East Texas Shines at Texas XC Meet, Pharris is State Champ Again

The Texas UIL State Cross Country Meet was held this past weekend at Settler's Park in Round Rock. Here's a look at how some of our area athletes performed and excelled.

Back-to-Back State Champ

Shelbyville senior Emily Pharris brought home the gold medal in the Girls' Class 2A two-mile race. Pharris has now won the state championship in back-to-back years.

In 2022, she ran the course in 12:32, finishing eight seconds ahead of the second-place finishers. On this year's course, Pharris dropped her time to 11:30, seventeen seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Silver Times Two

For the second straight year, the Tenaha Tigers Boy's Cross Country took home second place in the Class 2A division. The team is comprised of

• Misael Hernandez  - Senior
• Jairo Hernandez - Junior
• Adrian Ramirez - Sophomore
• Eustorgia Flores - Sophomore
• Marco Gonzales - Sophomore
• Jhostyn Lopez, - Sophomore

Top Individual Performances

Several runners from the Pineywoods had excellent performances and finished in the top 20 in their respective classifications. We've already highlighted Emily Pharris and her second straight top finish, here are a few others.

• Connor Graves - a senior at Hudson finished 16th in the Class 4A Boys 5K (16:19.4)

Four runners from Tenaha finished in the top 20 in the Class 2A Boys 5K

• 19th - Jairo Hernandez, sophomore (16:59.10)
• 18th - Eustorgio Flores, sophomore (16:58.40)
• 14th - Adrian Ramirez, sophomore (16:49.30)
• 4th - Misael Hernandez, senior (16:16.40)

• Andres Landaverde - a junior at Corrigan-Camden finished 5th in the Class 2A Boys 5K (16:18.10)

• Jannette Bautista - a sophomore at Groveton finished 14th in the Class 2A Girls' two-mile run (12:20.90)

• A'Mareion Bookman - a senior at Goodrich finished 18th in the Class A Boys' 5K run (17:41.2)

Most Outstanding Performance of the Meet

Her name is Elizabeth Leachman and she runs for Boerne Champion High School near San Antonio.

She is this year's Class 5A Girls' Cross Country State Champion but just look at these amazing accomplishments.

• Her time of 16:25.5 set the girls' course record
• She was over a minute ahead of the second-place finisher
• Leachman bettered her freshman time on the same course by over 2 minutes, 40 seconds!
• She is only a sophomore