Hills, heat and fresh faces were all a part of Coppell cross country’s experience at the Lovejoy Cross Country Fall Festival at Myers Park in McKinney on Saturday as it gets prepped for District 5-6A.

This meet was the third time that Coppell has run the course, which is known for its hills and tough terrain.

Coppell did not place at the meet, and runners had mixed performances in the 5K. This includes junior Tanish Neelapu with a 16:30.50, senior Rodrigo Abrego with a 18:10.10, freshman Laurel Story with a 21:36.00 and senior Bess Williams with a 22:10.70.

“The conditions affected us more than I wanted it to,” Coppell coach Landon Wren said. “We expected the times to be slower than the week before when we ran at Southlake.”

Even with the expected drop in performance due to terrain, Wren thinks some runners performed better during this meet compared to others given that the weather was hotter.

“I had a number of kids that I thought ran better at Lovejoy than at Southlake,” Wren said.

Although slower times were expected, the team could have performed better if it were mentally more prepared, according to Wren.

“We talk about the course and we talk about what we want to do and I think the biggest issue we had was mentally,” Wren said. “I don’t think we were as strong as we needed to be.”

With the District 5-6A Meet on Oct. 10, Coppell decided not to run many of its best runners such as junior Maya Easterwood, freshman Rachel Stumm, junior Diego Morales and senior Rohit Kalpathy.

“I held out some of my more experienced runners, so a lot of the runners that ran were young without very much experience,” Wren said.

Coppell is dealing with injuries, but hopes it can recover and get more experience through the Lewisville Rick Neill Memorial at Lake Park, Lewisville, on Sept. 18 before district.

“As competitive as our district is, if we can stay healthy and if we keep progressing the way that we are, I feel confident that we have a chance with both to potentially qualify for regionals,” Wren said.

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