Lily Alston represented the Cougars as the only runner at the NCHSAA XC state championship meet Nov. 5. Her placing 48th out of 165 racers was already a big achievement, but she is also only a freshman.

Alston finished with a time of 20:02:30 and is very grateful to be able to represent our school.

“Definitely feels pretty insane. Since I’m just a freshman, I was trying to not put too much pressure on myself. I was just happy to be there,” Alston said.

With participating in such a competitive meet, Alston had to tackle new obstacles.

“I would say trying not to let the nerves affect me at all was the most challenging part. Since I usually let that happen, I just had to run the best race,” Alston said.

With 165 runners, Alston was hoping to get in the top 100. She ended up surpassing her expectations and placed in the top 50.

Alston obviously has a bright future ahead of her, and she set the bar high. She hopes to keep up her success.

“Obviously I would like to continue to make it to the states in future years and get my times down. I would also love to run in college as well.”

The circumstances at a meet also play a big part in performance. The quality or difficulty of the track, support and facilities play an important role in the runners’ success. Alston definitely had the circumstances in her favor.

“Definitely just the fact that I was running at Kernersville which was my favorite course and it felt surreal to be there.”