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Saturday, December 1, 2007
Cross Country State Championships
Fort Worth, TX
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Carroll Girls Awarded State Title Following Scoring Mistake
At the awards ceremony following the state cross country meet, it was Humble Kingwood hoisting the 5A girls team trophy. However, further review of the scoring revealed that Southlake Carroll had actually won the race, and two days later the Lady Dragons were awarded the championship, their third consecutive.
Peter Contreras, the UIL cross country athletic coordinator, announced on the Monday following the state meet that, “One of Carroll’s runners was scored incorrectly.” A malfunction in a computer chip on one of the runners’ shoes was to blame, the UIL explained. The chips are used to tabulate where runners rank as they cross the finish line. The original scoring had Carroll’s Lucia Xiong finishing 58th overall. However, video evidence revealed that Xiong actually finished 54th.
Carroll coach Robert Ondrasek filed an appeal after the race, but the UIL said there was too much footage to review and put off a final decision until Monday. The award ceremony went ahead with Kingwood named the state champions.
“I was proud of the way the girls ran no matter what our place was and the way they handled the situation,” Ondrasek said. “We feel sick for Kingwood. I am sure the UIL will adopt some new policies to make sure this does not happen again. We are just glad they did the right thing and it is over.”
Junior Tara Upshaw paced the Lady Dragons with her 11th-place finish. Jessica Harper finished 19th, Taylor Stephens 26th and Lauren Hill 39th.
Keller star Laleh Mojbaeezamani finished eighth overall, helping her team to fourth place. Keller came into the state meet having recently beaten Carroll and with the state’s number one ranking, according to the Cross County Coaches Association of Texas. Despite the disappointment, coach Renee Saettel had nothing but glowing remarks for the team.
“These girls are not only great athletes, but they are great people,” Saettel said. “Every single one of them puts the team ahead of their own desires and interests. This is the most unselfish group of kids I have ever coached.”
Haltom runner Ashley Flores finished 17th overall.
Carroll’s Colby Lowe followed up his state title from last year with another individual championship, but again his team came up just short. Lowe, the defending 5A state champion, repeated by easily outpacing the competition, finishing the race in 15:11.15, 25 seconds ahead of runner-up Zac Flowers of Katy Cinco Ranch. Lowe’s teammate, C.J. Brown, took the bronze. However, the Dragons as a whole were forced to again settle for silver. The Woodlands edged Carroll for the team title by only six points. All five Dragons runners placed in the top 40, with John DePinto 29th, Neal Smith 35th, and Ahmed Toure 38th.
In the Class 4A boys race, Southwest’s Andrew Herrera was the top local runner, finishing eighth overall (15:51.45). North Side’s Ramiro Garcia finished 20th.
The Boswell girls made school history by finishing second as a team in the 4A girls race, the highest ever finish for the program, which returned to the state meet for the first time in 12 years. The Lady Pioneers were led by Regina Germaine, who placed 13th overall individually. Jennifer Atkinson placed 20th.
Fossil Ridge’s Lexi Leep placed 17th overall and Southwest’s Lisa Puente finished 27th.
TAPPS State Championships
Two local schools produced fine showings at the TAPPS cross country state championships, held in late October. The Nolan Catholic girls escaped with the Class 6A title, edging out Dallas Ursuline. The victory was a surprise, even to the Lady Vikes. Urseline, who had defeated Nolan earlier in the season, pushed across the top two finishers as well as the fourth-place finisher. Three Nolan runners landed in the top 10 though, including Allison Flood, who placed third. Ariel Ornelas was seventh and Jacquelyn Batson ninth. It was Nolan’s fourth and fifth runners that made the difference.
“The last thing I said to them was, ‘Everybody has to do their part because every point will count,’” Nolan cross country coach Marcelo Hernandez said.
And he was right. Crystal Finley placed eleventh and Katy Roche crossed the finish line in 18th, enough to pass Urseline in the overall standings and earn the coveted state trophy.
“The previous week we had not run all that well,” Hernandez said. “But we knew that if all the girls had a better day, we’d be in the mix. As the meet progressed, with them finishing one, two and four, it didn’t look good, so it was a surprise.”
Flood, Ornelas and Batson were all named to the All-State first team, while Finley earned a place on the second team.
The Nolan boys came up just short in their bid for a state title. The Vikings finished second behind San Antonio Central Catholic.
“It was almost opposite of the girls,” Martinez said. “We had run within about a minute of our first through fifth runners all season. At state, the gap opened up. We had run closer the previous week. Two of our guys [set personal records] but it still wasn’t enough. Central ran tough. They ran a good race and it was well deserved.”
Thomas Bobbitt was Nolan’s top runner, placing fifth individually. He and Chris Flaherty, who finished tenth, were both named to the All-State first team.
In Class 4A, the boys from Grapevine Faith finished second overall, just behind Ovilla Christian. The Lions produced the top two individual finishers in Austin Bracy and Andrew Hale. Teammate Conner Bracy finished the race tenth overall.
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