As expected the Canyon Lady Eagles took a first step at defending their UIL Class 4A state championship by winning the District 4-4A cross country meet on a cold, blustery Friday morning at Canyon High School.
The Lady Eagles placed four athletes in the top 10 and five in the top 11 to finish with 29 points, which was 20 points better than rival Randall’s (49) second place finish.
“We’re always excited about winning a district championship,” Canyon head coach Ray Baca said. “We take a priority in that and we know it’s just the start of where we’re looking to go when the season is over. It was cold, it was windy and conditions weren’t ideal to perform, but I thought we ran better than we did at are invitational last week. I think that reaffirms what we’ve been doing in morning workouts.”
In no surprise, it was Presli Presli Pool leading the Lady Eagles to the win in the two-mile race. The sensational sophomore cut 14 seconds off last week’s Canyon invitational to run a season-best time of 10:50. Teammate Aubrey Holloway was equally helpful cutting 22 seconds off her time last week to earn the silver medal Friday with a top season race of 11.28.8.
“Presli’s goal was to break the course record,” Baca said. “The conditions didn’t allow that, but watching her cut 14 seconds was awesome to see. She is running great right now and so is Aubrey. I just love how this entire team is competing and working so hard each and every day heading into regionals.”
Rounding the Lady Eagles big day was Michaela Sharber placing sixth (11:44.4), Ella Martinez was ninth (11:53.6) and Emma Quicksall took 11th overall (12:04.5).
Though the Canyon Eagles didn’t bring home a district title, the reigning UIL Class 4A state champions are headed back to regionals thanks to getting on the silver medal stand behind Perryton (42) with 55 points.
The duo of Grady Simmons and Domenic San Miguel paced the Eagles with a third and fourth place result of the 5K event. Simmons edged teammate San Miguel for a third place bronze medal with a time of 15:42.1 while San Miguel followed in fourth clocking a 15:46.1. Teammate Bennett Weatherly also placed in the top 10 coming in seventh overall with a time of 16:17.7.
Next up
The UIL Region I cross country meet is set for Oct. 26-27 at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock.
Check out the results
For a look at the full results from the District 4-4A cross country meet, please visit https://tx.milesplit.com/meets/774282-uil-4a-district-04-2026/results
Photo gallery by Joe Garcia III:
