On a challenging course in Carrollton on Saturday morning of November 6, the TFS cross country teams outperformed their respective predicted finishes at the state meet. Going into the season finale, the girls were picked to finish 18th and the boys 14th among 1A Private schools.
Evan Prince paced the Indians with his best finish ever at state, coming in third among 201 runners to propel the boys to a 13th place finish as a team. The girls, led by freshman Josie Chesser’s 49th-place run, also came in 13th.
Tallulah Falls cross country made history throughout the season, with nearly every runner on the varsity team surpassing previous personal bests. Several runners like Walker Bailey, Jenna Chesser, Canon Brooks, Miranda Chapa, Caroline Ball, Lucy Alexander, Zhigao Henrry Xiong, Austin Ball, Kailyn Neal, and Jackson Shadburn – just to name some outside of Prince and Josie Chesser – continued to run at a high level throughout the season.
Both teams were able to qualify for the state meet out of Region 8-A Private when placing third at the region meet. Prince was crowned the region champion individually for the second straight time, becoming only the second TFS athlete to win two or more individual cross country region titles. Prince’s finish at state was the 24th best time out of all classifications (1,649 runners), giving him a second straight invite to the Meet of Champions. Alexander competed in her third state meet, becoming the only TFS girl to ever accomplish the feat.
The boys qualified for state for a third straight season, while the girls qualified for the second time ever. Alexander qualified as an individual last season.
“This season was much like life itself; plenty of challenges, successes, and memories galore,” states coach Scott Neal. “Significantly increased summer preparation mileage, varied team leadership opportunities, hosting GREAT meets, traditions like the quadrathlon, camping trip, and spaghetti dinner, traipsing diverse trails, and enduring not so common workouts pool running and grueling cardio, provided a season of significance. Time improvements over last year on the same courses, all the success, and plenty to reminisce about in future decades strengthened the experience of TFS cross country. I was proud of our performance, of our GREAT attitude and representation, and of the growing expectations in the program.”
