The ladies at Shiner St. Paul are not short on confidence. Neither is their, coach, their supporters, or their community. It may be due to them being here and having done this a time or two before.
St. Paul won another title and not just another title, it was their fifth consecutive TAPPS 2A state title. It took a while for them to start crossing the line, but when they did, they did it in one after the other. The top finisher for the Cardinals was junior Riley Johnson with her eighth place finish. The Cardinals weren't done just yet. Right behind Johnson was freshman Danni Blair and junior Bailey Blair with ninth and tenth place finishes.
St. Paul wasn't done, as they would soon round out their scoring as Macy Grabarkievtz and Brooke Pesek would cross the line in 13th and 14th place.As the race was going on, the St. Paul girls said they could feel how well they were running. They ran so well, they only scored 49 total points.
Also running well and From Shiner St. Paul, were their boys team. The boys who are just a few years removed from their latest title ended up with a third place finish last season and climbed the awards stand by one taking second place today.
The boys team isn't your typical cross country team. They actually have several football players on their cross country team. They get up at 5:00 for cross country practice, go to a full day's worth of classes and then football practice after school. They of course do the typical Friday night football game under the lights and then off to a cross country meet on Saturdays.
One runner from the boys team told how students and administrators from the school hung optimistic and motivational quotes from the ceilings throughout the school prior to them leaving for today's meet.
I'd say, everything from the early morning practices, optimism and motivation, as well as the simultaneous two sport athletes are all working recipys of success in Shiner.