Our runners competed at two different meets on Saturday. Our top 16 kids went to compete in College Station at the Nike South Invitational and all other athletes competed at the Byron Nelson Invitational. Overall, I believe this was the best week we've had as a program. I am extremely pleased with the results.

At Nike, the Varsity Elite Boys finished in 8th place. There were 273 runners in the race, and the Coppell boys performed admirably. The course ran a little long (3.2 miles), but that didn't deter our athletes from running really good races. Sid Kerthipati finished in 15th with a 15:34. His next six teammates, Tanish Neelapu, Itsuki Pena, Alesh Khowala, Abishek Suresh, Isaiah Assefa, and Sam Meier, all finished within 30 seconds of one another. We talked this week of running together more as a team, and we were able to execute that plan on the Nike course. You can probably subtract 25-30 seconds from their times to get a good idea of what their true 5k times would have been today.

Nike - Varsity Elite Boys
8th out of 31 teams
273 runners
Sid - 15:34 - 15th
Tanish - 16:23 - 56th
Itsuki - 16:41 - 84th
Alesh - 16:47 - 94th
Abishek - 16:49 - 99th
Isaiah - 16:51 - 102nd
Sam - 16:53 - 109th

The Varsity Elite Girls finished 14th at the Nike meet. Maya Easterwood ran her first 5k of the season and finished 7th in 18:05 out of 204 runners. It was great to see her back on the course competing again. Her next 5 teammates, Bishakha Sinha, Mirabelle Sagel, Rachel Stumm, Anusha Patki, and Angie Nguyen, worked the course really well together and all finished within 15 seconds of one another. I absolutely loved seeing them work together as a team. The competition that is taking place on our girls' team is really pushing each girl to run well on race day.

Nike - Varsity Elite Girls
14th out of 22 teams
204 runners
Maya - 18:05 - 7th
Bishakha, Mirabelle, Rachel, Anusha, Angie - all finished within 15 seconds of one another

The Varsity Boys team at Nike finished 13th overall. There were 253 runners in this race, and the top performers for us include Cannon Stehly (40th), Ahan Kothalkar (57th) and Rigved Nehere (60th). Rounding out the top 5 were Marco Noyola and Vihaan Sharma. I enjoyed watching these young men attack the course and run intelligently.

Nike - Varsity Boys
13th out of 31 teams
253 runners
Cannon - 17:19 - 40th
Ahan - 17:31 - 57th
Rigved - 17:31 - 60th
Marco - 17:47 - 81st
Vihaan - 18:02 - 110th

At Nike, the Varsity Girls finished 18th. Shrriya Bedse finished 18th out of 202 runners with a time of 22:13. Adeline Mendola ran her personal best and Hannah Stumm and Anandi Dhulipalla finished as the third and fourth runners on our team. These three finished within 4 seconds of one another. I really love the improvement I'm seeing from this group.

Nike - Varsity Girls
18th out of 24 teams
202 runners
Shrriya - 22:13 - 78th
Adeline, Hannah, Anandi - all finished within 4 seconds of one another

Diego Morales is coming off of an injury and competed in his first 5k of the year. Diego finished 29th out of 144 runners at the Byron Nelson Invitational. He ran a good time, but most importantly, he was able to complete his first 5k. It'll be nice to get Diego back in the mix with the other guys.

BN - Varsity Elite Boys
144 runners
Diego - 16:44 - 29th

The Varsity Open Girls finished 10th at the Byron Nelson Invitational. Vanini Agarwal was our top performer with a 10th place finish out of 107 runners. She also ran a season best time.

BN - Varsity Open Girls
10th out of 13 teams
107 runners
Vanini - 21:17 - 10th
Avery - 23:12 - 54th

At the BN Invitational, the Varsity Open Boys finished in 7th place overall. Out of the 127 runners in the race, the top runners for Coppell were Sandre Houdier (31st), Vihaan Sapkota (48th), Austin Shelby (53rd), Baron Schott (56th) and Vihaan Chodisetti (61st). They did a great job of representing us today. I love seeing their growth.

BN - Varsity Open Boys
7th out 16 teams
127 runners
Sandre - 18:32 - 31st
Vihaan Sapkota - 18:59 - 48th
Austin - 19:02 - 53rd
Baron - 19:04 - 56th
Vihaan C. - 19:09 61st

Amy Achim ran the best for our JV Girls today. She ran a 24:54 which was good enough for 61st place in a field of 170 runners.

BN - JV Girls
13th out of 14 teams
170 runners
Amy - 24:54 - 61st

I'm proud of the JV Boys for finishing 7th today. Out of 220 runners, Alexander Marks finished 12th and Noah Law finished 19th. Calvin Wolf, Jesiah Resnowski, and John Udovich also ran well for this group. These kids continue to show up, put in the work, and it's beginning to show.

BN - JV Boys
7th out of 20 teams
220 runners
Alexander - 19:20 - 12th
Noah - 19:33 - 19th
Calvin - 20:38 - 65th
Jesiah - 21:11 - 97th
John - 21:11 - 98th

We are at the Jesuit XC Classic next week for our final meet before District. I look forward to seeing the kids improve a little more this week heading into championship season.