Coppell Cross Country competed close to home at the Flower Mound Invitational on Saturday, September 10.  The 5K course at Shadow Ridge Middle School was a tougher course then expected according to Head Coach Landon Wren.  However, he felt the athletes handled it well.  The team continues to push each other to be better, there were strong team and individual finishes even with several of the top runners absent from the lineup.    

The Cowboys’ won the Varsity Boys division.   Senior Kavin Chengavarayan led the way with a stand-out finish.  He was 2^nd overall with a time of 16:40.18.  Cameron Churchill-Dowd (3^rd, 16:50), Dominic Piccolo (9^th, 16:58), and James Tan (10^th, 17:00) also dug deep for strong Coppell finishes.  Asheer Jiwani (12^th, 17:07) and Karthikeyan Parthipan (19^th, 17:13) brought back top twenty finishes securing the win for Coppell.

The Cowgirls’ team placed 4^th overall in the Varsity Girls division.  Sophomore Saanvi Gaddam led the girls with a strong 16^th overall finish.  She crossed the finish at 21:33.4.  Annie Reeder was right behind her in 19^th place overall with a time of 21:39.  Amala Rao (28^th, 22:24), Tavishka Arora, and Bess Williams rounded out the point scorers for Coppell.

The boys also won the JV division.  Coppell got a 3^rd place finish from Junior Krish Vinish, he ran across the line at 17:30.  Five more Coppell athletes placed in the top twenty; Rohan Shanbhag (7^th, 18:05), Grant O’Neal (9^th, 18:10), Dillon Khera (10^th, 18:13), and Srivanth Rudrangi (14^th, 18:32) and Rodrigo Abrego (19^th, 18:48).        

Coppell took 5^th place overall in the JV Girls division.  Junior Ashlyn Wilbanks was the first to cross the finish for Coppell; she was 32^nd overall with a time of 23:57.  Next in for Coppell were Haneen Awad (38^th, 24:10), Saakshi Barve, Brianna Henderson, and Pranjali Kulkarni.    

“With over a third of our runners not competing today, I was looking forward to getting a closer look at the athletes that were competing” said Coach Wren.  “Several were competing for a spot to travel to Lubbock next week.  I felt like the competition brought out the best in them, and the times proved that.”  Saturday, September 17 the team will be competing in two different locations.  Top runners from both the girls’ and boys’ teams will be travelling to Lubbock to compete on the Region 1 cross country course at the Lubbock Invitational.  Meanwhile the rest of the cross country team will be competing in the Lovejoy Cross Country Fall Festival.