Plano East senior Reagan Noel, pictured in previous action, placed 21st with a time of 18:43 at the Region I-6A cross country meet in Lubbock on Oct. 21. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
LUBBOCK — If Plano East senior Reagan Noel were in any other region in Class 6A, she would have been a state qualifier.
Noel would have placed 11th in both Region II-6A and Region III-6A, and third in Region IV-6A, earning an individual berth in the Class 6A state meet in any of those three regions.
However, Region I-6A proved to be a different beast. For as hard as Noel tried to earn her first state appearance, she came up just eight seconds short of qualifying. The Plano East senior settled for 21st place with a time of 18:43 at Mae Simmons Park on Oct. 21. The cutoff time for earning a top-10 individual finish from a nonqualifying team was 18:35.
“She beat multiple individual state qualifiers from other regions that we saw this season,” head coach Robert Reed said. “She raced exactly how I told her to. Lubbock is a tough course at altitude and can eat you alive if you don’t have a plan.”
Noel was in 42nd place one mile into the race but improved to 30th at the two-mile mark before finishing 21st — all while finishing ahead of several runners she had not previously beaten this season.
“Twenty-first is good enough to make it as an individual qualifier most years, and I told her that if she wants to put the blame on anyone, it should be me for not telling her to get out faster,” Reed said.
Noel was one of seven Lady Panthers to compete in the regional meet, with several runners achieving a personal best or coming close.
Junior Meena Mulford ran a PR, placing 38th in 19:20. Brooke Tierney, also a junior, was one second off her season-best time, finishing 65th in 19:57.
Senior Dyan Tecuatl took 91st with a 20:29 in the final race of her high school cross-country career. Kate Salyer, a junior, stepped up her efforts to be Plano East’s fifth-fastest runner, placing 97th in 20:34. Senior Alina Nguyen was 98th in 20:38.2, followed by sophomore Louisa Christensen, who placed 99th in 20:38.3.
Fresh off winning its first district championship since 2017 via tiebreaker over Prosper, Plano East hoped to carry that success to Lubbock.
Although the Lady Panthers fell short of earning a team berth, Plano East had one of its best showings at a regional meet in program history. Reed said he had his team tied for 11th going into the meet based on initial projections and a score of 335 points, and every runner beat her projected place as the Lady Panthers finished ninth with 253 points — just one point out of eighth and three out of seventh.
“In my 11th season as the girls coach, this season will be one that I will reminisce on for the rest of my career,” Reed said. “There were so many lessons and takeaways that put us in the position to compete, and the girls bought in and ultimately believed in what we were trying to do.”
Freshman Levi Rowe placed 99th in the boys race with a time of 17:13, gaining valuable experience in just his first season running for the Panthers.
“Levi did exactly what I told him to do as well, but the race did not get out as fast as I thought it would,” Reed said. “While it was not the race we were hoping for, the experience will serve him well moving forward. He has a great head on his shoulders and is already using the experience to fuel him to keep training through Thanksgiving break and into track season.”