Plano East senior Reagan Noel has reduced her 5K time by more than seven minutes since she was a freshman. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Plano East head cross country coach Robert Reed sent a message to senior Reagan Noel in August that stuck.
“I told her that she can break 19 minutes this year,” Reed said.
That belief came from the work Noel put in over the summer. She logged miles in the heat, trained alongside Reed, and often ran faster than her coach — no small feat, considering Reed still holds multiple distance records in the 800 and 1,600 at Sachse High School.
Her work paid off Sept. 13 at the Lovejoy Fall Festival. Noel clocked an 18:39 at Myers Park in McKinney — the second-fastest 5K in program history and just 17 seconds behind Martha Brown’s school record of 18:22.
“I was not expecting that one,” Noel said. “It felt so good. Now I just need to beat Martha Brown. I always tell myself to get closer to her time. I never thought I’d be this close, but it’s definitely motivating.”
Noel’s rise has been a story of perseverance. As a freshman, she was limited to just two meets by a painful Achilles injury. Her times hovered over 26 minutes.
“I just remember being in so much pain,” she said. “It was an eight or nine on a scale of one to 10. I struggled just going up and down the stairs.”
Reed credited her turnaround to competing in the right training environment.
“She needed someone to push her,” he said. “We had girls that were fast and hard-working, and that showed her what she needed to do.”
Noel took initiative on her own, working as a lifeguard before heading to team practices.
By her sophomore year, Noel dropped her PR to 21:30. Now a senior, she has taken more than seven minutes off her freshman times. She broke 19 minutes for the first time at the Southlake Carroll Invitational on Sept. 6 before running an 18:39 the following week at Lovejoy.
“I’ve had some runners improve by a lot,” Reed said. “I’ve had some boys start at 25 minutes and then finish a race in 18 minutes. But I don’t think that I’ve ever had a female runner that has gone from a middle-of-the-pack JV runner to one that is competing for an individual title at the district meet and a regional qualifying spot.”
Through it all, her parents, Courtney and John, have been there.
“My dad ran cross country and my mom did hurdles, so they know the struggles of running,” Noel said. “They haven’t missed a meet. It’s so good to hear them cheer me on.”
Noel enters Friday’s District 6-6A meet at Myers Park with the sixth-fastest 5K in the district. She has beaten every runner in the field this season except Allen junior Selene Garcia. The top 10 individuals and top three teams advance to the Region I-6A meet in Lubbock.
That chance motivates her after last year’s disappointment, when she placed 46th at district.
“It was pretty bad, I can’t lie,” Noel said. “I cried at the end because it was so bad. I stopped midway through the race, and a Plano ISD coach told me to get back into the race. I was not locked in as much as I wanted.”
Reed said that the Lady Panthers, as a whole, are just as talented as the team that won Plano East’s last district championship in 2018.
Junior Meena Mulford, junior Brooke Tierney, senior Dyan Tecuatl, junior Kate Salyer, senior Alina Nugyen, senior Sarita Fino and sophomore Louisa Christensen have been key contributors for a Lady Panthers team that seeks to qualify for the regional meet.
“There is healthy competition within the team,” Reed said. “Everyone understands their role. The top seven have really stepped it up this year.”
Junior Isaac Updike and freshman Levi Rowe have been the top performers for Plano East’s boys. Junior Deyan Bhakta, who is running more than two minutes faster than last season, has worked his way up to the team’s No. 3 runner.
Reed is excited for the potential of Plano East’s freshman class.
Freshman Alex Castillo posted the seventh-fastest time of any Panther runner at the Cowboy Invitational at Oklahoma State University two weeks ago.
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