The Front Pack In The Early Elite Boys Race
Another week has come and gone in the far west Texas city of El Paso which means another races was put into the books for this season.
Yesterday El Paso's Del Valle High School hosted the Rudolfo "Rudy" Alvarez Invitational that had runners run along the cities' canals. The race featured some notable performances on both the girls and boys side. Let's take a look at what transpired at the "Rudy" Alvarez Invitational.
To switch things up from last week the Elite Boys were given the honors of starting the meet of right. As morning got closer to the official start time for the race, you could see the boys start line filled with some of the best teams in the city.
Once the gun went off the boys began their stampede through the dirty canals on this 3.19 mile course. The extra distance did not seem to deter these boys from going out fast and giving it all they got.
Despite the course measuring longer than initially planned the Eastwood runners looked as though they wanted to take command of the race. In the earlier stages of the race the Eastwood boys had their top four runners taking up first through fourth. The four Eastwood boys were being shadowed by Franklin senior Fernando Morales and a few steps behind them was San Elizario senior Edwin Gomez.
The Eastwood Pair Pulling Away
As the front group passed the halfway point of the race it was the Eastwood pair of Juan Olmos and Sergio Leon Cuartas who began to pull away. The initial group of six had strung out at this point. With Eastwood senior Elias Perez stuck in no man's land and Fernando Morales following behind with Eastwood Junior Nathan Hernandez.
In the end, it would be Juan Olmos who would claim victory and earn his first win of the season. After opening up last week with a 15:51 at the Canutillo Invitational, a 15:59 on a 3.19 mile course is an improvement for him. His teammate Sergio would come in second with a time of 16:07, this time would be quite an improvement in comparison to last weeks 16:05.
The Elite Boys race was ultimately won by the Eastwood boys who placed all of their scorers within the top ten, the Troopers would end up scoring 19 points. The Franklin boys would come in second with a score of 61 points. The Cougars put up quite the impressive performance this weekend despite their second place finish. The team looks to be coming along nicely and may shock some of the other 6A teams in the city. The team that would round out the top three was San Elizario with a score of 101, the Eagles were led by Edwin Gomez who finished in 6th.
The Franklin Girls Pack In The Early Stage Of The Elite Race
The girls race followed after the boys and they too ran the 3.19 mile course. Although unlike the boys race the girls would have two teams fighting it out for the team title.
As predicted Franklin junior Eva Jess took the lead from the gun and pushed hard. Through the entire race Jess looked quite strong and showed little discomfort. Jess was looking to break 18 minutes, in the case a time equivalent to breaking 18 minutes.Her coaches and parents cheered her on and encouraged her throughout the race to help keep her focused.
Following behind Eva was Eastwood sophomore Lauren Walls Portillo who ran most of the race on her own. Even spending most of the race alone this did not discourage her as she pressed on to finish second. All this alone time for both Jess and Portillo are sure to make them mentally strong runners in the postseason.
The Elite Girls team race was definitely the event to watch as the Franklin and Eastwood girls battled it out for first. Both teams would place two runners in the top 5, and this resulted in the scores being tied just after the first two runners. When the third runner came for both teams it would push the scores to 10 to 11, and the fourth pushed the score to a close 17 to 20. The Cougars and Troopers were going blow for blow, they were both now waiting on their fifth runner. Anticipation built as everyone wondered how far was Franklin's fifth runner and would Eastwood's fifth runner place far enough ahead to upset the 3 point lead? Franklin's fifth finished in 11th place and Eastwood was 13th making it a close race and final score of 27 to 32, thus giving Franklin the victory.
El Paso Bel Air would be the team to round out the top three with a score of 103 points. The team was lead by sophomore Abagail Murillo and her 9th place finish.
The Tight Finish Of The Franklin And Eastwood Girls
As stated in the article the course was 3.19 miles to convert to the time to a 5k, you need to take off 33 seconds for the girls and 27 seconds for the boys.