Dollar wraps up season at state cross country meet

For an athlete representing her entire school as the lone state qualifier, Mattie Dollar made her community proud.

Dollar competed at the 1A state cross country meet Friday, Nov. 3 and ended her season with a strong showing at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. Out of 145 total runners, Dollar finished 43rd with a time of 13:28.9.

The first-place finisher from Springlake-Earth ran a time of 11:20.1 while the final runner came in at 18:36.0. Dollar competed alone at the state meet due to Newcastle not having enough runners to qualify for the team event.

This season as a junior was Dollar’s first year running cross country in high school. She plays other sports and due to some previous injuries she wasn’t able to run her freshman or sophomore years.

Despite what might appear to be a lack of experience, Dollar regularly finished at the top of the various meets she participated in throughout the season. At the district meet not quite a month ago, Dollar finished first in the race to advance to the regional meet in Lubbock.

At the regional meet, Dollar kept up the impressive work and finished seventh to clinch her spot in the state race Friday.

Though her season’s over now, Dollar had a successful run and will look to continue to have success in cross country in the future and her other sports.