UIL 2021 6A Girls Cross Country Championships
Since her freshman year, Natalie Cook has been a top Texas distance runner. That season she placed fifth at the state cross country meet and was third in the 1,600m and second in the 3,200m at the track and field state track meet.
Winning a state championship has been one of Cook's goals, "it's been a dream since freshman year to go and win state, I'm glad I got to achieve it this year," she said.
Cook has run sparingly throughout the season so she could be fresh and fit and that freshness and fitness was on display Saturday afternoon.
The dream of winning a state title came to fruition, but it wasn't something that just happened; it was something that was made to happen. Cook immediately took out from the moment the gun sounded and ran to the early lead.
"it's been a dream since freshman year to go and win state, I'm glad I got to achieve it this year,"Natalie Cook, Flower Mound senior
At the half-mile mark, she had about a 15 meter lead, but as the race progressed, so did her lead. Cook would grow the distance between her and the field until she nearly had a 60 second cushion.
After missing most of last track season, Cook promised herself to make the most out of cross country saying, "I felt really motivated coming into this cross country season because it was my last season, my senior cross country season."
Despite leading start to finish and leading comfortably, it wasn't until she crossed the finish line in 16:32 that she felt the reality of the situation.
Cook's Flower Mound Jaguars also had a goal to accomplish and that was to win their second straight cross country state championship.
They did that with an outstanding performance. putting three runners in the top 10 with two more also inside the top 15 overall places.
Contributing to the 41 point victory with Cook was Nicole Humphries (4th place), Samantha Humphries (12th place), Virginia Knight (17th place), and Alexandria Fox (20th place). The second through fifth scoring runners had just a 41 compression to match their score.
Prosper finished second with an individual second place finish from Aubrey O'Connell and a third place finish from Shewaye Johnson.
The Woodlands got up for third place to make it two straight podium finishes. They had two top 10 individual performances from Penelope Gracey (8th place) and Natasja Beijen (10th place).
