TEMPLE, TX — The cross country season officially got underway on a warm Friday morning, August 14, 2026, as Lions Park hosted the annual Temple Wildcat Invitational. Running on their home turf, the Temple Tem-Cats varsity squad put together a highly competitive performance to secure a fourth-place team finish in the 5A/6A Varsity Girls Three Mile Run.

Leading the charge for the Wildcats was sophomore Azaria Staples, who cruised to an outstanding fourth-place individual finish with a stellar time of 19:40.10. Not far behind was junior teammate Ilana Desales, who also cracked the top ten by capturing seventh place with a time of 20:52.11.

Collectively, Temple compiled 116 points to lock in fourth place, finishing with a team average time of 22:31 and a spread of 4:27. Lake Belton claimed the team championship with 45 points, and Hendrickson's senior Morgan Nelsen dominated the individual field, taking first overall with an impressive time of 18:08.11.

Temple High Performance List

Five Tem-Cat runners completed the scoring roster for the varsity squad on the three-mile course:

Azaria Staples (SO) — 19:40.10 (4th Place, 4 points)
Ilana Desales (JR) — 20:52.11 (7th Place, 5 points)
Bella Sahm (SO) — 23:56.72 (45th Place, 34 points)
Kennedy Taft (FR) — 24:03.50 (48th Place, 36 points)
Madelyn Krumnow (SO) — 24:07.50 (49th Place, 37 points)

Top Individual Finishers (5A/6A Varsity Girls)

The top five individual runners who set the pace on Friday morning:

1 - Morgan Nelsen (SR, Hendrickson) — 18:08.11
2 - Elizabeth Tucker (SR, Austin Anderson) — 19:20.97
3 - Keira Dzenowski (SO, Lake Belton) — 19:32.35
4 - Azaria Staples (SO, Temple) — 19:40.10
5 - Ava Braden (SR, Bryan High) — 20:44.35

Top Team Standings

Out of the ten scoring varsity teams, these five squads emerged at the top of the leaderboard:

1 - Lake Belton — 45 points (Average: 21:07)
2 - Hendrickson — 70 points (Average: 21:21)
3 - Austin Anderson — 107 points (Average: 22:28)
4 - Temple — 116 points (Average: 22:31)
5 - Austin Champions — 116 points (Average: 22:45)

Up Next: The Tem-Cats will look to build on this solid opening-week foundation as they prepare to travel to College Station next week. Temple will compete in the Coach Giese Invitational on Saturday, August 22.