Cross country: OHS girls get ninth at state

ROUND ROCK The Odessa High girls finished ninth out of 12 teams Saturday in its first appearance at the UIL Cross Country State Championships.

It wasn’t necessarily the finish OHS girls coach Tracey Borchardt had envisioned, but she had no complaints with the program’s debut performance on the sport’s biggest stage.

“I’m OK with it,” Borchardt said. “We didn’t run as good as I wanted to run, but when I stand back and think about being the ninth-place team in the state of Texas, I’ll settle for that. It was a good experience for the kids.

“It was a real fast race, and that’s just something they hadn’t quite been in before. But they came out good, had really good times and learned a lot.”

Kirsten Taylor, a sophomore, finished 33rd in 12 minutes, 10.33 seconds, to lead the way for Odessa High. Senior Lacy McKinney was 50th in 12:26.70.

Also scoring points for OHS was freshman Gaby Valeriano in 65th (12:43.00), junior Tiffany Barrera in 76th (12:56.85) and sophomore Jordann Beason in 88th (13;06.05). Mindy Navarette was 94th (13:20.00) and Ashley Carrasco was 100th (13:28.15) to round out Odessa High’s seven runners.

Odessa High scored 199 points to finish ahead of Pharr-San Juan Alamo North, San Antonio Reagan and Mission Sharyland. The Woodlands (173 points) and A&M Consolidated (188) were seventh and eighth and within reach of OHS.

Humble Kingwood and Southlake Carroll both scored 74 points, but Kingwood won the team ti-tle on the sixth-runner tiebreaker.

“The kids are in pretty good spirit, and the younger kids I brought along (to watch) are pretty fired up,” Borchardt said. “They saw a different level now and know what they’ve got to do to get back. It’s been a good weekend for us.”

As for looking ahead to the future, Borchardt said she met with the team’s top two runners — Taylor and McKinney — about the program’s accomplishment in reaching the state meet for the first time.

McKinney has been a four-year runner with the program that has become a regional power and that now is making a splash on the statewide scene.

“I talked to Lacy about turning the reins over to Kirsten after the race,” Borchardt said. “Now, it’s time for Kirsten to lead and help gets us back to this point next year.”

Also from District 3-5A, Abilene High’s Jourdan Ellis finished 15th and Midland Lee’s Dale Wilson came in 27th. Wilson had finished ahead of Ellis both at the district and regional meets.