The 2023 season has been put in the books as a remarkable journey for the Stephen F. Austin High School Cross Country team, with Coach Batiansila expressing his awe, “It has been an amazing journey to watch this season unfold.” The coaches have witnessed the team’s chemistry develop amidst adversity time and time again.

Senior Margaret “Maggie” Stewart, an integral part of the Girls’ Varsity Cross Country team, has been consistent in aiding the team to victory in this season’s meets. Despite facing challenges due to departing seniors, Maggie reflected, “This season has gone really well for us, we’ve hit a low point in the past year because we had a lot of our seniors leave us and it was hard to get it back up.” She enthusiastically added, “We have our new freshman and we’ve got some sophomores that are really strong and we’re really happy to have them.” 

Maggie is not only the fastest on the team, but also the girl’s team captain. She says, “Being the captain of the girls xc team is great.” As the team captain of the Girls’ Varsity team, she has motivated everyone to push themselves, and as she said, “Strength is numbers, and those numbers bring great energy every day.” Maggie, humble about her achievements, credited her team, saying “Y’all do the work for me and I’m just another teammate who loves being around my gals.” She aims to leave a legacy ensuring the team’s enjoyment and success next year.

Senior Nicolas Urquidez, head of boys cross country, reflected on a challenging year due to his leg injuries. Despite this setback, he noticed himself getting faster through the season.. His standout moments were, “winning the Hays Invitational and placing top six at the Cedar Park Invitational,” which he considered his highlight. He has been working hard during both the summer and school year as the season kicked in. Nic asserts that his, “adversities and challenges for me were to stay healthy for my legs, specifically muscles,  joints, and illness.” Nic sums up his season in five words, “hopeful, optimistic, false, disappointing, fail.” Out of this season, Nic has done an astonishing job and has worked hard this year. 

Luke Batiansila, a junior here at Austin High in the Academy for Science and Innovation, became the junior star of the 2023 season for the Boys’ Varsity Cross Country team. Luke said his best meet was the Austin Independent School District invitational meet because the course was not as rocky as the others in the past. Luke has done a great job pushing himself and training outside of school too; Born to Run is where he has been pushing himself and seeing his overall improvement. One of his highlights from this season was having, “the team chemistry and environment.” Luke’s challenge was to keep his mind focused on running and school. Luke has done a brilliant job; he managed to stay in the top ten throughout the season. Overall the 2023 season for the AHS Cross Country.