Two girl runners competed in Lynn Creek Park at the regional cross country meet Monday. Junior Kassidy Marin placed 63rd and senior Rebecca Taggart placed 65th out of the 170 2A varsity girls competitors.
“Both girls performed well and I’m proud of them” Coach Amy Huseman said. “This is a tough meet with tough competitors every year and our girls placed top 50%.”
The runners had to face “strenuous” conditions. On Monday there was heavy rain and high winds intermittently throughout the day.
“Although the rain slowed for our race, we stood in the downpour for an hour before starting,” Taggart said. “The worst part was the mud. Many runners like myself were slipping and even falling during the race.”
Marin said she was expecting the circumstances to be tough.
“I knew it would be muddy and rainy and a difficult race to get out ahead in,” she said. “I wanted a better time, but it was challenging with the course being so slick.”
Marin said she’s glad she stayed in cross country and made it to region this year.
“In spite of the poor conditions, it was overall a pretty good end to the season,” she said.
Huseman said because cross country teams have to work around the schedules of other teams, they have to run early in the morning and late in the afternoon in order to prepare for meets.

“To get ready for the regional meet, the girls rested the weekend after district and practiced the 17- 21,” she said. “They did a combinations of conditions drills including running, biking and swimming.”
Taggart has run cross country since seventh grade and ended this season with a personal record of 14:02 at the district meet; she ran a 14:17 Monday.

“I went into the race prepared to run my hardest,” Taggart said. “Considering the circumstances, I feel like I met my goal, and I am proud to end my last season on a good note.”
Varsity and junior high boys and girls all competed at the district meet in Seymour on Oct. 12.
“These kids have great work ethic and excellent attitudes,” Huseman said. “I am very proud of all the runners.”
Marin placed seventh at the district meet. She said she felt she could’ve done better but glad she advanced.
“I had to overcome the pain with my shin splints and the mental block of not advancing out of region from last year,” Marin said.
Senior Rebecca Taggart placed eighth on Oct. 12.
“I like that the course is so familiar to us,” Taggart said. “However the weather conditions, hot and windy, made the race more difficult than what I was expecting.”
The team faced some different competition because Nocona High School was added into this district and Quanah was excluded.
Nocona’s boys and girls varsity teams placed first.
“In pre-district races, we competed with a variety of teams and schools, but we didn’t run against Nocona,” Taggart said. “We weren’t expecting for them to show out.”
Seventh grader Reed Truette placed ninth, earning him a medal in his first year of cross country.
“I felt like district was going to be easy going into it, but it actually wasn’t,” Truette said. “I felt like I did good, but could’ve done better. I did meet my goal of placing in the top 10, though.”
Eighth grader Addison Canada said she was disappointed in placing 11th but said the conditions were worse than the first time they ran the Seymour course.
“I felt like I couldn’t breathe because it was a lot hotter and the wind was blowing against us for most of the race,” Canada said. “I did, however, run my best time of 15:06.”
Huseman said she’s thankful to both Marin and Taggart for a great and enjoyable season.
“Rebecca has been a blessing to coach over the last four years,” she said. “I will miss her leadership over the next few years. Kassidy will be a great leader as she tackles her senior year in 2023-24.”