Lauren Walls-Portillo and Adelynn Rodriguez are trying to help lead the El Paso Eastwood Lady Troopers back to the UIL State Cross Country Championships. They are getting plenty of help and the likelihood of that becoming reality coming out of Region 1-6A will be dependent on the entire team along with their leadership.

The senior Portillo, has been providing the leadership; she was a part of the last Eastwood girls team to qualify for the state meet when she was a freshman. The addition of Rodriguez who is in her freshman season to have Portillo who is one of the best runners in the state to look up to allows her to take advantage of the seniors on the team while still providing her abilities.

The two are a real duo providing a 1-2 punch for a team that has been running well all season long and progressing along with the season.

It seems the bigger the meet, the bigger the performances get from Portillo and Rodriguez. They travelled to California to compete at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, they ran 17:17.60 and 17:20.10 and then at the Arizona Desert Twilight XC Festival 17:47.10 and 17:56.

Portillo and Rodriguez are the state's fourth ranked 1-2 duo at 5,000m and the third best in Region 1-6A. Their performance is crucial to the team's state meet qualifying goal. They have demonstrated how capable they are of running between three and eleven seconds of one another in big meet.