Ryder Darcey didn’t know this was possible two years ago.

Darcey didn’t win junior high district championships, he wasn’t one of the top runners in the Houston area growing up and after suffering an injury his freshman season, he wondered what heights he could reach in cross country.

But none of that broke the junior’s spirits. He helped Katy reach the state cross country meet last season and this year has taken a big step forward in his craft, becoming one of the top runners in the Houston area and putting together strong performances throughout the season, including wins Tate Symons Challenge and the Andy Wells Invitational. But his biggest performance came on Thursday, when Darcey won gold at the District 19-6A cross country meet, winning first place with a time of 15 minutes, 0.26 seconds and clinching a spot in the regional tournament.

“After my injury freshman year going into track season I just though all of this might be over. I had a decent cross-country season last year, but really started to peak in track season,” Darcey said. “I could tell this was going to be a special year for me, I knew something special was going to happen and I’m just so excited that I was able to win today and help my team as well. We’re just getting started.”

Darcey didn’t only claim the gold medal individually, but also helped Katy place first as a team. It was something that the Tigers have been working for and Darcey’s performance was a big part of it coming to fruition for the program. He helped the Tigers reach the regional championships for the second straight year as they try to clinch back-to-back berths in the state meet.

“I’m just so proud of all these guys,” Darcey said. “Everyone went crazy today. There were so many personal records and I knew it was going to happen. The workouts we’ve been doing all year have led to this. There’s so much hard work and I knew it would be this meet where our whole team broke out.”

Darcey came to the team as a freshman still needing to take steps to reach his potential and he has put in the time and work to get there. Darcey has consistently showed up, done everything required to make himself better and taken coaching, even when it came from his father, Katy head track and cross country coach James Pat Darcey, is tough on him or gives him coaching.

“He’s our most committed and dedicated kid and I’m so proud of him for that,” James Pat Darcey said. “He has some ability, he’s not the most talented out there, he just makes up for it with work ethic. Ryder works as hard as anybody. He deserves everything he gets and I’m just proud that he decided to run for us.”

Ryder Darcey will try to make it to state as an individual and help Katy get back there for the second straight year in two weeks. It’s what the goal has been all year for himself and the group and he doesn’t plan on stopping now.

“We’re not going to get our heads too high from this,” Ryder Darcey said. “We all know we had a great day today, but we’re going to get right back to work, get some good workouts next week and we want to go out and do the same thing at regionals.”