The Canyon Eagles and Lady Eagles were the highlight of the Class 4A event making it a clean sweep with both bringing home UIL state championships.
The Lady Eagles, led by veteran head coach Ray Baca, won their unprecedented 12th UIL state championship and the first since 2020. The 12 state titles rank second all-time behind Dallas Highland Park’s 14 for the most in UIL history.
Like they did at the district and regional races, Canyon edged out arch-rival Randall to win the state title. The Lady Eagles totaled 45 points to the Lady Raiders 74. District 4-4A showed just how powerful a district it was with Dumas coming in fourth overall with 175 points. Salado was third (95 points).
“Winning 12 state championships over the years shows a lot of history in this program,” Baca said. “We’ve had a lot of great runners over the years, and we’ve been fortunate to have them. I felt like the last six weeks this team has just gotten better and better. We knew what was important coming out of district and regional and the focus has always been on this state meet. We had tough practice workouts the past few weeks and I could just see everything coming together. It was awesome to see how we competed.”
“Not a lot of people know this, but Addyson was hurt most of last year and didn’t come on till after district,” Baca said. “She ran an 11:08 last time on this course but this time she not only broke the record, but she smashed it. She’s a special runner and that was one of the most tremendous races I’ve ever seen.”
On top of Bristow’s record-setting state performance, teammate Avery Brown was a huge compliment with a fifth-place finish thanks to a time of 11:26.7. Crickette Morris (11:48.7) and Michaela Sharber (11:54.4) both had top 15 finishes coming in 12th and 13th respectively and Kate Shepard rounded out the squad in 26th place with a time of 12:08.5.
Tradition-rich Randall did find the medal stand with an impressive outing taking silver. Nayomi Granados and Brooke French made it an all CISD medal stand with Granados claiming the individual silver medal pacing Randall with a superb 11:07.9 time and French grabbed the Bronze thanks to an 11:12.5.
During Dumas’ fourth place finish as a team, Emily Gross was the standout for the Demonettes coming in sixth overall taking home a time of 11:29.3.
Canyon Eagles three-peats as UIL Class 4A state champions
An unbelievable season came to a perfect end for the Canyon Eagles cross country team Friday at Old Settler Park in Round Rock.
The Eagles have been dominant all season and soared once more this time to a third straight UIL Class 4A state championship leaving every team behind to grab the gold.
This is Canyon’s seventh state championship as a program and the third under head coach Wes Kirton.
“It’s a huge blessing to be able to coach a team like this,” Kirton said. “They have a tremendous work ethic, and they have a blast doing it. When you put in so much time and you find a team like this putting in the work it’s amazing to be a part of.”
Like they did at the district and regional races, Canyon blistered the competition putting together a tremendous team effort with 48 points to win the state title which was 55 points better than second place Salado’s 103 points.
“Lathan went in with a focus that you could see over the last month,” Kirton said. “He was working for this, and he knew what it would take to go finish it. It was awesome to see him get the lead and take charge of the race.”
Teammate Ryan Fernandez earned the individual bronze medal placing third with a 15:42.9, while Noah Cooper came in 12th (15:59).
Farwell, Gruver girls’ teams find medal stand
Just like at the Class 4A level, the Texas Panhandle was well represented during the UIL Class 2A state cross country race Friday morning.
Farwell and Gruver both earned a spot on the medal stand with the Lady Blue getting silver as a team with 77 points and Gruver following in third for a bronze with 96 points. Hamilton was the Class 2A state champions taking gold thanks to 37 points.
Isabella Jaime, the Region I-2A champion, highlighted the race with a second-place individual finish. Jaime ran a time of 11:50.9 behind state champion Cara Sims (11:34.6) of Elysian Fields to grab a silver medal. Right behind Jaime was teammate Alexis Wade getting a third-place finish and an individual bronze medal taking a time of 11:56.6.
Halle McLain led the Lady Hounds to a third-place finish and team bronze performance placing 12th overall with a time of 12:19.1
Two individuals also impressed during the two-mile race. Wellington’s Taytum Kane finished 11th overall with a time of 12:16.7 and Clarendon’s Madi Benson was 13th (12:22.1).
On the boys side, Sunray came in 11th as a team. Justin Bain paced the team with a 37th place outing (17:46.5).
For a look at the full results from Friday’s UIL cross country meet, please visit https://mychiptime.com/uil_xc.php?theID=14714
