Roos want regional feast Posted On: Friday, Nov. 6 2009 05:16 AM By Kevin Posival
Killeen Daily Herald

It wasn't the peanut butter and crackers or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or homemade soup that made Killeen's boys cross country team successful.

Those are just post-morning runs snacks before the start of the school day. They're a start, like the Roos' three-consecutive district championships.

The regional meet has been an altogether different taste; bitter.

"This is important, I need to make it to state," said senior DreVan Anderson-Kaapa, who won the District 25-4A individual title for the second straight year. "It's like something happens every time we get to regionals, so this time I've just got to cut everything out and just get down to business and make it to state."

Anderson-Kaapa is of two seniors on the team, which also features Ronald Richards and juniors Alonso Rivera, Matthew Rodell and Stephen Cumbee as well as sophomores Spencer Davis and Jalen Wade, that will run at 2 p.m. in the Region IV-4A cross country meet at San Antonio's Brooks City Base Golf Course on Saturday.

"We're real tight with our coach (Carlos Quinones)," said Rivera, who won the District 16-4A individual title as a freshman. "He knows about winning. He's been a state champion, so we have a really good program."

Quinones, who set state records in the 800 and 3,200 at the 1981 and 1982 state track meets, respectively, and won third in the 1,600 in 1980 and 1982, was the last Roo to qualify for a distance race at the state track meet until Anderson-Kaapa reached Austin last June in the 800-meters.

Anderson-Kaapa, who didn't even join the cross country team until after a freshman injury forced his parents to pull him from football, has improved steadily ever since but has yet to find success at the regional meet.

"I think what it was, back then, I knew that people were going to beat me back then," Anderson-Kaapa said. "My goal was I'm going to get out there and contribute all I can. Now, it's like, I think about the expectations that are placed on me. I think I let that get to me more than how I used to be, which was just get out there and run. I think it's more like a mental block than anything else."

It's going to take even more for the Roos to qualify for the state meet as a team for the first time in school history or send their first individual since Zachary Davis in 2005.

"We just need to get out fast during the start of the race," said Rodell, who's making his third trip to the regional meet. "If we can get out in the start of the race, then we'll be fine because meets where we've been backed up ... we didn't do so great. We just need to get out there."

Killeen finished seventh last season at the meet led by Anderson-Kaapa's 16th-place finish.

"Last year we had a good team and this year we have an even better team," said Rodell, who's making his third trip to the regional meet. "We just need more people. After we leave, there's almost nobody.

"We've been running together for forever. I've been running against Alonso since seventh grade. I've been running with Dre since seventh grade. It's like we're close."

The Roos finished sixth in 2007 and fourth in 2005, four points away from qualifying for the state meet.

Like district, the top three teams and 10 individual from the regional meet qualify for the state meet held Nov. 15 at Old Settlers' Park in Round Rock.

"I know that I can do good. My thing is, I need to get to that point ... stop thinking about trying to come in a place, just get out there and try to run fast," Anderson-Kaapa said. "Now I know to make it state, I have make the top-10, my goal, is I need to get out there, for myself, and see how much faster I can get. That's how it used to be, I used to be like 'I need to get out here and run, I know I can't win, but I can at least do my best' and that would be it."

Contact Kevin Posival at kposival@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7562.