On Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, Klein Cain Cross Country wrapped up the fall season running in their first state meet in Cain’s history. The girl’s cross country team placed eighth overall as a team, and Drake Wells kicked off a great legacy by being the first boy ever at Klein Cain to make it to state.

“I’m very excited, it was unexpected, and I couldn’t be happier,” said varsity cross country runner Abby Pickett, who thought that the team wasn’t “predicted to advance past districts.” “But here we are, eight in the state of Texas [for District] 6A. I’m beyond proud of my girl[s] for pushing past their limits and expectations.”

The Klein Cain girls ran a long and hard race, pushing past their expectations, and proving that they were fully worthy of running at Texas’s 6A state meet. Overall, the girls’ team is incredibly proud of themselves for their performance and the hard work they exhibited through the fall cross country season. Coaches and viewers did not predict the team to make it past districts–let alone state–and the coaches could not be any prouder of the girls’ team performance through the 2020 season. Parents and students are incredibly excited about the legacy set in place for the team and can’t wait to grow in the future seasons to come.

“It’s amazing to set such a legacy that we will remember forever throughout the school’s history to be the first state qualifier and to be able to set the bar high for future athletes,” said varsity cross country runner Drake Wells.

Klein Cain has only been open for four years, and for them to already accomplish qualifying for state is a huge privilege for the team. Coaches believe that their standards are high for future Hurricane athletes. Cross country students that were unable to race felt incredibly inspired by their legacy peers to push even more challenging to compete next year.

“Going to state is amazing, and they did well,” said varsity cross country runner Drew Cunningham. “The girls going as a team is special. And Drake being the first boy at Cain to go to state is also really special. And it sets the standard and legacy for future athletes to come,” said Cunningham.

Many of the Cain athletes are incredibly proud of their team’s performance and hope to continue the legacy by competing at state in the 2021 season. The remaining boys’ team that did not get to run felt inspired watching their senior peer Drake run his heart out at the state meet. They feel incredibly motivated to work hard and push even further for the 2021 seasons and hope to find themselves competing at the state meet in 2021.

“I feel inspired like I want to be here next year, and it was nice to see my team’s hard work pay off,” said cross country runner Kaleb Jessie.

Furthermore, coaches also feel the same sentiment.

“It’s a pretty exciting year because, with Covid and all the changes that they made for cross country UIL, it’s amazing that these kids had the opportunity to put in the dedication into the sport.” said cross country coach Kristen Egbert. “Cross country is everyone’s worst nightmare because we run nonstop, but they had to put more dedication in to perceive and go online then come to practice, so the fact that we had our first guy and it was his senior year is exceptional. Drake has dedicated four years to this, and it’s the top of his season. And then the girls to be the first team Klein Cain team to make it to state. It is such a young team, and with only being open for four years, we put our name on the board.”

The cross country coaches at Cain are incredibly proud of their team for pushing through the changes and challenges this year has brought. The team put copious amounts of hard work and perseverance throughout the season, and the outcome was overwhelmingly positive. The coaches believe that this is a strong legacy to kick off Klein Cain Cross Country’s future.