Burnet cross country performs well at state meet

Photo by Martelle Ludecke/Luedecke Photography

The Burnet High School cross country runners battled the elements in addition to the best in Class 4A at the state meet Nov. 1 at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock.

The Bulldogs finished 14th out of 16 teams led by sophomore Clark Yanez, who was 26th overall on the 5K course thanks to finishing in 16 minutes and 45.4 seconds.

Sophomore Isaac Vega-Palacios was 28th overall in 16:51.1, junior Adan Carreon came in 60th in 17:21.2, sophomore Chris Hernandez was 95th in 18:07.8, and sophomore Jose Flores finished 103rd in 18:29.1. Other runners include junior Austin Moore, who clocked 18:33.8, and freshman Russell Ramirez, who finished in 19:13.6.

Head coach Simon Hairston was pumped up by the Bulldogs, pointing out Burnet had a young team compared to other programs. Many of the Bulldogs competed at the state meet for the first time.

“Once again, I am just so proud of those guys,” he said. “Looking at the rosters of the teams that we were competing against, several of those rosters were junior and senior heavy. To have a team where we didn’t have a single senior out of our seven that was competing is just a huge testament to the depth that we have in our program. We have a young team. I think we gained valuable experience being able to go compete.”  

He pointed out several of his runners made their state meet debuts and will return in 2026.

“Just for them to step up and perform like that – I’m so proud of them and that’s an understatement,” Hairston said. “Early this season, we had to overcome some adversity at some of our early meets, and I feel like just the resiliency of our kids, just to go out and to perform like they did, is just extremely amazing. Obviously, we want to go out and we want to compete, and I feel like the guys left everything on the course, and they gave it their all. ‘Hang your heads high and understand there’s a lot of kids who would love to be at this meet right now that are at home.’ It’s a young talent that we can tap into for the next two years.”

Senior Asah Roy was the lone Lady Dawg, clocking 12:12.5 on the two-mile course to finish 39th overall.

“Just the fact that she was able to finally run at the state meet was just a huge accomplishment,” Hairston said. “Even before we stepped out and actually got on the course, we were celebrating that as a win in and of itself. Just being able to get her to a point where she could actually compete was just incredible, and it’s a testament to her perseverance and her resilience as far as just being committed to being able to perform at the highest level. I’m super happy to just get her there.”

She qualified for the state meet in 2022 but didn’t compete.

“One of my long-term goals, as far as from the beginning of the season and looking down the road, I wanted to keep her healthy and to get her to the point where she could run at the stay meet because she’s very, very gifted, very talented,” the coach said. “I knew that if we could just keep her healthy, the sky was the limit for her. And so just the fact that we even got her into the state meet and that she was healthy enough to go out and perform was, I think, a victory in and of itself.”

He added that Roy told him she wanted to set a new personal record, which is the goal for just about every runner, especially in the last meet of the year. He commended her for the goal and added that if she ran to her best of her ability, all of that would take care of itself.

But one obstacle was the weather and the course. The two Class 4A races were completed before 9:30 a.m. on the second day of the two-day state meets. Though the Class 4A runners were the first on the course on the second day, the temperatures were cool and the ground was softer than what they have been competing on.

“I think some of the weather conditions had something to do with the overall performance of all of our athletes because running in that type of weather, we hadn’t really done that all year,” Hairston said. “It had been more on the warmest side for most of our meets and actually pretty hot for a lot of them. We had a little bit slower times from a few of our guys than what we probably would have liked to have seen. I know that if you were to ask them directly, they would have liked to run a little bit faster, but on any given week, there’s a number of different conditions and factors that impact the way that any runner performs. I felt like our guys went out and gave it their very best, and that’s all I could have asked them to do as their coach.”

He added that none of the season results would be possible without the excitement of the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District community.

“I just want to say a huge shoutout to our fanbase and the community for their support for our program,” the coach said. “Week in and week out, they’ve turned out and really have been there for our kids for the meets. I just wanted to give a shoutout to them because they are such an integral part of our success in supporting our kids and their development and growth and continued support our program. I’m just so grateful for them.”