Farmersville’s boys cross country team, from left, Andrew Plotts, Travis Chambers, Ethan Cook, Jesse Hamm, Landen Ware and Luke Lair helped lead the Farmers to second place in District 13-4A, while Breelynn Pollard, right, placed second in the girls’ race. Photo courtesy Jon Nordin
By David Wolman
The deck was already stacked against the Farmersville boys cross country team heading into Monday morning’s District 13-4A meet.
On paper, the Fightin’ Farmers were projected to finish fourth. With only the top three teams advancing to the Region II-4A meet, head coach Jon Nordin was curious to see if his team could outperform those expectations. A lingering lower-leg injury suffered by sophomore Andrew Plotts during practice last week stacked the odds even further against Farmersville.
Some of that nervousness eased when Plotts was cleared to run at 7:45 a.m., less than an hour before the start of the boys’ race.
By the time the race concluded, that nervousness had disappeared.
Every Farmersville runner posted a season-best time at Wills Point High School, helping the Fightin’ Farmers finish second with 68 points and qualify for the regional meet for the fourth consecutive year. Farmersville finished six points ahead of third-place Caddo Mills (74) and 10 points ahead of fourth-place Wills Point (78). Kaufman won the team title with 23 points.
“I’m probably as proud of that group as I’ve ever been of any team I’ve coached,” Nordin said. “We were fourth on paper coming in. Andrew had a lower leg injury in practice last week, and we didn’t know if he would be able to run until about 7:45 this morning. A lot of kids wouldn’t have run, but he did.
“Cross country is so much about guts and toughness, and they showed a ton of that today. We got every ounce of effort they had.”
Farmersville also came close to crowning an individual district champion.
Landen Ware trailed Kaufman’s Gael Garcia by at least 20 yards with about 400 meters remaining, but Ware closed quickly to make it a near-photo finish. Ware finished just short of catching Garcia, who won in 16:06, while Ware took second in 16:07.4. The runner-up finish also gave Ware a season-best time.
“A 16:07 on a real 5K course at our level is elite,” Nordin said. “We hope he has one more good one in him.”
Jesse Hamm finished sixth in 17:28.69, while Travis Chambers placed 16th in 18:19.54. Both improved on their season-best times by about a minute. Luke Lair finished 14th in 18:05.94, running his best race of the year.
Plotts finished 31st in 20:28.33, showing plenty of grit by competing through his injury. Ethan Cook also ran for the Fightin’ Farmers, finishing in 21:49.23.
The girls’ race featured a similarly close finish.
The last time Farmersville’s Breelynn Pollard competed against Kaufman’s Giselle Sanchez, Pollard finished 20 seconds behind Sanchez. On Monday, Pollard narrowed the gap considerably.
Pollard finished in 12:49.71, just over two seconds behind Sanchez (12:47.48), who claimed the district title. Pollard earned second place and another trip to the regional meet.
“It was such an exciting race between Bree and Giselle,” said Farmersville girls head coach Rebecca Christ. “It came down to the finish, and they were giving it everything they had left in the tank.”
Pollard will seek her second consecutive berth in the Class 4A state meet at the regional competition.
The Region II-4A meet is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at Rolling Hills Soccer Complex in Fort Worth.
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