By Jennifer Fierro The Mason High School cross country teams were on the Class 2A Region IV podium Oct. 21 that symbolizes the Punchers and Cowgirls accomplishing one huge goal this season.
Earning entries into the Class 2A state meet.
The 2024 Punchers became one of the few Mason boys cross country teams to earn the regional championship, while the Cowgirls were the runners-up in the girls division behind Goldthwaite.
The top five finishers on each squad contribute to the overall team score.
The Punchers, who won their fifth consecutive meet, were paced by senior Garrett Lindsay, who came in seventh in 17 minutes and 57.33 seconds on the 5K course. Freshman Cooper Ratliff was ninth in 17:58.82, sophomore Caden Klingelhafer finished 13th in 18:21.90, junior Angel Quintero was 25th in 19:12.85, and soph-omore Irving Tavera came in 27th in 19:21.16. Junior Sam Simonton finished 60th in 20:46.97 and sophomore Thomas Kruso was 103rd in 22:43.73.
The victory this season was sweeter considering the Punchers believed it had enough to get to the state meet in 2023. But finishing sixth ended the season since only the top four teams from each region advance. Head coach Kyndel McLeod said that result stayed with the returners since then.
“It’s pretty special and pretty amazing,” she said. “We had a runner who didn’t come back. We had to find someone else. That’s how we got Irving. We had to select someone else to help us fill that void. I do think we had some unfinished business. I feel like they had the potential to do some great things. Garrett and Angel really wanted to get the team back to state. They proved to themselves they could do it. This team has great potential. But potential alone doesn’t get you anywhere. When it’s time to race, they get out there. Those boys are experienced with Garrett and Angel.”
The added bonus, she added, was how well Simonton and Kruso have been performing. Simonton was on the junior varsity and ran his way to a varsity spot.
“He improved a ton,” the coach said. “(All the runners) are very self-motivated. They push each other. They’ll get up there and compete with each other. They are a self-driven group. We push them and coach them. They push themselves. One of our mottos is no excuses. They do fun runs on weekends. When you have a group that enjoys running and they do things like that on their own, they enjoy it. They’re always going to run hard and compete.”
The Cowgirls were led by sophomore Elizabeth McFarland, who was 10th overall in 13:50.71 in the two-mile race. Senior Emma McCrea finished 20th in 14:34.43, junior Hannah McFarland came in 30th in 14:56.66, freshman Taylee Miller was 32nd in 15:01.97, and sophomore Kaitlin Paiva finished 36th in 15:08.71. Sophomore Adalie Thomas was 42nd in 15:16.85 and freshman Annabell Marshall finished 53rd in 15:38.66.
“They did well, they got the job done,” McLeod said. “You get to this point, it’s survive and advance. Lizzie ran well. They got up there and ran hard and competed. They wanted to be in the top four and advance. We got second.”
She noted the course was different than the last time Mason ran on it.
“Overall I thought they did a great job competing and getting us moving on,” the coach said. “We’re going to try to get better and see what we can do at state.”
The state meet is Friday, November 1, at Old Setter’s Park in Round Rock. The girls run at 8:15 a.m. and the boys compete at 8:45 a.m.