Woodrow Wilson's boys and Highland Park's girls are regional cross country champions. Both won Class 5A Region II team titles Tuesday morning at Rolling Hills Soccer Complex in Fort Worth, and both advance to the state meet, official results from timing company RunFAR Racing Services show.
Wilson wins a five-point race
The Wildcats won the boys' title with 75 points, five ahead of Grapevine at 80. Lucas Lovejoy was third with 98 and Midlothian Heritage took the fourth and final team berth at 149.
Wilson and Grapevine reached nearly the same total in different ways. The Wildcats had two runners in the top 10, placing third and seventh, before their next three scorers came in 16th, 18th and 33rd overall.
Grapevine had no one in the top 10 but put all five of its scorers between 11th and 21st, a gap of about 17 seconds from its first runner to its fifth.
Wilson built its edge at the front, and Grapevine's tighter pack nearly made it up. The Wildcats' fifth runner crossed 12 places behind Grapevine's, and the final margin held at five points. Wilson's first runner is a junior and its second is a freshman, and the Wildcats' five scorers covered the 5-kilometer course in a combined 1 hour, 19 minutes, 15.2 seconds.
Hillcrest also sent boys to state. The Panthers finished seventh as a team with 204 points, outside the four state spots, but two of their runners advanced as individuals. The top 10 finishers who are not on a qualifying team move on to state under the UIL format.
Highland Park takes three of the top six
Highland Park's girls won by a wider margin, scoring 43 points to Lovejoy's 52. Melissa was third with 111 and Grapevine fourth with 123, giving Grapevine teams in both state races.
The Scots placed their top three runners second, third and sixth overall, with the top two finishing one-tenth of a second apart in 17:56.9 and 17:57.0. Their fourth runner was 13th. The individual winner, from Tyler High, ran as an individual entry and finished in 17:43.5.
Wilson's girls finished 14th as a team, and the Wildcats will still have a runner in Round Rock. Their top finisher was 14th overall and earned one of the individual state berths.
