Coppell's Nathan Sims finished in 9th at the race.
The cool morning temperatures of Saturday, September 12th gave North Texas the first inkling that fall is on its way which is welcome news to all runners. The Coppell High School Cross Country headed north to compete in the Ken Garland/Northwest Invitational. The meet is held at the old UNT Golf Course in Denton and hosts hundreds of runners from middle schools and high schools across North Texas as well as universities such as Baylor, The University of Oklahoma and TCU. This is a great opportunity for middle and high school athletes to see collegiate runners in action on a challenging cross country course. Coppell had runners compete in the Elite, Varsity (boys only) and Junior Varsity divisions on Saturday.
Nathan Sims led the Elite Varsity Boys as a Top 10 finisher. Sims, who is a junior, placed 9th overall with a time of 16:30. Junior Alan Huo came in 17th with a time of 16:48 and marks the 3rd meet in a row that Sims and Huo have finished in the Top 25. The 3rd finisher for Coppell was sophomore Grant Reese with a time of 17:39 and a 51st place finish. The elite varsity boys team placed 8th out of 22 schools.
The Girls Elite Varsity was led by junior Cali Westervelt placing 23rd with a time of 20:23. Senior Laura Taylor was the second Coppell finisher placing 27th at 20:31. Freshman Maddie Hulcy and junior Ashley Scrivner finished in the top 50 at 20:56 and 21:00 respectively. The girl’s elite team placed 7th out of 17 teams.
The Boys Varsity team was led by junior Alec Bush placing 27th with a time of 18:28 followed closely by freshman Justin Chow in 29th place at 18:30. Junior Franklin Truax rounded out the top 3 varsity finishers in 34th place at 18:46. The varsity team also placed 8th out of 22 teams.
The Boys JV team placed 5th out of 18 teams with 3 Top 25 finishers. Freshman Grant Evans led the JV squad placing 21st with a time of 19:34. Junior Christian Guzman and sophomore Spencer Miller placed 22nd and 23rd at 19:47 and 19:48 respectively. Sophomore Renzo Teruya just missed the Top 25 placing 26th at 19:50.
The Girls JV team placed 2nd out of 24 teams and ran a 3,200 meter distance at this meet. Four Coppell runners finished in the Top 25 with senior Katy Yut leading the charge, finishing 4th overall at 13:24. The other Top 25 finishers were sophomore Mattie McKethan (13th), freshman Joni Goh (14th), and junior Miranda Dickson (16th) with finishing times of 13:40, 13:42 and 13:45 respectively.
The Coppell Cross Country team will be competing in two separate meets on Saturday, September 19th. The Varsity boys and girls will be traveling to Lubbock to compete in the Lubbock Invitational at Mae Simmons Park. Junior Varsity boys and girls will be at Westlake Park in Hickory Creek to compete in the Marcus II Invitational.