Region 2-2A Girls
Emma Walterscheid (Muenster) is the top returner from last year's regional meet. She ran 12:10 for a runner-up finish and was eventually seventh at state. Her Muenster teammate Emma Krebs is another top returner from last year as she was fifth at regionals.
Schylar Anderson (Stamford) was sixth and Alleyah Franco (James Bowie) was ninth last year and they both return.
Joining that quartet of top ten returners is a host of defending state champion Hamilton squad. Junior Anna Pearcy, sophomore Chaska Downs, and junior Kaitlyn Walton
It's actually junior Presley Long who has the fastest time in the region. Her 11:51 is the region standard and for good measure she has a 11:53 3,200m regional best as well.
With their season best performances, Downs - 11:58, Pearcy 12:22, and Walton - 12:38 make four girls on the Hamilton squad with sub 13-minute runs, so far this season.
Also under the 13-minute mark this year are Alexa Arzate (Harts Bluff) - 12:17 SB, Walterscheid - 12:36 SB, and Gracie Sides (Santo) - 12:53 SB.
In the team race, Hamilton looks likely to defend their state title, but they can't put the cart before the horse. They graduated their No. 5 and No. 7 runners, so they'll have to crank things up to get another regional title.
Muenster was only 10 points behind in second place at last year's regional meet. After missing the podium at state by one placement and only graduating one runner, they could have extra motivation to crash Hamilton's repeat party.
Stamford was third at last year's regional and Nocona was fourth as they both qualified to state. Both teams graduated two girls from last year.
Santo, Crawford, and Harts Bluff will also be looking to make their own pushes for the state meet qualifying positions.
Region 2-2A Boys
The Pantanpatan brothers from Hawley had a good regional race last year. Francis Patanpatan was the runner-up and Karl Patanpatan was third and both return for their senior season.
They'll be joined by several other talented returners like Canyon Savell (Era) who was fourth and Michael Flores (Itasca) was fifth.
However, there are many more talented runners who will make this a very competitive race.
New to the region is a big dawg in Marco Cunningham (Waco Meyer). He was the Region 3-2A champion last year and by the way he is the 2023 state meet runner-up when he ran a time of 15:49. He had several sub 16:00 runs including a 15:33 PR. Cunningham only has a 16:46 on record this year and a 15:49 3 mile when he won district 2-12A.
Kolton Rodgers (Windthorst) was 10th at last year's regional and 41st at state. His best two runs this year are 16:36 and 16:50.
Bryan Hailey (Collinsville) looks to be another person who can be in the mix. Hailey has a 16:36 PR at district along with a 16:43.
I do have one sleeper. This isn't to just be one of the top runners, but I think Angel Olvera (Wolfe City) can make a push at a win. He watched his teammate Caden Thurman win regionals and state last. He was sixth at last years regionals and 25th at state; he just ran a 16:56 SB.
Wolfe City graduated Thurman from their regional title and third place state finish, but Olvera and the rest of the gang are all back.
Hawley not only has the Patanpatan twins, but the return the other six of seven runners from last year's fourth place regional finish.
Collinsville and Windthorst look like they have solid shots based on their team averages. Haskell has the chance to grab a spot thanks to their ability to run with a small compression.