North Lakes Park, Denton. Oct. 11. Breaths swell as the district is on the line.

Coppell lines up as senior boys runners Pranav Vegiraju, Grant O’Neal and Jayden Benjamin and senior girl runners Mallory Sherrer, Annie Reeder, Rachel Arrington and Lucy Marrington have one last chance to take the Cowboys to the Class 6A Region I Championship. 

As the gun goes off, the runners are off. 

“This is a track that we have run earlier this year,” Coppell coach Landon Wren said. “We knew coming in what adjustments we had to make and I think we did a fairly good job in that aspect.” 

With Flower Mound at the top of the leaderboard overall, both the guys and girls teams came in third. 

With a tie in the girls’ meet between Coppell and Hebron, they were unable to advance as the sixth and seventh runners of Hebron were faster than the Coppell six and seven. 

“It is disappointing to have that as your final race and to not qualify for the regional meet,” Wren said. “However, I am extremely proud of these girls and the grit they showed there.” 

With Coppell running 71 runners, 38 made a personal record and showed promise for next year. 

“We had a lot of great running and a lot of great individual performances,” Wren said. “We had so many impressive performances which gives me a lot of hope for next year.” 

Sophomore runner Maya Easterwood came in second place at the meet individually qualifying for regional competition. 

Vegiraju placed third in the district, qualifying him for individual regional competition as well. 

With the Class 6A Region I Championship on Monday at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock, Coppell looks to advance its boys team in state. 

“My message to the guys was you are good runners and even a better team,” Wren said. “All we can do is stay optimistic, go out, and run the best race we have ever raced.”

Sports Photography Editor Kayla Nguyen contributed to this report.

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