced tough competition from around the country and came away with some outstanding performances.

Head Coach Justin Leonard said, “The Woodbridge Cross Country Classic was a great event and provided a great experience for our runners to compete in. Our goal is to run against some of the best competition, not just in the state but nationally, as well. We had some great performances and we can build upon this for the rest of the season.”

The Elite Dragon girls took an impressive 3^rd place in California and were led by junior Cate Tracht who captured 10^th place with time of 16:49.0. Gillian Mortimer was right behind with an 11^th place finish (16:49.07), Ali White came in next in 37^th place (17:26), Sophia Santamaria was 60^th (17:52) and Sarah McCabe rounded out the scoring positions with 63^rd place (17:53). Ari Lopez (17:54) Angie Riera (18:18) completed the elite 7 runners for the Dragon girls.

The Elite Dragon boys faced tough competition and came away with 6^th place finish led by senior Reed Brown who took 3^rd overall and ran a 14:11. Next to cross the line for the Dragons was Charlie Gardner in 41^st place (14:57.1), Nicholas Fernandes was close behind in 44^th place (14:57.7), Connor Rutledge was 84^th (15:20) and Garrett Gabriel completed the scoring positions with a 140^th place finish (15:46). Evan Dunkel also competed and came in 155^th (15:54).

The Varsity Dragon girls captured an inspiring 2^nd place and were led by Cristina Canal in 11^th place, Lauren Esparza right behind in 12^th, Regan Reilley in 13^th, Rima Toure in 19^th, Riley Lackey in 30^th place and Jenna Holland 87^th place.

The Dragon Varsity Boys came away with a 5^th place finish and were led by Drew Bliss in 15^th place, Henry Gardner took 29^th, Jack Myers was right behind in 30^th, followed quickly by Nate Lannen in 31^st, Tyler Coleman came in 42^nd, David Archer 59^th and Vishnu Nair in 70^th place.

The Elite and Varsity Dragons will use this next week off to train hard and prepare for the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, AR on October 1. The JV teams will split up next week and compete in Kingsville at the Javelina XC Classic and in Colleyville at the Colleyville Heritage Invite.