On Saturday, Coppell cross country was hindered by sickness as it entered the Hoka/McNeil Invitational at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, with both boys and girls teams finishing 25th place.

Coppell was missing some runners, including senior Pranav Vegiraju, as multiple were out due to illness.

“We did not run that well and we are trying to figure out why that was,” coach Landon Wren said. “We have been combating different sicknesses going around the team, and I think that has affected our ability to train these last few weeks.”

Wren thinks even if the meet did not go as planned, it still posed valuable lessons.

“We talked before, the night before about being aggressive and not running scared and trying to learn as much as we could about the course as possible because the goal is that we want to be back down there running in state for the chance to win a state championship,” Wren said.

Wren hopes that the poor performance can be a learning moment for runners and help them grow the required mentality to persevere through the season.

“We have gotten off path a little bit and we are trying to get back on it,” Wren said. “Sometimes it takes just not performing well to wake you up and realize, ‘hey, if we want to accomplish things that we have set out to accomplish, we gotta change some things,’ and the thing that we need to change is being more focused with our training and just being stronger mentally.”

Sophomore Maya Easterwood finished third overall and first for girls with a time of 17:37.5. 

“You got to be confident,” Wren said,”You got to be willing to be aggressive and attack the run, and that is what she did and she ran really well.”

Coppell runs at the Jesuit Classic at Prestionwood Polo Club this Saturday.

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