By: Lane Summey

After training all season, competing in multiple races, and placing second in the region, the Klein Cross Country men’s’ team, along with a member from the women’s team, advanced to the state meet in Round Rock, Texas. This is the second year Coach Tim McGuire has taken a team to state for Klein, where they placed fourth overall as opposed to seventh the first year they went.

“Coach has been pushing us really hard this season to make sure we hit our goals and do the very best we can possibly do,” junior Gustavo Posada said. “He has led us to great thing this season and in season past and thankfully this year we were able to place fourth at state under his coaching.”

The state meet marks the official end to the UIL cross country season, so some athletes such as Junior Christopher Daniels pushed themselves hard during that meet.

“When I was running in the race, I could hear my coach, my friends, and my family all cheering me on to run faster and to keep going,” Daniels said. “Hearing that made me think about how I didn’t want to let them down so I ran as hard as I could for them and my team.”

On the weekend of November 30th, the Klein team competed at the Nike Cross Regionals meet. There they raced for a chance to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon, which is one of the largest High school cross country meets in the country. Unfortunately, they fell short and placed 5th overall, however they plan on continuing to push themselves to do better next year.

“I think we can do good; we do a good job of keeping an even keel and preparing for a long season.” Head Cross Country Coach Tim McGuire said. “They understand what it is to start early and finish late, In all reality, it’s just going to be a big x-factor as to how we, and everyone else that is competing handled those two weeks after the state meet to see who is going to be ready to go on Saturday”