UPDATED: Pflugerville meet and Cowboy Jamboree results have been added to this story.

He’ll never double knot his shoes again. Before the second race of the season, senior Suede Mora knotted his shoes twice for the first time in his high school running career. But in the first 400 meters of Friday Night Lights, another runner caught his shoe mid-stride and the sneaker went flying.

“I was going to go back and get it, but as I turned I saw hundreds of kids and I would have gotten trampled,” Mora said.

Mora kept going on the crushed gravel trail, hoping to snag the shoe on the next lap. But when he came around, it was no longer there on the trail.

“My leg was just shredded after that,” Mora said. “I got emotional after that. Senior year and this happens? But the worse race has happened this year. It can only go up from here.”

And it has. At the next meet at Liberty Hill, Mora finished fourth. Four varsity guys finished in the top 10, six in the top 12. The boys took second as a team, behind Georgetown.

“Our pack stayed together for the first two miles and that was awesome,” Mora said. “It’s hard to manage a team of seven, let alone a team of 10. Coach Thompson came up to me [after the race] and was like, ‘You’re my hero, you saved the day.’ ”

At Pflugerville two weeks later, Mora and the team improved winning with the meet, with three runners finishing in the top 10 and eight in the top 25. Mora was second while freshman Danny Madrid was third.

At Liberty Hill, the varsity girls took first place with junior Madie Boreman winning the race and freshman Helen Roddy taking second. Boreman and Roddy continued their 1-2 finish at the Pflugerville race, Sept. 12 and helped the team take first. At the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Oklahoma Sept. 27, Roddy won the girls race and Boreman was fourth, helping the varsity girls secure a second place finish in the 6A race.

“The race was pretty good,” Roddy said about Liberty Hill. “I ran smooth and stayed in pace with Madie. The course had a lot of potholes, but I was proud of overcoming that obstacle. I wish I had pushed my time further, though.”

A week earlier at FNL in The Woodlands, Boreman was third and Roddy was sixth. In the first race of the season, Boreman and Roddy went 1-2 at the Vandegrift dual, and the girls’ top five runners beat the Vipers’ top five runners. For the boys, their runners came in first through ninth, Vandegrift’s top guy was 10th.

The strong start has the team confident about a successful season.

“Our demeanor is starting to change more as a team,” Mora said. “We started to realize the best way to function, the most effective way to win our races and I think that’s what we’re going to carry us for the rest of the season.”

RESULTS

Friday Night Lights, Aug. 29
Varsity Boys
24^th Mitchell Ballis, 13:27
49^thNico Escobar 13:46
72^nd Connor Brooks 14:00
86^th Daniel Guidry 14:17
87^th Logan Zipkes 14:17
89^thSudeMora 14:17
105^th Noah Leos 14:29

Varsity Girls
3^rdMadie Boreman 11:39
6^th Helen Roddy 11:56
25^th Haley Timmons 12:35
45^thSavy Escobar 13:13
84^th Sarah Warrenburg 13:49

Junior Varsity Boys
23^rd Chase Isham 14:42
33^rd Brandon King 14:58
110^th Art Loy 16:10
165^th Justin Baker 17:36
168^th Daniel Myers 17:51
174^th Ethan Case 18:30

Junior Varsity Girls
53^rd Cameron Weise 14:57
67^th Makenna Ludwig 15:09
75^th Mya Butoryak 15:19
82^nd Molly Sanford 15:29
110^th Destiny Luna 15:56
123^rd Dharma Boreman 16:06
166^th Madison Mask 17:19

Liberty Hill, Sept. 6
Varsity Boys
2nd Team Overall
4^th Suede Mora 16:56
5^th Danny Madrid 16:57
7^th Connor Brooks 17:18
10^th Mitchell Ballis 17:21
11^thNico Escobar 17:24
12^th Daniel Guidry 17:25
16^th Ben Escobar 17:36
18^th Logan Zipkes 17:41
21^st James Tisdale 17:59
25^th Noah Leos 18:15
 

Varsity Girls
1st Team Overall
1^st Madie Boreman 18:37
2^nd Helen Roddy 18:42
4^th Haley Timmons 20:44
7^thSavy Escobar 21:06
12^th Sarah Warrenburg 22:20

Junior Varsity Boys
1^st Evan Rogers 18:42
5^th Chase Isham 18:54
7^th Brandon King 19:25
17^th Cypher Miller 20:59
24^th Art Loy 21:48
37^th Justin Baker 22:24
38^th Ian Hoffman 22:31
52^nd Ethan Case 23:09
55^th Daniel Myers 23:25
61^stNic Ayers 24:33

Junior Varsity Girls
23^rd Cameron Wiese 14:20
26^th Makenna Ludwig 14:30
30^th Maya Butonyak 14:43
41^st Destiny Luna 15:19
49^th Janice McLaughlin 15:41
50^th Dharma Boreman 15:54

Pflugerville ISD Cross Country Invite, Sept. 12
Varsity Boys
1st Team Overall
2^nd Suede Mora 16:14
3^rd Danny Madrid 16:16
9^th Mitchell Ballis 16:44
16^th Connor Brooks 17:04
17^th Logan Zipkes 17:05
21^st Ben Escobar 17:13
22^nd Nico Escobar 17:16
25^th Daniel Guidry 17:23
26^th Noah Leos 17:41

Varsity Girls
1st Team Overall
1^st Madie Boreman 17:56
2^nd Helen Roddy 18:08
5^th Haley Timmons 19:16
16^th Savy Escobar 20:22
28^th Sarah Warrenburg 21:07
 

Junior Varsity Boys
1st Team Overall
1^st James Tisdale 17:26
8^th Chase Isham 18:38
11^th Evan Rogers 18:43
14^th Brandon King 18:58
17^th Ariel Sosa 19:07
18^th Travis Long 19:11
57^th Cypher Miller 20:09

Junior Varsity Girls
3rd Team Overall
4^th Makenna Lugwig 14:11
10^th Cameron Wiese 14:40
22^nd Mya Butoryak 14:56
27^th Alexis Alvarez 15:03
75^th Dharma Boreman 15:57

Cowboy Jamboree, Sept. 27
Varsity Boys
4th Team Overall
9th Danny Madrid
12th Suede Mora
41st Logan Zipkes
49th Connor Brooks
53rd Nico Escobar
56th Mitchell Ballis
79th James Tisdale

Varsity Girls
2nd Team Overall
1st Helen Roddy
2nd Madie Boreman
12th Helen Timmons
33rd Savy Escobar
89th Sarah Warrenburg
114th Makenna Ludwig
131st Cameron Wiese