LUBBOCK – The Brownwood Lady Lions qualified for the UIL Class 4A Cross Country State Championships with a fourth-place team finish at the Region I-4A meet at Mae Simmons Park here Monday morning.
The top four teams in each region move on to Old Settlers Park in Round Rock on Nov. 1-2 to vie for a state championship. Brownwood will run at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1.
District 6-4A champion Brownwood finished with 130 points Monday, outdistancing fifth-place Decatur (159 points) for the final state berth and placing behind only Canyon (40 points), Canyon Randall (43 points) and Dumas (107 points).
Kate Tindol led the state charge for the Lady Lions with a 13th-place time of 12.27.6 along with Sidney Windham in 14th place at 12:30.4, Kylea Karnes in 26th place at 12:54.5, Talia Craff in 39th place at 13:15.8, Braycee Lee in 47th place at 13:34.5, Haylee Adkins in 48th place at 13:35.1, and Rebekkah Delgado in 56th place at 13:41.7.
“I couldn’t be more proud of all seven of our girls today,” said Lady Lions cross country head coach Chelsy Lipsey. “They have all been working so hard for this since we started in the summer and qualifying for state was always the number one goal and they made that happen today. This group is so much fun and I’m thankful we get two more weeks together and get to finish the season at the state meet.”
In the boys portion of the Region I-4A meet, the District 6 third-seeded Brownwood Lions came in 12th in the final team standings with 350 points.
Competing for the Lions were Noah Lambert (52nd, 17:58.8), Aiden Pena (59th, 18:08.7), Stephen Rodriguez (64th, 18:15.1), Bennett Windham (110th, 19:15.7), Ross Strasner (117th, 19:27.8), Hayden Mair (136th, 19:59.8), Jose Rodriguez (151st, 20:59.0).
Also Monday morning at Mae Simmons Park, the Bangs Dragons finished 19th with 428 points in the boys portion of the Region I-2A cross country meet.
Competing for Bangs were Noe Martinez (87th, 20:31.3), Jayden Gerstenberger (91st, 20:36.3), Ben Perez (101st, 20:45.7), Jackson Edmiston (115th, 21:21), Colton Wagner (126th, 21:40.5), and William Hinds (140th, 22:33.8).
In Tuesday Brown County regional cross country action, Zephyr and Brookesmith compete at the Region IV-A meet in Corpus Christi and May and Blanket take part in the Region III-A meet in Grand Prairie.