Lady Dragons runners determined to recapture state title

On Nov. 8, 2014, the quest to make history ended.

Carroll’s girls cross country program was denied a chance for a fourth consecutive state championship. The team finished fourth. Given its youth, that actually might have been viewed as a better-than-expected finish.

Now, the passion to win a fourth in five seasons becomes the rallying cry. Carroll began formal preparations for the 2015 season on Monday. Senior Sarah Odneal is one of several fixtures who will be asked to lead.

With Carroll, going to the state cross country meet is already the standard. Winning it is the goal.

“When you have a history like we have, it’s always going to push us,” Odneal said. “There’s definitely the motivation to compete. It definitely helps me because you know you’re just one part of a team. But I think it doesn’t just go to the top seven runners. It goes through 8-14 runners.”

Odneal is spending her second year with the varsity after going through a pretty successful debut season. She won the District 7-6A meet with a personal-best time of 18:51 (5K course) and finished regionals – a three-mile course – with another solid time of 18:06. She finished in the first third of the field at the state meet with a time of 19:38.

Of course, there were nerves at the beginning of her season. With the transition to the roster, there were a lot of new faces, including Odneal. Every day, the work became easier, the relationships grew stronger and the results proved she belonged.

Now, the role is reversed. Odneal is in a position to help the underclassmen find their way. That’s exactly what coach Justin Leonard wants. Carroll’s main loss from the 2014 team was Rianna Randolph.

“We are very excited about this upcoming season as we have many strong leaders,” Leonard said. “The expectations are the same and that is for this year’s seniors to lead the underclassmen and to leave their own mark for the program.”

The daily work is the byproduct. The results through the first two months will be a guide as to how this team is performing. Then it really starts to count in late October. Carroll likely will be the heavy favorite to repeat as District 7-6A champions before the Region I meet in Lubbock followed by the state meet Nov. 7 at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock.

Should Carroll return to Central Texas, it’s likely to run into familiar powers in Lewisville Hebron, Flower Mound Marcus and Humble Kingwood. Hebron won the 2014 Class 6A state championship, followed by my Marcus and Kingwood. But the state championship isn’t determined by how the top three runners finish. It’s usually where the fourth and fifth runners place.

“Basically, it’s going to be us doing the same thing every day and grinding out the miles,” Odneal said. “We all were running together during the summer anyway. But this is when it counts. This is going to come down to us doing the little things better. Sleeping better and eating better. If we do those things, then we’ll give ourselves the best chance.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Lady Dragons runners determined to recapture state title."