On Saturday, September 12th, the Lady Scots Cross Country Team competed very well at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede. The meet was held at Myers Park in McKinney where the District 12-5A Championships will be held on October 15th. The course is very challenging due to the athletes climbing approximately 2000 meters in hills.

In the Elite Varsity Division, the team placed 2nd with 57 points. Keller (6A) placed 1st with 53 points. There were 17 teams and 147 runners in this division. Senior captain Ryan Sontag won the meet with a time of 17:56. This puts her second on the Lady Scots All-Time Top 30 List for this meet. Junior Paisley Bassett placed 8th with a time of 18:50, and junior Finley Heckler was right behind Bassett and placed 9th with a time of 18:52. The other team members were senior Annie Cooper who placed 21st with a time of 19:54 which was a personal best at this meet and put her 16th on the Lady Scots Top 30 List, freshman Ella Marie Hooks placed 26th with a time of 20:13 and put her 21st on the Lady Scots Top 30 List, freshman Hadleigh Raynor placed 38th with a time of 20:38 and put her 30th on the Lady Scots Top 30 List, and sophomore Stella Pruett placed 58th with a time of 21:14.

In the Open Varsity Division, the team placed 4th with 127 points. There were 17 teams and 163 runners in this division. Senior Claire Deeken was the lead runner for the Lady Scots. She placed 12th with a time of 21:32 and freshman Sloane Odom placed 14th with a time of 21:36. The other team members were freshmen Madison Baskin, Perry Doffermyre, and Madeline Lewis, junior Irene Cooper, and freshman Faith Carlson.

In the JV Division, the Lady Scots placed 5th with 144 points. There were 23 teams and 266 runners. The top runner for the JV was freshman Jing Wang. She placed 4th with a time of 22:37. The other top six team members were junior Kate Swaldi, senior captain Ellie Chong, junior Kate Furgeson, senior captain Emery Paulsen, senior Avi Levy, and junior Ana Odom.

Congratulations to freshmen Sloane Odom, Brinnley Perritt, Mary Claire Martin, and Gwennan Jones as they set new personal records. Also, congratulations to senior captain Ryan Sontag, senior Annie Cooper, and junior Kate Swaldi as they set new meet personal records. The team also had three season bests: juniors Ana Odom and Thuy-Vi Le and sophomore Audrey Frotten.

The next meet for the Lady Scots will be the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival at Myers Park in McKinney on Saturday, September 19th. The first race starts at 8:00 a.m. The team will also be competing at the McNeil Invitational at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock the same day. This is the venue for the UIL State Cross Country Championships in November. The team qualified to compete in the Varsity Girls Gold Division and will race at 7:30 a.m. The Lady Scots will also have a team in the 5A Open Varsity Girls Division at 10:30 a.m.

Go Scots!