Both Sealy cross country teams punched a ticket to the Class 4A State Championship Nov. 6 after top-four team finishes at the Region III Championship Monday afternoon in Huntsville. It will be the first time any one Tiger team competed at the state meet since 1994 and the first time both teams will represent Sealy High School since 1990.

The Tigers will have a familiar face in the field as Bellville senior Lawson Meiers punched an individual ticket to the state meet as well.

Although two individual Lady Tigers represented Sealy at the 2020 state meet, both teams were on the verge of qualifying for the final meet of the year but was barred due to a smaller advancing field amidst the pandemic. Since last season ended, Head Coach Anthony Branch has said the goal will be to take both teams to the last meet of the 2021 season. When heat and humidity showed potential to derail those plans, Branch and the staff had a simple message.

“We talked about (hydration) all leading up at least a week and a half,” Branch said. “We just told them, both me and Coach Danielle Eschenburg said, ‘When you’re tired and you’re feeling like you can’t make it, it just comes down to mentally putting positive thoughts in your head. Just remember that all of us believe in you, there’s a lot of people here in Sealy that are really looking forward to see how we do.”

They were able to execute just that behind top finishers in senior Xavier Olvera (4th) and junior Annabelle Williams (13th) and joined only Huffman Hargrave in having both teams advance as one of the final 16 teams in Texas.

Williams, who was one of the two individual representatives two years ago, also has a tie to that 1990 team as her mother was on the roster.

“I was talking with Annabelle, her mom was on that 1990 team and I think we had some of the Eschenburgs on that team as well,” Branch said.

The head coach explained how gratifying it was to watch the fruits of the athletes’ labor propel them to being one of the top 16 teams in Class 4A.

“I thought they ran with so much confidence,” Branch said. “I think they were just very determined to make sure that we got there this year. I know the girls talked about it, the guys talked about it; I told Xavier, ‘You were three spots away last year as an individual, let’s go, unfinished business from last year.’ And Daniel Medrano, he’s had a rough year but the kid was big today he ran a good solid race, I know he wasn’t happy with his time but he ran well enough to give us that opportunity, they were all extremely excited to be able to do that.”

The head coach has had to remind his runners that this is indeed a special moment that has not been an everyday occurrence.

“I was telling some of the kids, ‘Y’all don’t understand, this doesn’t happen. This isn’t an everyday thing, this is not easy to do,’” Branch said. “I’ve told them before and I’ll tell them again, ‘Look here, we’re competing for a state championship now. That doesn’t happen often. You’re competing through the whole year to get there but then there’s only 16 teams left in 4A that get a chance to compete for a state championship. You have to get there and so it was an awesome deal and I think they enjoyed it.”

Branch elaborated that he hopes this trip to the last meet of the year only entices more student-athletes to participate and join in on the fun and success being had on the course.

“For us to be able to do that, it really means a lot,” Branch said. “It’s a unique situation because we don’t want them to take it for granted, but at the same time we also want to build on that. Sure, we’re glad we’re getting to the state meet and we’re going to go try and compete for state championship. I don’t know where we’ll end up, it doesn’t really matter because we’re going to go run the best we can and regardless, we’re still going to be one of the top 16 teams in the state in 4A, and we didn’t get to be that last year.”