Published: 12:01 PM, 11/05/2009

Last updated: 12:52 PM, 11/17/2009

By: Steve Behr Sports Editor

When Watauga returns to the state 4-A cross country championships Friday at Tanglewood Park, there will be plenty of talented teams waiting for them.
For starters, Western Regional champion T.C. Roberson will be there. So will defending state 4-A champ East Chapel Hill. And Green Hope from Cary is always a tough team to deal with.
Yet Watauga brings a young team looking to challenge the heavyweights for a chance at a state championship. The girls' race begins at 3 p.m.
"Our chances are pretty good," Pioneers coach Randy McDonough said. "We'll have T.C. Roberson, Green Hope and East Chapel Hill to contend, but I don't think we've reached our potential yet, so I hope we see that Saturday."
Individ-ually, the top 10 runners receive All-State status. Last year, Watauga's Kristen Kanagy, now at Liberty University, earned All-State honors.
This year, Watauga could place two of its seven runners in that arena. Senior Kayla Schneider and Hannah Barbour will be looking to crack the top 10.
Watauga's other five runners - Darby Middlebrook, Hailey Middlebrook, Amanda Carringer, Madison Harmon and Doria Kosmala - will need to stay close to Schneider and Barbour if the Pioneers want to finish in the top five as a team.
"The first two usually run away from the pack," McDonough said. "With the third through seven runners, I'm hoping to pack them close together and closer to the top two."
The Pioneers have not competed on the Tanglewood course this year, but they did practice on the 5K course during a teacher workday. It's a course that has more hills than the McAlpine course the Pioneers ran on during the regionals in Charlotte a week earlier.
"It will be tougher this week," McDonough said. "We won't see all of the sub-20 minute times that we saw last week."