Rank: #6
Name: Cruz Gomez
School: PSJA Memorial
Graduation Year: 2019
Gomez was in a very similar position as Knight is. He qualified for the 6A state cross country meet in every year since his freshman year. Geographically, he also got over looked a lot due to his location and other runners in his region like Sam Worley were tearing it up. However, he took things in his own hands and changed that last season.
He had a heck of an ending to his junior cross season. Gomez ran an outstanding state meet race going for a 15:13.50 PR taking 5th place in 6A. He really opened eyes two weeks after state as he ran sub 16:00 with his 15:38.93 at NXR South for 3rd place overall. Going sub 16:00 on that course is really tough to do, but Gomez did and he punched his ticket to NXN where he ran well again on a tough course with a 16:06.80 for 66th place against the nation's best cross country runners.
During track season, he maintained his high level of running. He made back to state in both the 1600m and 3200m saving his best for the state meet. Cruz PRed in the 1600m going 4:14.64 and the 3200m in 9:13.83 for runner-up finishes in both races.
He moves down to 5A to join the studs in that outstanding classification, how fast will he go?