Cross country celebrated its last invitational before the district meet at Round Rock with a JV run at Giddings where Leander placed second for girls overall and eighth for boys overall. The Varsity and JV teams again beat their times, improving by minutes, at the Mcneil invitational, Varsity girls placing 24th overall and Varsity boys placing 27th.

“We started our running training this summer,” freshman Jada Baillie said. “We have been running longer, pushing ourselves, showing that we can do better, and exceeding our limits.”

Mcneil Varsity boy runners were, Leonardo Zamora, Angel Jaimes, Cole Robinson, Victor Carrillo, Tyler Ratzman, Taylor Stephenson, Andrew Alger, Landon Buccelli, and Jared Buoloy. Sophomore JV runner Michael Coe improved his time from the Giddings Invitational (19:21) to 18:28. Sophomore varsity runner Leonardo Zamora improved his time from the Islander Splash Invitational (19:10) to 17:07.

“I liked this race better,” Zamora said. “There were bigger hills but not so many turns. It was just one big loop so I didn’t have to stop as often. It wasn’t as humid and that helped me a lot.”

Mcneil Varsity girl runners were Kim Parada, Nicole Schwalbach, Kami Taylor, Caroline Crone, Allison Villarreal, and Georgina Ceka. Freshman JV runner Baillie also improved her time from 14:59 to 13:52. Senior Varsity runner Kami Taylor improved her time from 22:21 to 21:17.

“Running this race, I felt really good,” Baillie said. “I gave it my all and the weather was really beautiful. I pushed myself hard at the end but I know that I can improve.”

District meet will be held at Round Rock for Varsity and Junior Varsity teams on October the 20th.