The Coppell High School girls cross country team went into the Class 6A Meet at Round Rock last Saturday with one goal in mind: finishing top five overall.

Though it fell two places short of this goal, finishing seventh place overall, the team saw improvement from last year’s 15th place overall finish.

Leading the team with a 20th place finish was freshman Natalie Fleming, finishing with a personal record of 18:23.10. Following Fleming, junior Maddie Hulcy finished 28th place with a time of 18:29.95, junior Rowan Hassman finished 56th, freshman Chloe Hassman finished 62nd, freshman Morgan Colon finished 63rd, sophomore Taylor Peltier finished 74th and sophomore Isabella Iseley finished 78th.

CHS individual boys state qualifier Kaz Carlson-Phelan finished 43rd with a time of 15:50.18.

“I’m very proud of the girls,” CHS cross country coach Nick Benton said. “They work hard every day. I can’t think of one day that the girls have missed since May so they have put in hundreds of miles for the past four or five months so I’m excited about them.”

According to Benton, the young team gained much confidence from this season and the experience of going to state which will help it carry on toward track season and next year’s cross country season. Each of the seven state runners will be returning next year.   

The cross country season ends at the Nike South Regional Meet on Saturday Nov. 18 at Bear Branch Park in The Woodlands. The top 21 runners from the boys and girls teams will compete here.

Looking forward, the goal for track season is to have two boys and two girls qualify for the regional meet in all three distance events.