Ruling costs Kingwood girls state title in cross country

By TERRY CARTER
For the Chronicle

The Southlake Carroll girls won an appeal of the University Interscholastic League Class 5A cross country championship results on Monday after an extended review, leaving Kingwood bumped to second place.

At first, the Mustangs were declared the girls 5A champions on Saturday in a tiebreaker over the Dragons. The Kingwood girls drove home with the championship hardware, but on Monday they were in shock after Mustang coach Christi Burleson shared the news from the UIL.

"I went to Austin (Monday) to stand up for our girls. Nothing had been decided then," the Kingwood coach said. "Of course the girls are sad now. We stood on the medal stand and went home as champions. We would have been happy with second if we had just known while we were there.

"If they had four less points, they won. It doesn't change how our girls raced Saturday or how hard they worked all year," Burleson said. "There is nothing for my girls to be embarrassed about. We thought we won because that's what they told us. All they could tell us (about the appeal not being resolved Saturday before the awards ceremony) was that they had inconclusive evidence at the time."

The result was overturned due to a timing chip error that placed Southlake Carroll's Lucia Xiong at 58th in the finish. A runner fell near the finish, and an official helping her back to her feet may have also played a factor in Xiong's delayed finish, according to track and field Web site Dyestat.com's John Sullivan, who saw the race.

After the UIL review board analyzed the case, the Carroll runner was moved to 54th place Monday afternoon, giving the Dragon girls their four-point margin of victory over Kingwood. Keller's team score was also affected, rising two points after the appeal. That keeps Keller (89) in fourth place behind Southlake Carroll (70), Kingwood (74) and Cinco Ranch (82) in the revised final standings.

"There was a scoring error that put a Southlake Carroll girl four runners behind where she finished," UIL director of public information Kim Rogers said. "There are two mats. Her timing chip did not register on the primary mat."

State meet athletic director Peter Contreras said the decision was based on an official video analyzed by the UIL meet jury of appeals. Contreras said a chip timing error is fairly common.

Cinco Ranch coach Kristi Robbins said she was unaware of the appeal Saturday and didn't hear of a possible reversal until Monday morning.

"(The girls' 5A race) was so close. I'm glad for Southlake Carroll because you'd hate knowing a timing mechanism cost you a state title," Robbins said. "But I feel sorry for Christie and her girls. I've heard of controversies on timing chips before. But I've never seen a reversal like this. Timing chips are usually pretty accurate."