Region 4-6A
Girls
Only one girl from Region 4 finished in the top 15 last year with Sophie Wollan (Austin Westlake) who isn't even running this year with another Mikaela Garza (San Antonio Brandeis) who finished 16th.
This year should be vastly different as there is a runaway freight train that is loose in Texas. She is traveling from the RGV on up to Corpus Christi soon to make its way up to Round Rock.
It's in the form of Edinburg North junior San Juanita Leal. The junior didn't finish in the top 20 last year, but she has been nearly unstoppable since then.
Leal has continued to run at an outstanding level and won the UIL 6A District 31 race with her fifth race under 17:46 this year. Her 17:37 win was a cruise control race with an over two minute margin of victory.
Speaking of two minutes, she has averaged a margin of victory of nearly 2 minutes all season long. It'll be interesting to see if the regional round could bring forth a UIL 6A challenger to race within 60 seconds of Leal prior to her getting to the state meet.
The next best times in the region are turned in by Round Rock ISD athletes. Micah Mizell (Round Rock Stony Point) checks in with a 18:21 from the Vista Ridge Cross Country Invitational and Priya Gangadharan (Round Rock Westwood) who also has a 18:21 SB.
There are total of 17 girls with times under 18:50 entering regionals and it could make for a barrage of girls heading into the finish as they run for state meet qualifying positions.
CCCAT No. 6 Austin Vandegrift comes in as the only team ranked in the CCCAT top-10. They have a 18:46 team average, which is almost 25 seconds faster than the next squad. It's their 20 second split that'll be difficult to keep them from being regional team champions.
Round Rock and New Braunfels also appear to have clear paths to the state meet. Meredith Wolfe and Lily Horvath can both run under in the 18s and with the three and four runners are both under 20 that is a huge key for Round Rock
Lola Daffin is the number one runner for New Braunfels and her whole squad is running within a minute of one another that point to their advantage.
Boys
Even though the Region 4 girls didn't place anyone in the top 10 at the 2021 state meet, the boys didn't have that problem.
Vandegrift's Kevin Sanchez won the state met by running 14:53. He returns this year and should handily take the regional win.
Sanchez already has two 14 minute runs this year and they're legit, coming on historically difficult courses.
After Sanchez, there are a whopping 35 boys who have sub 16-minute runs this season, which is telling of how close things could be.
In the district round, there was a tough UIL 6A District 25 championship battle that was the first chapter in the Round Rock - Vandegrift championship season battle.
It was Round Rock taking the district win 44 < 51. What was an outstanding two team battle saw Round Rock run a 15:58 as a team and only 34 seconds as the split. The Vandegrift stat line was also impressive as hey went 16:01 as a team with a 52 second split.
Kevin Sanchez won the individual race in 15:25 with Luke Hein close in tow with his run in 15:38. That man to man match up could be crucial in Corpus Christi.
The district race affected the CCCAT rankings as it pulled the Rock boys closer to the Vipers.Vandegrift is at No. 5 and Round Rock No. 7 heading into regionals.
San Antonio Reagan looks like the third best team in the region with New Braunfels not far behind.