Marble Falls cross country finishes second at Lago Vista
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior Nick Dahl (left) and junior Tyler Hamblin lead the way to the finish line at the Lago Vista Invitational. Courtesy photo
The Marble Falls High School boys cross country team endured a tough course to finish second the Lago Vista Invitational Sept. 16.
The Mustangs, who are ranked No. 7 in Class 4A, were paced by junior Tyler Hamblin, who won the race in 16 minutes and 13.3 seconds, and senior Nick Dahl, who was the silver medalist in 16:35.6. Junior Blake Cockrell was 10th in 17:42.1 and junior Ezekiel Atkinson came in 17th in 18:34.9. Sophomore Hunter Holder finished 19th in 18:38, freshman Owen Martin was 20th in 18:51.1, and freshman Colton Rutland came in 27th in 19:46.8. Freshman Connor Yaklin was 43rd in 20:31.5.
In the junior varsity race, Zachariah Apachito came in fourth in 20:00.4. Head coach Chris Schrader anticipates Apachito will move up to the varsity as he continues to attend practices and his times drop.
The coach noted runners had to be more strategic in how they ran the course because some of it was on a path the width of a golf cart.
“The course was really tough,” he said. “You couldn’t run side by side with anybody. If you got behind anybody, you couldn’t pass them. You had to be careful on the hill.”
He noted some Mustangs were “ultra conservative” in how they started the race, which made it difficult to speed past other runners to the finish line.
Marble Falls will compete at the Round Rock McNeil Invitational, which is at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22-23. Old Settler’s Park is the site of the state meet.
Dahl and Hamblin will run Saturday in the silver division, which is more challenging because of the runners in that race than competing with their teammates in Friday’s Class 4A division.
“I’m not worried about Nick and Tyler,” Schrader said.
As for the state ranking, the coach said he was very frank with the runners.
“Rankings don’t win races,” he said. “Let’s worry about state rankings after the state meet.”
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