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The Rice Raiders boys’ cross-country team competed in the State Meet for the first time in their history on Saturday, Nov. 2, in Round Rock.
The Raiders finished in 9th place out of 16 schools, leaving a big impact during their first trip to the State Championship Meet.
Out of 149 runners the Raiders had four runners finish in the top 100 and one of them even finished in the top 30. Leading the way was Payton Englebrecht, who was only 20 seconds shy of finishing in the top 20 runners.
Englebrecht recorded a time of 16 minutes and 53 seconds to come in 29th place for the Raiders. Englebrecht’s time was one of his best of the season and it came at the right time to make a great first impression at the State meet.
Next Raider across the finish line was Hayes Dingler with a time of 17 minutes and 47 seconds to come in 80th place. Six seconds later his teammate Jael Valles-Serrano crossed the finish line with a time of 17 minutes and 53 seconds to come in 86th place which is a great example of how tightly contested this race was.
Jake Morales came in 94th place finishing a little bit later than Valles-Serrano with a time of 18 minutes and 11 seconds. Jose Briones came in 122nd place with a recorded time of 19 minutes and six seconds.
The next duo of Raiders across the finish line was Victor Flores and Joe Luke Morales to close out the Raiders’ participation in the race. Flores came in 135th place with a time of 19 minutes and 42 seconds, Morales came in 140th place with a time of 20 minutes.
The Raiders cross country season was one filled with plenty of excitement and history, and it was all tied together by a State Championship appearance where they came in 9th place in their first ever appearance at the State Meet.
