By Kazi Nassif

For the first time in over 30 years, the cross country team sent a runner to the state meet in Austin.

Junior Henos Anebrhan finished 24th out of 150 runners at the 6A UIL Cross Country State Championship with a personal best time of 15:43.

“It was the toughest race I’ve had in all my years running in cross country,” Andebrhan said. “The competition was intense.”

Andebrhan modified his training regime this year to improve his chances for advancing out of the region.

“There was quite a bit of change,” Andebrhan said. “We had long runs twice a week and plenty of 20 by 400 meter workouts.”

Coach Elizabeth Brown and Andebrhan checked out the course and planned out his strategy for an hour and a half the day before the race. Brown said she was impressed by Andebrhan’s mental strength at his first state meet.

“He wasn’t as nervous as I thought he was going to be,” Brown said. “He had a nice, calm demeanor about him. He’s a really strong athlete, but also does a really great job of preparing himself mentally for a race.”

Going into the season, Brown knew that it would be a rebuilding year, so she focused on strengthening her team to compete for next year.

“We have a really young team,” Brown said. “We graduated 20 seniors [last year], so I knew that we would be working on getting the team up to par. While the team didn’t make regionals, we had a lot of great individual successes.”

With the rest of the team following his lead, Andebrhan has high hopes for his senior season and is focusing on being ready for next fall.

“I’m not sure what the season holds for me next year,” Andebrhan said. “All I can do is train hard and make sure I’m healthy and injury free.”