The summer heat is finally giving way to cooler weather, and the cross country season is winding down with it.

The season was in full swing this past month, with the teams participating in a meet every week. The 13-6A District meet, where the varsity runners competed for the chance to advance to the Region II meet, was Thursday, Oct. 20.

“This season went really well,” varsity junior Maddie Marrone said. “We worked together and held each other accountable.”

On Sept. 22, the team travelled to Tenroc Ranch for the Salado Invitational, a small meet but a difficult course. All four teams won their respective divisions.

McNeil hosted the 22nd Maverick XC Invitational Oct. 1 at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. As one of the biggest meets in the country, the top teams travelled hours to compete and each race had hundreds of runners. There were many divisions, including the regular JV and varsity in addition to freshman and “Gold”.

“Running Gold was great,” varsity senior Haley Birt said. “The energy was really high and I think it made me push myself a lot harder than I would have normally. Also, I’ve been running Mav Invitationals since middle school and I always told myself, ‘You’ll never be able to run in Gold,’ so it was really satisfying to have proved myself wrong”

The Westlake Friday Night Lights invitational was Oct. 7 in Southeast Regional Park in Del Valle.

“Westlake went really well,” varsity senior Ben Duong said. “I couldn’t have drawn it up much better. I had been on a month long slump so crossing the finish line knowing I had a huge PR was an awesome feeling, and it was the first time I cleared 17 minutes.”

On Oct. 13, a week before Districts, they went to Town and Country park for RRISD Champions, a small meet exclusively for the five high schools in Round Rock ISD.

At the district meet, humidity was high despite predictions of a cold front, making for difficult conditions. The top finishers for the boys were sophomore Jaden Maul, 20th, and Duong, 21st.

The varsity girls team of Birt, Larissa Herold (12), Sierra Hammond (12), Kayla Redd (12), Marrone, and Isabella Trujillo (9) was District Runner-Up. Though they tied at 51 points with the first five scorers, Round Rock won when it went to the sixth place tiebreaker.

“It was an outstanding effort being able to tie for first, especially since we were in a competitive field in our district,” Marrone said. “Second place was just a formality, because someone has to be second. We achieved our goal of qualifying for regionals and going as a team.”

Individually, three of the girls placed in the top 10, with Birt as District Champion, Marrone in third, and Herold in eighth.

“It feels really good to be District Champion,” Birt said. “I worked really hard all summer and in a way it kind of makes up for having to miss a whole year because of my injury. I was so excited when I crossed the finish line, it just felt like all the hard work, all the pain I had endured and all the hurdles I had to overcome weren’t just there for no reason. They made me stronger and they made me want it more and that’s really what pushed me more than anything.”

The team will travel to Grand Prairie for the 6A Region II meet in Lynn Creek Park on Saturday, Oct. 29. Ankita Narahari (11), who placed seventh in JV, will join as the seventh runner. They are looking forward to a great experience and a fun race. The top three teams and top 10 individual times not a part of those teams will advance to the state meet at Old Settlers on Nov. 12.