The girls cross country team came in second place and the boys came in fourteenth at the 4A state championship held Nov. 12 at Hereford High School.

Although the girls team could not defend its state championship title, it put up an effort worthy of its preseason number one ranking.

Senior Caroline Guiot won her first ever individual state championship, finishing first with a time of 19:27.5. Defending state champion Anna Ryba placed fourth, about twenty seconds behind Guiot.

Senior Nick Adams again led the boys team, finishing in eighth place to end a solid running career. After not qualifying for states last year, the boys team worked hard at this year’s meet and finished with a total of 340 points.

“Finishing eighth individually at states was an awesome feeling, especially after not even running at the meet last year,” Adams said. “But it was also a bittersweet feeling because I love cross-country and this was my last high school meet.”

Despite losing talented seniors, Adams is optimistic about the team’s prospects next year.

“Moving on, we had a lot of underclassmen contributing to our success this season and they will only get better in the coming years. We lose key runners on both the boys and girls teams but I think that we’ve built an atmosphere where people will keep getting faster.”