After individually qualifying for the state meet, Jordyn Kaplan continued to practice, picking juniors Sophie Schott and Emma Parker to run with her. For two weeks, they practiced in preparation for state while the JV and the regional qualifiers were on their two-week break. The practices went from over 135 team members and coaches, to three runners and occasionally the captains. Most of the workouts were speed and hill workouts at Norbuck Park. Sophie and Emma each ran half of the workout so that they could run slightly faster to push Jordyn.

“It was weird going from such a big team to a small team. You learned how valuable teammates were,” sophomore Jordyn Kaplan said.

The runner and alternates, captains, captains’ parents and coaches met at senior Hope McLaughlin’s house for a team breakfast Friday morning. The captains, alternates, coaches and runner left on the bus from there to make the three-hour trip to Roundrock.

After arriving at Roundrock and jogging the course to get a feel for it, the team went to dinner and then headed back to the hotel for a team meeting. The coaches gave their final words for the racing season and wished Jordyn good luck for the big race the next day.

On Saturday, the team arrived early to find that the rain from the night before had caused severe mud puddles and flooding water from the pond centered in the park. The captains, alternate and runner ran to set up tent in the rain and then jogged the course for a warm-up, trying to avoid getting caked in the mud.

But despite extremely unusual weather conditions unlike anything the team had ever experienced before, Jordyn represented her school and teammates well with a time of 21:56. She continued the tradition since 1974 of having at least one runner on the team qualify for state.

“We were there to support our teammate, Jordyn Kaplan, who was competing in the state meet,” senior Claire Cowie said. “We left on Friday, and we have a bunch of various traditions that we do, including getting each other state gifts, stopping at the same places every year on the road trip and eating lunch and dinner at the same places. The meet was really fun too! The course was muddy because it had just rained all weekend, so we were a little bit concerned about the conditions going into the race, but it was great, and Jordyn did awesome. She overcame all that mud, and it was a lot of fun for those of us who weren’t racing to run around in the rain and mud and watch her compete and cheer her on. It was also great to see everyone that drove to Austin to watch her compete.”

Although only a sophomore, Kaplan enjoyed her trip and race.

“It was fun being the youngest one because I could just enjoy it, learn all the traditions and just kind of figure everything out,” sophomore Jordyn Kaplan said. “My favorite traditions are state gifts because it’s like Christmas, and I also loved going out to dinner with everyone and spending time with the team. We also got to go to a lot of different places in Austin after the meet on Saturday as a team and have good team bonding. The race was very exciting but scary. It was different that anything I have done before because there were a lot of people, and it was a new scene and also very muddy.”