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The Columbus Lady Cardinals had two runners travel to Round Rock, TX on Friday, Nov. 3, looking to add to the ever-growing trophy case at Columbus High School.
Kaylea Foster and Chloe Ross earned their way to the State Meet with sheer hard work and dedication to their sport but could not have made it without support from coaches, family, fans and the school itself.
The duo of runners were treated to a parade around school in a golf cart driven by their coach as their classmates and their teammates saw them off to chance down greatness. Leaving school early Friday morning the pair made their way to Round Rock with aspirations of returning with a State Championship in tow.
They showed up and saw that they had a tall task ahead of them with the race having 152 runners with the exact same goals. Ross and Foster did not back down from the challenge though and knew that this was their last run of the season, and they had nothing to lose.
After stretching, warming up and getting mentally ready the duo of Lady Cardinals settled into the starting blocks and waited for the starter to signal. Once the signal went off went Ross and Foster along with a sea of runners all trying to establish their pace and track down the State Title.
As the runners made their way through the race the pack from the beginning had more space in it as runners began separating from each other. Ross and Foster stayed nearby each other like they have done for the majority of the season in their races.
The mad dash for the finish line was approaching and as runners began to cross the finish line Ross and Foster made sure they could not finish first, they wanted to finish at least in the top half of the race.
The two were determined as ever to accomplish this goal and when they looked up after crossing the finish line, they realized they did. Ross was the first Lady Cardinal across the finish line Friday with a time of 12 minutes and 32 seconds.
In a race filled with the best runners in the State it can be difficult to finish near the top, but Ross accomplished this goal finishing in the top 50 and 38 seconds later her teammate was standing right there with her. With a time of 13 minutes and eight second Foster finished the race and joined Ross.
Foster only finished 38 seconds after Ross and to put into perspective how hard it is to win this race Foster finished in 72nd place after being only 38 seconds behind her teammate.
Both runners earned their spot in the State Championship race then went on to show why they deserved to be there. Being in the top half of runners in a race of 152 people is very impressive, which are the two exact words used to describe Ross and Foster and the season they had as Cardinals.
