By L. SCOTT HAINLINE Chronicle Correspondent
You won't find any Clear Lake Lady Falcons among the top 10 individual finishers at last week's Class 5A Region III Meet. In fact, you won't find any in the top 15.
However, you will find the Clear Lake girls at Saturday's UIL State Meet in Round Rock, and to a team member, that's just where they want to be.
"We really don't have any superstars, but we do have a team, and these girls train and compete very well as a group," Clear Lake coach James Menze said. "We have a lot of depth and we used it well at regionals, and they really saved the right effort for the right time."
The Falcons grabbed the third and final state qualifying spot with 114 points, finishing behind region champion Kingwood (50) and runner-up Cinco Ranch (68) and in front of fourth-place Cy-Fair (138).
Clear Lake, with only two seniors among its top six region runners, had freshman Brooke Jennings place 17th at 11 minutes, 43.49 seconds and sophomore Julie Blanco 20th (11:50.23). Senior Laura Abbott added a 24th (11:53.00), sophomore Morgan Swan was 36th (12:03.24), and sophomore Jeannette Wacker completed the scoring with a 41st (12:08.40). Senior Amanda McMahon and sophomore Alyssa Concienne also ran for Clear Lake.
"We went to state last year with one senior with a third place at regionals, and we knew it was going to be hard to do it again," Blanco said. "We're excited about returning to state and we're going to feel more relaxed because we kind of know what to expect."