Lewisville Hebron's (TX) Girls
The Hebron girls have an interesting argument, too.
If the factors that lead to an at-large bid revolve around wins over auto-qualified teams, then where do the Hawks' two wins over Southlake Carroll stand?
Among the more surprising results over NXN's regional format was Southlake Carroll's win over Keller.
The nationally ranked Indians may have had a bad race -- though they still locked up an auto-qualifier in second -- but that's not Hebron's fault.
Southlake Carroll's uptick in performance only aided in Hebron's resume.
Hebron's biggest successes came via postseason performances in Texas, finishing ahead of Southlake Carroll at districts -- they were first, Carroll was third -- and ahead of the team at states in Class 6A.
While it's true Hebron never quite got the win it needed to lock down an at-large bid and its resume wasn't very deep beyond those two big results -- they were third behind Southlake Carroll at the Marcus Invitational and fourth at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in September in Arkansas -- there's no question the team did performed well in big meets when it mattered.