For the first time in school history, the boys cross country team has advanced to the State meet after placing third at the Regional meet in Huntsville last weekend.

The team competed in their District race on Oct. 18 at Claiborne Park, where the girls varsity team placed fourth and the boys varsity team placed first with 23 points.

The boys finished with the following times and places at District: Eli Peveto- 17:17.64-1st, Blake Kresser- 17:46.22-2nd, Jackson Baeza- 18:03.64-4th, Rayce Piper- 18:07.01-5th, Braden Bridges- 19:14.40-11th, Matthew Erb- 24:23.56-37th, Stephan Kusek- 24:32.39-38th.

“It feels great to get second place and to have my team place first for my senior year,” senior Blake Kresser said.

The team intensified their already challenging practices to prepare for Regionals. They have been running shorter distances repetitively to help increase their speed, rather than their endurance, and are proud of what they have accomplished this year.

“I feel that my hard work has paid off for this year and I couldn’t be where I am now without the team,” Kresser said.

The team has significantly improved from last year, especially the top four boys. The boys, as well as the girls, met throughout the summer to run and push each other to be the best they could be.

“This year’s team is different from last year because they really came together over the summer and put in some serious mileage,” head coach Dena Adkins said. “They were focused on their goals both individual and team. I believe that there has been improvement across the board for my top four guy runners. All of their times improved from last year. Eli Peveto is a great runner and motivates the guys to run their best.”

Earlier in the season, Adkins predicted that the boys team would qualify for state as one of the top four teams and that prediction proved to be true.

The boys team finished with the following times and places at the Regional meet: Eli Peveto- 17:01.70-3rd, Jackson Baeza- 17:27.10-12th, Blake Kresser- 17:41.40-19th, Rayce Piper- 17:48.60-23rd, Braden Bridges- 18:34.40-59th, Trevor Turner-21:14.60-137th, Stephan Kusek- 21:46.50-144th.

The team will travel to Austin to compete at the State Meet on Saturday, Nov. 12.