Five Frisco ISD runners will compete at the UIL cross country state championships this weekend at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. All five qualified as individuals.
That is a change from last fall, when three Frisco ISD teams reached the Class 5A state meet. Wakeland's girls finished sixth there and its boys eighth, and Reedy's girls placed 13th, according to UIL's 2025 results. Lebanon Trail's Andrew Malan was seventh in the boys' individual race.
Wakeland now runs in Class 6A, and the district's other campuses are split between Region I and Region II in 5A, according to Frisco ISD.
Close, but outside the top four
Frisco ISD put five teams in the top 10 at the regional meets in late October, the district said, but only the top four teams in each region advance to state. Wakeland's girls finished sixth in 6A Region I. In 5A Region II, Liberty's girls were sixth, Centennial's girls eighth and Independence's boys ninth. Reedy's girls were 10th in 5A Region I.
Two of those teams came in as district champions. Centennial's girls and Independence's boys won District 11-5A team titles on Oct. 15, and Reedy's boys were second in District 6-5A, according to Frisco ISD.
Runners on non-qualifying teams can still advance if they are among the top 10 individual finishers not on a qualifying team, and that is how all five Frisco ISD qualifiers got in.
The qualifiers
Centennial senior Nandini Vegesana had the district's best regional finish, placing seventh in the 5A Region II girls' race. She won the District 11-5A title on Oct. 15 in 19:32, according to Frisco ISD. Her Centennial teammate, senior Anastasia Usovich, was 24th at the regional after finishing third at district.
Liberty freshman Cecelia McCully also advanced from the 5A Region II girls' race after placing 19th. She was second to Vegesana at the district meet.
Independence freshman Jakob Huchthausen finished 20th in the 5A Region II boys' race. He was the District 11-5A runner-up behind Heritage's Roman Popowski, as Independence won the boys' team title.
Wakeland junior Lily Schmidt placed ninth in the 6A Region I girls' race after finishing fifth at the District 5-6A meet in Denton. Her teammate Presley Robertson was 21st at the regional but is not on UIL's list of state qualifiers.
Two Reedy runners also finished in the top 20 of their regional races. Lakshya Kachroo was 14th in the 5A Region I boys' race in 16:24.4, and Lainey O'Connor was 19th in the girls' race in 19:50.0, according to HubCityPreps.com. Neither appears on the UIL qualifier list.
