Fredericksburg, Texas is a quaint Central Texas town equidistant from both Austin and San Antonio. It's also well known for it's wineries and it's German heritage.
What Fredericksburg has also become known for in the past four years is having a very good cross country team. That is heavily in part due to the contributions of seniors Taylor Grona and Ann Claire Cop.
These two have bridged the lessons learned from the previous leadership and infused it with their guidance of the talented younger runners who since entered into the program. The team is made up of many multi-sport athletes who have embraced the hard work and family type unity each puts in.
Grona and Cop have been important factors for Fredericksburg and the duo is synonymous with one another like Simon and Garfunkel, Tom and Jerry, Bert and Ernie, and perhaps the most famous duo in Texas .... chips and guac.
They are equally very vested in other sports, but have the cross country program with runner-up podium finishes at the UIL 4A state meet in the past two seasons. Individually, Grona has also been the individual runner-up and Cop has improved every year and placed eleventh in 2022.
This year's team has been voted as the No. 1 ranked 4A team in the state and head into the championships season as favorites.
Grona and Cop talked to MileSplit about their high school journey, multi-sport involvement, and the outlook of the girls on the team this season.
