The Coppell Cross Country team competed at Jesuit XC Classic on Saturday, September 30. The 5K event held at Prestonwood Polo & Country Club in Oak Point, wraps up the regular cross country season as the team gets ready to compete at the District Championship on October 13. Head Coach Wren’s brief to the team was to tackle the fast course aggressively and he was happy to see that the athletes attacked the course confidently.
Coppell clinched 2nd place overall in the 5A 6A Varsity Boys event behind McKinney Boyd Boys. Samarth Dubey and Henry Henze led the Coppell Varsity boys, coming in 7th and 8th overall, and finishing the race in 15 minutes, 45 seconds and 15 minutes, 49 seconds respectively. Rohit Kalpathy (14th, 16:07), Pranav Vegiraju (28th, 16:20) and Grant O’Neal (16:26) also scored points for Coppell. Coach Wren was encouraged to see the Varsity boys’ performance. “I felt like we competed well with McKinney Boyd and actually ran with them better than we did earlier this year,” he added. “Samarth Dubey and Dominic Piccolo performed well today, and the rest of the guys on the team performed admirably as well,” he said.
The Girls’ team placed 10th overall in the 5A 6A Varsity Girls event. Mallory Sherrer grabbed the 5th spot overall with a time of 19 minutes, 5 seconds. Close on her heels was Maya Easterwood, who placed 6th overall and finished her race in 19 minutes, 7 seconds. Rachel Arrington (20:56), Lucy Martinson (21:14) and Lauren Bennett (21:18) rounded out the point scorers for the Varsity girls this week. ‘I loved seeing Mallory Sherrer and Maya Easterwood battle it out down the stretch,’ said Coach Wren. ‘Lauren Bennett, Bess Williams, JJ Scheurich and Hanna Noyola all had one of their best races of the year as well,’ he added.
In rapidly warming temperatures, both JV squads ran one of their best races of the year, said Coach Wren. Coppell JV Boys secured the 2nd spot overall at their event. Jase Wilson placed 6th with a time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds. Aiden George came in 9th (17:44) and close on his heels was Dillon Khera, who came in 10th (17:44.8). Tanish Neelapu (19th,18:09) and Krish Sirpal (24th,18:20) also scored points for the team. Coach Wren was pleased with how Dillon Khera and Aiden George ran their races.
Coppell girls placed 7th overall in the JV event. Annie Reeder was the top scorer for Coppell in the event with a 12th place finish, running her race in 22 minutes, 28 seconds. Akshaya Ashokanand (24th, 23:14), Pragna Vykuntam (24:00), Brianna Henderson (24:17) and Sutton Rasmussen (24:28) also scored points for Coppell. Coach Wren said that a number of JV girls ran well, led by Annie Reeder and Akshaya Ashokanand.
Coach Wren said that the team is looking forward to a week of rest and he is confident the runners will perform well at the District Championship on October 13.