The Southlake Carroll girls cross country team awaits a ruling today from the UIL on a protest that could make it the 5A state champion for the third consecutive year.

Carroll and Humble Kingwood tied for first at the UIL state meet Saturday in Round Rock with 74 points. However, Kingwood was awarded the tiebreaker because its No. 6 runner placed 44th and Carroll's finished 47th.

Carroll coach Robert Ondrasek said Sunday that he filed a protest immediately after the race regarding the place of his No. 5 runner, Lucia Xiong.

The UIL requires that chips are attached to each runner at the state meet to determine when she crosses the finish line. Its timing system had Xiong coming in at 12:35.35, or 58th place overall and 35th place for team scoring purposes. Ondrasek contends that Xiong finished better than 58th, which would give Carroll fewer than 74 points and the title.

Ondrasek said the UIL acknowledged his protest but went forward with the awards ceremony.

No decision on the protest had been reached by the end of the meet, and the UIL notified Ondrasek that it would review the video of the race and make a final ruling today.

"We have every reason to believe our No. 5 runner wasn't placed in the right spot," Ondrasek said.

A protest in the 4A girls race regarding the finish of the third- and fourth-place runners was also filed Saturday, but it was solved before the awards ceremony started. UIL representatives reviewed video of the finish and determined that McKinney North's Stephanie Ganter was indeed the third runner to cross the finish line.