It has become a bit of tradition at Stratford.
When November rolls around, the Spartans girls cross country team has become accustomed to booking a trip to Old Settlers Park for the UIL State Cross Country meet.
For the outgoing seniors, their entire high school careers, every single season ended with a trip to state.
"I think it's really encouraging to the incoming freshmen and the individuals still on the team," Olivia Hirst said. "As they're extremely motivated to continue this legacy. We've been able to run with them and so they've changed their mindset to reach that height."
Hope Sage added: "We've worked really hard over the past four years. We've put in consistent workouts and training sessions during the summer and all year. I think that people coming in next year and our returning teammates see that. They know what it takes to reach the state meet."
Off the team that finished 13th overall at state, Fay Gibb, who was named second- team, all-region III-6A, finished the best of the group at 54th overall. Gibb also finished 12th at regionals.
"It feels so good that I finished that high senior year," Gibb said. "I know that I finished on a high note. It's also encouraging to the younger runners that they can go from the seventh runner on the team like I was freshman year and get to be to be all-region. It's amazing."
On the boys side, Emanuel Galdino was the lone boy to qualify for the UIL Boys State Cross Country meet.
Galdino finished 119th overall at the meet in November but the experience is what will help the sophomore move up the rankings next year and also the team there as well.
"Just train a lot and just have fun," Galdino said. "We think we can get almost everybody there."
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Stratford Boys Cross Country's Emanuel Galdino, Mitchell Harper and Kamal Jalal
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