The cross country team competed at the Saint Andrew’s Invitational on Saturday along with 10 other Texas teams.

“Saint Andrew’s is one of the biggest meets in the central Texas area.” Boys captain and senior Nathan Beasley said. “There’s a lot of our district competition there every year.”
Lake Travis, Westlake, Hays and Leander also attended the meet on Saturday. The Lake Travis and Hays boys teams are notorious for being VHS rivals as well as the competition to beat.

“We know Lake Travis and Hays will be there and they usually do really well.” Varsity runner Ryan Morreale said. “It’s going to be a close race but we are ready to go out there and compete.”

Last year the boys placed fifth at Saint Andrews, but this year they changed their mindset and aimed higher. They placed first this year, their second win of the season.

“We have the fastest team in Vandegrift history.” Beasley said. “This meet is just another step on our road to state. We will make some power moves.”

“Power moves” is the new strategy the boys team is using this year going into meets and practices as a way to run together and push each other.

“All the guys needed to step up and we did.” Morreale said. “We worked as a team, ran as a giant pack and pushed each other to pull off the win.”

The boys are set to compete this Saturday at the Cedar Park Invitational at Cedar Park High school.

“We are putting a huge emphasis on running together as a team this year. Our 3-9 guys all run together in a pack during every tempo run, interval and easy run” Beasley said. “When we get into the races we are a power move machine!”