Vandegrift boys take second place at UIL Class 6A state cross-country championships
ROUND ROCK — Smart, strategic racing helped lift the Vandegrift boys team to second place on the podium at the UIL state cross-country championships. When the starting gun blasted Saturday morning, the 150 Class 6A runners competing went out like rockets. So when Vandegrift senior Dylan Schieffelin and junior Hudson Haley hit mile 1, there were some 50 competitors ahead of them.
No matter. Both had run the 5-kilometer course at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock a number of times and knew when and where to make their moves. And that’s exactly what they did, throwing in splits of 4 minutes, 50 seconds for mile 2 and surging into contention in the lead pack of 10 or so runners.
“We’re not going out to win the race in the first mile,” Vandegrift head coach Colin Sully said. “They knew this was state and that it was going to go out incredibly fast. But we had specific spots where we were going to move up to the next gear, look for teams and really try to make it competitive in the last mile.”
“I knew that the course was pretty challenging, so I wanted to let everybody kind of exhaust themselves,” said Haley, who led the Vandegrift boys to a Region IV championship in Corpus Christi on Oct. 24. “It worked out well, but catching up to that pack was also very tiring. I hit lactic acid pretty hard.”
Still, Haley had enough left in the tank to pass all but sophomore Caden Leonard of Southlake Carroll in the final mile. Coming down the homestretch, he pulled within four seconds of Leonard to nab second place overall, 15:04 to 15:00.
Schieffelin’s sixth-place finish (15:10) combined with sophomore Kai McCullough, senior Brayden Schick and freshman Collin Goodwin all finishing in the top 25 secured second place for the team. The Vipers scored 69 points as Southlake Carroll won the Class 6A race with 48.
“I was just so grateful to have this opportunity out here to run with my guys,” said Schieffelin, who’s considering competing for Texas. “This is my last UIL high school race, and I’m glad that I gave it everything I had for my team and for everyone who supported me.”
“I think at mile 2 we were down by more than 80 points to Southlake Carroll, and then at the end we closed it to 21 points,” Sully said. “We placed second to them last year here too. We’d love to be state champions someday, so we’re just going to keep on chasing Southlake Carroll. I’m super proud of our girls team as well. This is their eighth straight trip to state, and they finished eighth today, a huge honor.”
Competing as individuals, senior James Butler of Del Valle placed 15th overall in the boys 6A race, sophomore Miah McAulay of Bowie placed 14th overall in girls 6A, and Victor Aviles of Burnet placed 11th in boys 4A.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Vandegrift, Hudson Haley take second place in state cross-country met
