Flames cross-country finish third at state meet
WACO — The two crucial runners for the Marble Falls Faith Academy cross-country team at the state meet Saturday turned out to be the ones coach Steve McCannon discussed in terms of strategy only four days earlier.
“All the things we talked about Oct. 14 regarding the importance of those No. 5 and No. 6 runners showed up (at the state meet),” he said. “When the 52nd and 58th runners came across the finish line, almost everybody had already begun making their way to the concession stand because at that point they thought the race was over.”
Deanna Hoover and Taylor Castleberry propelled the Flames into third place in the Division 2 Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools state meet at the Baylor University Cross-Country Course.
“Deanna Hoover came up big for us,” McCannon said. “That was her first cross-country meet but she did exactly what she needed to do. She passed three people coming in.”
Those three spots helped move the Flames up from a possible fifth-place finish into a tie for third with Muenster Sacred Heart, the defending state champs. In the case of a tie, the tiebreaker is the No. 6 runner. Castleberry’s placement earned the edge for Faith.
While it came down to the No. 5 and No. 6 Faith runners to determine the final outcome, it was the top four who put the Flames in a position to stand on the podium.
Taylor Vaughn finished 13th, followed by Katie Jung at 15th. Just behind them were Laura Lykken at 18th and Kristyn Stagner at 21st.
“We could have easily finished anywhere from second to fifth — it was that close,” McCannon said. “But the girls really stepped it up and we passed several runners on the way in.”
He attributed a big part of the team’s overall finish to Lykken and Jung.
“Laura and Katie had a big day and their last 400 meters put us on the podium,” McCannon said. “Laura was amazing and her time was strong. Kristyn dropped one minute and 24 seconds from just three weeks ago on the same course.”
And Vaughn edged out Muenster’s Ginger Bartush by one tenth of a second. Without that one tenth of a second, McCannon said the Flames would have ended up in fourth place.
Shiner St. Paul earned the top spot with 57 points followed by Waxahachie Prep with 77. The Flames finished with 88 points.
“There were a lot of teams in our division and for us to finish third since it is our first year, that’s really great,” McCannon said. “Our team was very inexperienced. Only three of our girls had ran more than three meets going into state. But we brushed off the inexperience.”
With a first-year team bringing home a third-place finish at the state level, McCannon said the school has started another tradition of excellence.
“We’ve always had high expectations at Faith and we went into the meet looking to win,” he said. “Sure, we didn’t win the state title, but for a team in it’s first year to finish third is a great accomplishment. I couldn’t be more proud of these girls. This meet was very special to me as a coach because the girls actually saw all the important concepts we discussed play out right before their eyes. It’s been very exciting to get this (cross-country) tradition started.”
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