Cross Country running may be one of the less attended and attention getting high school sports out there, but that doesn’t mean these kids put in any less effort than their fellow student-athletes. In recognition of those efforts, I wanted to make sure this story was published and the achievements weren’t overlooked in the midst of the excitement about the football and volleyball teams making the playoffs. (More on both of those later.)

The Jackrabbit boys finished second in the District 15-4A meet and the Girls came out on top, as District 15-4A Champions. Both teams will move on to Regional Competition next week at UTA, with another top 3 finish in mind and a trip to Round Rock on November 15th for the State Meet on the line.

The Lady Jackrabbits, who run an approximately 2 mile course in competition, had 15 points to to outdistance Mesquite Poteet who finished with 46. Obviously, for those not familiar with Cross Country running, the lower the points, the better the results. Forney was led by Gabbie Corlettos who finished just 6 seconds (12 minutes flat) behind individual champ Chelsey Dillon from Mabank. Following Corletto at the finish line were fellow Lady Jackrabbit runners Tyler Blacklock and Kara Hyde (12:06 and 12:19 respectively) to give the Jackrabbits 3 runners in the top 4. Jessica Boudrea (12:31)and Martha Romero (12:35) came in in 6th and 7th with Melanie Ortega was in 9th place (12:43). To speak to the depth of this team of young ladies, keep in mind Ortega is a returning runner who finished 5th in State last year. With Kara Hyde having an impressive Sophomore season and Romero having a top 10 as a Freshman, this Lady Jackrabbit team is primed for a successful multi-year run. Coach Posey came in to this season setting a goal of a top 3 finish at state. The girls still have that goal well in reach, but must first put everything together next week at the Regional Competition.

The boys, running a longer course at approximately 3 miles in competition, finished up Saturday as District Runner-up (38 points) to champ Mesquite Poteet (20 points). With 4 top 10 finishers, led by Josh Taylor (16:31) in 3rd place overall, the boys also had a very strong finish to a season that has shown much promise. Tommy McIntire (5th, 16:55), Blake Withrow (8th, 17:17) and Isac Valdez (10th, 17:26) put in strong individual efforts to allow Forney to easily advance to the Regional Meet next week. Third place in the District Meet was W. Mesquite with 99 points, proving that Forney and Poteet were far ahead of the competition in this meet.

Congratulations to both teams, as they have put in many, many miles over the course of getting to this point of the season. Many of those miles are run early and late in the day and in relative anonymity. Here is to hoping the dedicated student-athletes have just a little less anonymity at this point and will do everything possible to stamp their name, as well as the Jackrabbit name, on the Regional Meet on Saturday.

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