The Coppell boys’ cross country team captured the District 6-6A team title on Saturday, October 15 at North Lakes Park in Denton.  The cowboys were district champions in 2020, runners up in 2019, and finished 3^rd overall in the 2021 District Championship.  This will be the fourth consecutive year that the Cowboys advance to the Region 1-6A Championship.  Head Coach Wren is proud of the way the team competed.  “We knew the boys were the favorites going in.  I told the boys to be prepared for the other schools’ best effort, but if we executed our race plan, we weren’t going to be beaten.”

The Cowboys won with a score of 31 points.  Andrew Mullen ran the top time for Coppell with a 2^nd place finish of 15 minutes, 42 seconds.  Henry Henze (3^rd, 15:56), Vedant Bhattacharyya (4^th, 16:09) and Samarth Dubey (9^th, 16:14) also posted top ten finishes.  They were followed by teammates Kavin Chengavarayan (13^th, 16:32), Samuel Martinson (22^nd, 16:50), and Cameron Churchill-Dowd (23^rd, 16:57).  Coach Wren said, “We are excited that we won, but we know we still have a lot of work to do and it’s only going to get tougher moving forward.”

The Coppell girls’ varsity team really battled at the District Championship.  Mallory Sherrer led Coppell, she finished 20^th overall with a time of 20 minutes, 24.5 seconds.  Annie Reeder (21^st, 20:34) was right behind her, setting a new personal record.   Elizabeth Grace Walker (38^th, 21:30), Ava Beaty (41^st, 21:42), Rachel Arrington (21:53), Saanvi Gaddam (21:59), and Megan Peltier (22:33) represented Coppell in the varsity race.  Coach Wren commented, “We definitely didn’t finish as high in the standings as we would’ve liked, but it wasn’t because of lack of effort.  Five of the top seven girls return plus some talented JV runners have me excited about the future of our girls’ program.”

Coppell JV boys snatched the District JV team title with a decisive team score of 17. The Cowboys’ were led by individual champion Rohit Kalpathy; he won with a time of 17 minutes, 11.9 seconds.    He was closely followed by fellow top ten finishers; Krish Vinish (2^nd, 17:12), Asheer Jiwani (3^rd, 17:14), Dominic Piccolo (5^th, 17:20), Cole Stehly (6^th, 17:23.1), Jase Wilson (7^th, 17:23.4), and Ansh Singhal (10^th, 17:39).  “We nearly had a perfect team score, which is impressive considering the talent that is in this district.  I’m excited to see these athletes continue to grow as runners in the years ahead,” said Coach Wren.

Coppell JV girls finished off the championship season with a 3^rd place team finish.  Amala Rao was Coppell’s top runner.  She placed 19^th overall with a time of 22 minutes.  Lucy Martinson (21^st, 22:26), Mahek Khandelwal (24^th, 22:33), Bess Williams (29^th, 22:47), and Ashlyn Wilbanks (47^th, 23:27) contributed to the JV district team score.  “These girls have continued to get better every week,” said Coach Wren.  “A few of these girls will be battling for a varsity spot next year.  The more competition we have, the better the program will be in the future.” 

Coach Wren is proud of all of the seniors that ran in their last cross country meet on Saturday.  “With that said, I’m proud of every single one of the athletes and their commitment to the program,” added Coach Wren.  The district championship meet was the conclusion of the Girls’ varsity and JV teams cross country UIL seasons.  The Boys’ Varsity teams will move onto the Region 1-6A Championship which will take place on Monday, October 24 at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock.