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Fort Worth Nolan logo<\/p>\n
sportsdaydfwcom<\/p>\n
WACO — Several Dallas-area athletes took home individual and team titles at the 2026\u00a0TAPPS state cross country meet held at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dallas Covenant dominated in sweeping 3A team titles, and Fort Worth Nolan had Georgia Giesinger repeat as the\u00a06A girls individual champion.<\/p>\n
In addition, Fort Worth Christian’s 5A boys produced the top two individual finishers en route to claiming the team top spot, with Arlington\u00a0Pantego and McKinney Cornerstone Christian posting individual gold medalists.<\/p>\n
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Dallas Covenant dynasty rolls on<\/p>\n
The Dallas Covenant cross country boys ran away with 4A team gold, totaling 63 points, well ahead of second-place Lubbock Trinity Christian’s 124 tally, handily capturing its unprecedented 11th straight TAPPS state crown. Covenant’s top five finishers (those count in team scoring) were among the top 23. Even the team’s sixth and seventh entries ended 26th and 39th individually.\u00a0 Noah Verdin led Covenant’s contingent with a silver-medal finish.<\/p>\n
Equally impressive was the Covenant girls squad, whose 46 first-place finish was far ahead of second-place San Antonio Christian School at Castle Hills, which posted a 119-point total. Chloe Thomas earned bronze to lead Covenant, as all five runners finished between third and 19th in the team scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I told our teams last night [Sunday] that they deserved to win Gold,” said head coach Michael Golden, who guides both programs. “I also let them know that does not mean other teams will just let you win. You have to go out an earn it.”<\/p>\n
And Covenant went out and did so in a big way.<\/p>\n
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The boys’ string of championships is impressive beyond just the 11 consecutive titles.\u00a0 The smallest differential in its 11-year streak is 20 points in 2018; it won by 27 in 2016, the year this run began. Nine of 11 team wins have been by at least 41 points over the second place team, including 61 this year.<\/p>\n
“It is the standard we have created,” said coach Golden. “Great senior leadership, and that filters down to the underclassmen. They push each other to be their best.”<\/p>\n
Senior Noah Verdin, who has earned silver each of the past two state meets after winning Gold in 2024, says Covenant adheres to that team-first philosophy. “It is all about the team,” said\u00a0Verdin. “That goes for each and every runner throughout the program.”<\/p>\n
It was the fourth overall TAPPS state title for the Covenant girls, having also won in 2024, 2018 and 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Nolan 6A girls individual repeats<\/p>\n
Syracuse pledge Georgia Giesinger went back-to-back in winning 6A girls gold, blistering the course in an 11:10.3 time, 0:1.7 seconds ahead of teammate Haley Fernandez.<\/p>\n
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The dynamic duo, which have been first and second in almost every cross country event this season, enabled Nolan to secure Silver in the team standings with 97 points, 12 shy of San Antonio Antonian’s 85 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Giesinger bettered last year’s gold-winning time by over 37 seconds.\u00a0 She credits sensation Fernandez, who has burst onto the cross country scene this season as a freshman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s great running with Haley,” said\u00a0Giesinger.\u00a0 “We really push each other and make each other better.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fort Worth Nolan boys earned a bronze team medal with a score of 106 points, with five runners finishing in the 11-38 range.<\/p>\n
Other area highlights<\/p>\n
Sophomore Kollin Green ran a 16:30.1 gold-winning time, and freshman teammate Cade Lewis (16.52.5) took second to pace Fort Worth Christian to the 5A boys team title with 51 points, well ahead of San Antonio Christian’s 77 points.<\/p>\n
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Elizabeth Hamblin, an Arlington Pantego senior, earned individual 5A girls gold with a 12:17.5 time.<\/p>\n
Junior Nate Lugo of McKinney Cornerstone Christian earned his second consecutive individual gold, claiming the boys 3A top spot with a winning time of 15:54.7, just under 30 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.<\/p>\n
Grapevine Faith Christian’s Sophia Belcher was a 5A girls bronze finisher.<\/p>\n
Buoyed by a trio of top nine individual finishers, Fort Worth Temple Christian 3A girls garnered bronze in the team standings.<\/p>\n
Briefly:\u00a0 Tyler Grace Community senior and SMU pledge Emma Goetz, who also won both the 3200 and 1600 track events each of the past three years, won her second straight and third cross country gold in four years, in the 5A girls competition…Spring Providence Classical continued its dominance, sweeping the 3A team titles, marking the seventh consecutive boys and sixth straight girls crowns…Lubbock Southcrest owned 1A Boys with its runners finishing 1-2-3 while totaling 23 team points, the lowest score across all 12 classifications, in claiming its third straight team title, the last two in 2A.<\/p>\n
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All-State<\/p>\n
The top 10 finishers earn All-State recognition. DFW area honorees are included below.<\/p>\n
Boys<\/p>\n
Class<\/p>\n
School<\/p>\n
Athlete(s)<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Bishop Lynch<\/p>\n
Herman Pope<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Plano John Paul II<\/p>\n
Alex Mendoza<\/p>\n
5A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Christian<\/p>\n
Kollin Green, Cade Lewis, Braydon Brady<\/p>\n
5A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth SW Christian<\/p>\n
Emerson Aiken<\/p>\n
4A<\/p>\n
Dallas Covenant<\/p>\n
Noah Verdin, Henry Moore<\/p>\n
4A<\/p>\n
Dallas Christian<\/p>\n
Roman Carney<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
McKinney Cornerstone Christian<\/p>\n
Nate Lugo<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
Dallas First Baptist<\/p>\n
Reiter Hellmuth, Zachary Hansen<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
Lucas Christian<\/p>\n
Lucas Rembold<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Temple Christian<\/p>\n
Caleb Kitchens<\/p>\n
2A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Bethesda Christian<\/p>\n
Steven Goodman, Boden Curtis<\/p>\n
1A<\/p>\n
NONE<\/p>\n
NONE<\/p>\n
Girls<\/p>\n
Class<\/p>\n
School<\/p>\n
Athlete(s)<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
FW Nolan<\/p>\n
Georgia Giesinger, Haley Fernandez<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Ursuline<\/p>\n
Jenna Priest<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Prestonwood Christian Academy<\/p>\n
Camille Glenn<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Bishop Lynch<\/p>\n
Emme Driscoll<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Parish Episcopal<\/p>\n
Blake Durham<\/p>\n
6A<\/p>\n
Argyle Liberty Christian<\/p>\n
Camille Taylor<\/p>\n
5A<\/p>\n
Grapevine Faith Christian<\/p>\n
Sophia Belcher<\/p>\n
5A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth All Saints<\/p>\n
Micah Neal<\/p>\n
5A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Southwest Christian<\/p>\n
Grace Murchison<\/p>\n
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4A<\/p>\n
Arlington Pantego<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Hamblin<\/p>\n
4A<\/p>\n
Dallas Covenant<\/p>\n
Chloe Thomas, Lily Koerner<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Temple Christian<\/p>\n
Courtney Clinkinbeard, Abigail Grounds, Aislinn Richie<\/p>\n
3A<\/p>\n
Dallas First Baptist<\/p>\n
Marchesa Reil<\/p>\n
2A<\/p>\n
Dallas Cambridge<\/p>\n
Penelope Pimentel<\/p>\n
2A<\/p>\n
Kennedale Fellowship Academy<\/p>\n
Ava Froese<\/p>\n
2A<\/p>\n
Azle Christian<\/p>\n
Hallie Collins<\/p>\n
1A<\/p>\n
Waxahachie Prep<\/p>\n
Catalina Flores<\/p>\n
1A<\/p>\n
Sherman Texoma Christian<\/p>\n
Hannah Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Nolan logo sportsdaydfwcom WACO — Several Dallas-area athletes took home individual and team titles at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-477619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}