Plano East senior Reagan Noel (bib No. 386) clocked the second-fastest girls 5-kilometer time in school history last Saturday. Noel placed ninth at the Lovejoy Fall Festival with a time of 18:39. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media

By David Wolman

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Plano East senior Reagan Noel is running more than one minute faster than all of last season.

Last Saturday, she continued to improve on her personal best while also moving up the leaderboard for fastest times in school history in a 5-kilometer race. Noel placed ninth with a time of 18 minutes, 39 seconds at the Lovejoy Fall Festival, held at Myers Park in McKinney. She now has the second-fastest time in school history and is just 17 seconds away from tying the school record.

Noel’s performance paced a respectable effort for the Lady Panthers, who placed sixth out of 17 teams and amassed 176 points. Class 5A state power Lovejoy, ranked No. 2 in the latest Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas state poll, won the team title with 42 points.

Noel was one of two Lady Panthers who posted a sub-20-minute time. Junior Meena Mulford ran to 26th place in 19 minutes, 27 seconds.

Also for Plano East, junior Brooke Tierney placed 61st in 20:33, senior Dyan Tecuatl captured 63rd in 20:38, junior Kate Salyer placed 66th in 20:46, senior Alina Nguyen took 77th in 21:13, and senior Sarita Fino placed 91st in 21:43.

A freshman led the way for the Plano East boys. Levi Rowe ran to 24th place in 16:19. Senior Isaac Updike placed 38th in 16:36. Junior Deyan Bhakta posted the next fastest time for the Panthers, placing 78th in 17:11. Ryder Glenn, a junior, finished 104th in 17:35. Freshman Grant Updike was 123rd in 17:56, followed by junior Michael Sharp, who placed 131st in 18:01. Junior Cole McBride captured 140th in 18:16. Sophomore Ben Mangum was 153rd in 18:27.

Plano East placed 12th in the team standings with 318 points, while Wylie was 17th with 420 points. Canyon, with 125 points, won the boys’ team title.

In the varsity boys race, Plano East was led by Alex Castillo (32nd, 18:08), Joshua Cruz (49th, 18:27), Caleb Heise (87th, 19:16), Aiden Allen (143rd, 20:20), Roman Maldonado (144th, 20:22), Owen Goletto (145th, 20:23) and Shloak Dhandi (152nd, 20:37). Wylie was paced by Lincoln Shumard (66th, 18 minutes, 50.6 seconds), Matthew Mehari (68th, 18 minutes, 50.9 seconds), Pedro Medina (75th, 19:04), Troy Miller (103rd, 19:29), Mustafa Shah (123rd, 19:53), Iwinosa Guobadia (147th, 20:28), Colby Schlensker (158th, 20:48) and Jose Santiago (164th, 21:12).