Clear Lake boys, girls advance to state
By L. Scott Hainline
Chronicle correspondent
It was a roller-coaster day for Clear Lake at the Region III Meet, but both teams earned top-three finishes to advance to the UIL State Championships on Saturday in Round Rock.
The Lady Falcons advanced with 63 points coming in behind dominating Kingwood (21), and in front of Seven Lakes (114) and Cinco Ranch (151).
It was a mixed day, but we were able to get out," Clear Lake girls coach James Menze said. Our depth really came through for us."
The Lady Falcons' top runner, junior Brittney Wade, cramped at the mile mark and struggled to a 26th place.
She was expected to be in the top three, and she was third and right where she needed to be a mile in," Menze said. It just about stopped her in her tracks, and she basically jogged it in."
Sophomore Chrissy Wassef bolted to fifth, her twin sister, Audrey, was ninth, and seniors Jessie Dean (12th) and Macey Zarnick (17th) add top-20 finishes for Clear Lake.
The twins and the seniors really stepped up, especially Macey, who ran sub-12 minutes," Menze said. They all had to pass Brittney, and knew what was going on, and what they needed to do."
Kingwood's top six came in 1-2-3-6-11-13.
Even if Brittney would have won, we still finish 10 points behind Kingwood," Menze said. They're peaking at the right time and just might challenge College Park for first place at state.
After that, it's a toss up."
Also running for the Lady Falcons were sophomore Julianne Perry (39th) and senior Brooke Jennings (46th), who will join their teammates in a 12:30 p.m. state start.
The Clear Lake boys, led by region champion John Cavallo, qualified for a second straight state meet with a team third (135) behind Strake Jesuit (67) and Kingwood (118).
Cavallo's winning time of 15 minutes, 46.1 seconds bettered Weston Novelli of Strake Jesuit (15:53.9) and Anthony Coleman of Elsik (15:58.4), and the three were the only runners under 16 minutes.
The Falcons also had senior Tyler Christian 25th, junior Beau Bennett 29th, sophomore Jeremiah Santos 47th, junior Franklin Stagg 54th, sophomore Chrstian Williams 80th and sophomore Luke Romanko 112th.
The Clear Lake boys take off at state at 12:50 p.m.
