Dallas Ursuline Academy has been running strong all year. They climbed all of the way up to the Flo50 #6 ranking beating several UIL 5A and 6A teams and taking all kinds of moral victories. However, none of that would mean a thing to them if they didn't come away with a state title.
They have been the TAPPS 6a favorites all year, but that didn't make their challengers lay down and hand them the plaque. Believe me this was earned!
Ursuline has run 5K races all year long and that came in handy for the rolling hills and windy course at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course brought them and the rest of the TAPPS competitors. Led by their All-State seniors Caroline Miller and Emily Mount, the Bears took to the hills and were a tough match for the competition. Miller was the second overall finisher with her 11:44.8 and Mount was fourth and was also under twelve flat with her 11:57.9.
The title challenge came from both San Antonio Antonian and Houston St. Agnes. Through the first three runners, Ursuline had put together a strong 14 points. Antonian was up to the challenge at the front as they countered Ursuline's second and fourth place finishes with sixth and seventh place finishes of their own for thirteen points. However, Ursuline followed up with an eighth place right after them.
St. Agnes made things interesting as they placed one runner in the top ten with freshman Sarah Price and they weren't done as they did more work a little further back in the pack. They dropped their next runners in with 13th, 16th, 20th, 23rd and 24th places to make things interesting. However, their efforts also were not enough to overcome Ursuline's #4 and #5 runners crossed the line in 11th and 15th places to wrap up their scoring runners.
In the end, it was Ursuline coming through with a total of 40 points followed by Houston St. Agnes with 77, and a strong 87 point performance by San Antonio Antonian for the third place finish.
Ursuline has had a strong couple of years, especially last year and this year. They lose two key seniors, but with their returning runners and the ones who will step up from JV, we could be seeing a repeat of this entire season come next year.