The Coppell Cross Country team competed in two meets Saturday, September 17. The top 7 girls and top 14 boys traveled to Lubbock, TX for the Lubbock ISD Invitational. Schools from division 1A-6A competed in the meet held at Mae Simmons Park. This challenging course is also the site for the UIL Region 1 Meet to be held later in October. The rest of the team competed much closer to home in the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival.
The Varsity Boys had a dominant performance. They took home 1st overall in the 6A division with Senior Andrew Mullen taking 1st place with a time of 16:06. Junior Henry Henze was in 2nd (16:17), Senior Vedant Bhattacharyya in 3rd (16:27). Junior Samarth Dubey ( 9th, 16:57) and Senior Kavin Chengavarayan (12th, 17:16) also scored to give the team a strong finish.
The JV boys who competed in Lubbock had a perfect race. Senior Cameron Churchill-Dowd was consistently ahead of the pack from start to finish. He placed 1st with a time of 17:12. Freshman Rohit Kalpathy was 2nd with 17:41 followed by Junior Jase Wilson (3rd, 17:54). Fellow Juniors Cole Stehly (4th 18:05) and James Tan (5th 18:15) completed the top 5 runners for that group.
The Varsity Cowgirls took home 7th place and were led by Sophomore Mallory Sherrer who finished 8th overall with a time of 20:41. Sophomores Annie Reeder (22:35) and Ava Beaty (22:46), Freshman Amala Rao (22:55), and Sophomore Saanvi Gaddam (23:11) were the point scorers for the team.
Meanwhile, at the Lovejoy Meet, Coppell finished 12th overall in the Varsity Girls division. Senior Megan Peltier was the first to cross the 5K finish; she was 50th overall with a time of 21:50. Next in for Coppell were Mahek Khandelwal (63rd, 22:02), Lucy Martinson (74th, 22:10), Tavishka Arora, and Bess Williams. In the JV division the girls’ team placed 22nd overall. Junior Ashlyn Wilbanks finished 71st overall with a time of 24:30. Brianna Henderson (125th, 22:05), Pranjali Kulkarni (167th, 22:07), Jeana Scheurich, and Alisma Adhikari rounded out the point scorers for Coppell.
The Coppell boys finished 11th overall in the Varsity division. Freshman Ansh Singhal led the Cowboys with a 28th place finish with a time of 17:54. Rohan Shanbhag (65th, 18:20), Dillon Khera (81st, 18:32), Bunker Harris, and Srivanth Rudrangi rounded out the point scorers for Coppell. The Cowboys placed 12th overall in the JV division. Freshman Rodrigo Abrego was the first to cross the finish for Coppell. He finished 28th overall with a time of 19:11. Sarvesh Jagtap (43rd, 19:40), Hugh Harris (46th, 19:41), Aiden George, and Krish Sirpal scored team points for Coppell this week.
Coach Landon Wren felt the kids ran well and got some good experience.
He said, “I told the kids that our main competition in Lubbock was going to be the course. We knew we had a chance to win the Meet but our main goal was to learn all we could about the course itself. I didn’t want some of our kids’ first experience on the course to be at the Regional Meet. We got a race under our belts and learned a lot yesterday about how we need to run there next month. I’m proud of how our kids competed not only against the other runners but against the course itself.”
Coach Wren also pointed out standout performances from some runners. “Andrew Mullen looked like the veteran that he is and dominated the course. Henry Henze ran a good race as well considering that was the first time he’s run there. I was extremely proud of how well Cameron Churchill-Dowd, Rohit Kalpathy, and Jase Wilson attacked the course in the JV race”.
The team will again compete in two meets this coming week: the Rick Neill Memorial Invitational in Lewisville on September 22 and on September 24, the top runners will be going to the Mc Neil Invitational in Round Rock, TX to compete on the 5K course that is the site for the UIL State XC Championships.