St. Paul retains state title, become back-to-back champs

WACO — Another year, another state championship for the Shiner St. Paul Lady Cardinals.

The Lady Cards cross-country team traveled to Waco to grab their sixth 2A state title since the start of the program in 2003.

Their combined score of 43 points was 38 points better than second-place team Temple Holy and 60 points better than third-place Haltom City Beth.

Junior long-distance runner Natalie Jackson led the team with her second-place finish. She was timed at 12:41.7. Sophomore Emma Morgan took sixth overall with her time of 13:23.2.

Freshman Elyssa Wagner took 13th overall with her time of 14:02.1. Sophomore Mallory Grabarkievtz took 15th with her finish of 14:07.6.

Sophomore Alyssa Kutac and freshman Ashley Wachsmuth took 24th and 25th with their times of 14:16.7 and 14:21.1, respectively.

Rounding out the squad was junior Juliette Siegel who took 28th with her time of 14:31.4.

Before the season, Head Coach Dana Beal-Sestak talked about the level of competition between all the runners within the Lady Cards team and their level of expectation headed into the season.

“We got 21 girls running and we only have seven slots that are going to run at state,” Beal said back in August. “That can only be good for the program.”

Beal also mentioned how even though she had six returners from last year’s state championship team, there were young runners on this year’s squad who were vying for a top-seven slot.

Jackson, Morgan, Grabarkievtz, Kutac and Siegel all returned to the state-championship meet. This year’s newcomers were Wagner and Wachsmuth.

With no seniors in this meet’s squad, the Cardinals can only expect some more success for next year.