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T'wolves finish eighth at Nike Cross Nationals

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VR's Ornelas finishes ninth overall, Lady Rangers place 18th

The season finally came to an end for most of Leander ISD cross country, with athletes from Cedar Park and Vista Ridge racing against the best in the nation at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore.

The Cedar Park boys closed out the season strong, finishing eighth in the nation, with Vista Ridge's Zach Ornelas coming in ninth in the nation.

The Vista Ridge girls, getting to nationals in an at-large berth, placed 18th overall.

“This was just a phenomenal experience both on and off the course for us,” said Cedar Park coach Timo Sheard. “You always want to gauge yourself by how you run with the best, and I am so very proud of this group of guys.”

Normally a solid pick to win races during the year, the T'wolves were seen as underdogs when it came to teams to finish on the medal stand.

However, Cedar Park didn't run like an underdog and nearly ran its way into the top five. The team finished just one point behind Clifton Park (New York) and were just seven points behind Bergen (New Jersey) and Plainsboro (New Jersey) for fifth place.

“I told our guys that there was no pressure on us for this race, that we could run relaxed and control our pace, and that's what we did,” Sheard said.

Cedar Park ran strong from the start of the 5,000-kilometer race, and was in fifth place overall going into the final 1,000 kilometers.

A big reason for that were the efforts of lead runners Parker Stinson and Jay McIllece.

Stinson put in a solid 24th place finish with a time of 15 minutes, 46.3 seconds while McIllece was close behind in 26th place at 15:48.3.

“Both Parker and Jay just ran outstanding for us,” Sheard said. “We knew that Parker could give us that, but Jay really stepped up and ran his best race of the season.”

Sean O'Neil placed 100th overall at 16:27.5 for third on the team, followed by Austin Geerts (104th, 16:27.9) and Chris Galvin (119th, 16:36.7). Also running for the T'wolves in the main race were Austin Krohn (16:46.1) and John Wilkinson (17:10.5).

While Cedar Park impressed in the team standings, it was Ornelas who wowed the crowd with his strong finish.

Coming in with a time of 15:30.8, Ornelas made it onto the medal stand to add a national medal to his silver medal from the state meet.

“We were shooting for the top 20, so to get ninth was huge,” said Vista Ridge coach David Hilsenteger. “The conditions for the race were great and Zach responded by running a great race.”

Hilsenteger was also pleased with how the Lady Rangers ran, despite hearing some sour predictions about where the team would finish before the race.

“Going in, everyone was picking us to finish last,” he said. “We finished better than expected and it shows a lot of character for the girls to run like they did against very high-caliber competition.”

The Vista Ridge girls, the District 16-5A champions, placed 18th overall with 424 points.

Leading the Lady Rangers in the national race were Amanda Russell in 27th place (18:25.7) and Ashley Isham in 59th place (18:48.9).

Also placing were Kelsey Camareno (20:23.7), Zoe Galbraith (20:24.3) and Kerry Stacey (20:25.4).

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