Story By Richard Mora
All the District 2-5A schools in El Paso arrived at Chamizal National Park this past Thursday for the district championship. The race featured nine schools and one hundred and thirteen runners, all looking to earn the district title.
Race favorite Michael Abeyta of El Paso Hanks took charge of the race from the first mile and paced himself well. The Hanks' senior easily ran 16:34.33 for the win which put him twenty- five seconds ahead of second. Sophomore Andy Martinez from El Paso Horizon came in second with a time of 16:59.24 and fellow Hanks runner Roger Rivera came in third with 17:14.58.
Even with Abeyta and Rodgers impressive first and third place finish it was Eastlake High School who would claim the team title. The falcons were led by senior Edgar Gonzalez who finished fourth in 17:29.70. The falcons would end up taking four spots within the top ten. Eastlake scored 36 points for first, Hanks was second with 69 points and Horizon was third with 92 points.
The 2-5A girls had quite the duel going on between Amaris Chavez from Eastlake and Horizon's Aeriel Garcia. Chavez broke free from Garcia late in the race to secure the individual title. The Eastlake senior ran 20:20.55 for first place which was only ten seconds faster than Garcia's 20:30.77 second place finish. Fellow Eastlake runner Stephanie Martinez was third in 28:48.08.
Although Eastlake had secured both first and third it would be Horizon who would come out on top for the team title. Garcia was followed up by Sophomore Destiny Beltran and Freshman Andrea Villagomez, finishing fourth and eighth respectively. Horizon's final score was 52 points for first, with the Eastlake falcons scoring 64 points for second, and Hanks round out the top three with 80 points.
Next up is the Regional race for all the qualifiers from District 2-5A. Many of whom are looking to earn a spot to state, such as Abeyta and Chavez.