San Antonio XC News and Notes Week #1

The first week of the Texas High School Cross Country season is officially in the books and while not every school was in action this past weekend there was a large percentage of San Antonio area schools that were in action. The weather was extremely hot, but that did not stop some outstanding performances from occurring.

Impressive Starts

A few of the top distance runners from the Spring made big statements to start the cross-country season. Brandeis' Hayden Scott busted out a 3-mile time of 14:12 at the SCUC Invitational hosted by Steele. Randolph junior Sophia Bendet, fresh off a pair of 3A State titles in the 800m and 1600m, won the Incarnate Word Invitational 2-mile race by over two minutes in 12:04 which would have placed her in the top 10... in the boy's race. A couple of local teams, Fredericksburg girls and the San Antonio Christian boys, were the big winners at the Johnson City Eagle Nation 6-Mile Relay.

Around the City

The first meet of the season was the Incarnate Word Invitational held at McAllister Park on Thursday. The two-mile course featured Bendet running away, literally, with the female individual title. Her teammate, Aubrey Milam, finished in second but they could not overcome the host Shamrocks who boasted four girls finishing in the top 10. IW finished with 45 points to defeat the Ro-Hawks by eight points. In the male varsity race, Cornerstone Christian had five of the top 10 finishers including Eduardo Avendano, Israel Cuellar and Jonathan Garcia who took third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Randolph was second thanks to a 1-2 finish by Josh Howard and Elliot Ludington.

The Kerrville Tivy Antler Rust Buster was a small meet held on Friday. Uvalde won the boys' meet with Jack Collins and Carter Crow taking the top two spots. In the girls' meet, Tivy won a virtual dual meet with Junction, 15-45 while posting the top six finishers. Hannah Hood won the meet with a time of 20:14.2 over the 5K course.

Davenport traveled to Sealy for their Friday Night Lights Invitational where both of their teams won. The boys were led by Christian Pena who won the 4K race in 12:54.24 while Eli Bliss took fifth and Eli Guerra came in ninth. The girls team nearly made it a clean sweep as Maddie Reagan, Olivia Bounds and Macie Fallon went 1-2-3 and Kendall Fallon took fifth on the 1.5-mile course.

Canyon Lake, Fredericksburg, Marion, San Antonio Christian and Wimberley all traveled to Johnson City for the Eagle Nation 6 Mile Relay and 1.5 Mile Run on Friday. The Fredericksburg 'A' team won the female division by over 1:30 and they had three of the top four individual runners in Taylor Grona, Ann Claire Cop and Rilyn Grona. Ava Stuewe added a quality fourth leg to take home the win. Canyon Lake finished second and boasted Cadence Patterson who covered the course in 8:35, the fastest time of the day. Fredericksburg's 'B' team took third place. In the male division it was San Antonio Christian edging out Marble Falls by 34 seconds. The team of Jack Hawkins, Malachi O'Brien, Nathan Womack and Adrian Rule took the victory with Rule posting the team's best time of 7:37, the second fastest time in the relay.

Floresville hosted a big invitational over the weekend with a couple of different varsity level races. The Reagan boys won the 5A-6A division with 45 points while the San Antonio Spartans (70) and San Antonio Patriots (96), both home school programs, took second and third. The Rattlers were led by Gavin Chapa who was second overall in a time of 15:46.36. Farrin Mangelson of SA Patriots was third and Southwest Legacy's Anthony Zapata nabbed fifth place. The Reagan girls matched the guys while winning with 42 points thanks to a tight pack that had their top five runners all finish in the top 14. Freshma Ariana Stark's time of 20:35.21 was the team's top finish which was good for fourth place. Loghan Gonzales of SA Patriots was the top local with a runner-up finish of 20:28.67 while Canyon's freshman Madi Molinar took third in 20:33.55. Canyon finished in second as a team while the Patriots were third.

In the Floresville 1A-4A division, it was the Canyon boys who took the victory with 51 points. Matthew Smith was their top finisher in 10:20.21. Host Floresville was second while Mathis was third. In the girls' race, it was Poth dominating the 2-mile course with four girls in the top nine including Brooklyn Albert (first), Katelyn Poth (second) and Rylee Ellis (fifth). Lytle's Francis Scotello took fourth place.

There was one interesting note from the Floresville Invitational. The Lytle boys team entered four runners in each division meaning they could not count as a full team in either. Had they entered all eight runners in the 5A-6A division it is likely that they would have won the meet. They already had four runners finish in the top 15 led by Abel Sanchez in sixth place.

NEISD hosted its first meet of the year at the NorthEast Sports Park. The Johnson boys and girls were the big winners as they swept the top team prizes. The Johnson boys placed five runners in the top 10 and finished with 24 points, well ahead of Brennan (63), Alamo Heights (69) and LEE (81). LEE's Arlo Gonzales was the dominant individual champion covering the 5K course in 15:44.96, nearly 45 seconds ahead of second place Michael Repper-Molina of Johnson. Brennan's Zachary Miller took third place while Manny Mood and Evan Packard of Johnson rounded out the top 5.

The girls' meet was much closer with Johnson finishing with 48 points, just seven points clear of Alamo Heights. LEE took home third place with 69 points. Avery Brawner of Alamo Heights was the individual champion with a time of 19:53.90 as she won the 5K race by almost 12 seconds over Brennan's Caila Lyons. Virginia Lessner of LEE, Emily Krot of Johnson and Sofia Cantor of LEE took the next three spots.

The final local meet of the weekend was the SCUC Invitational hosted by Steele. There were some fast times dropped on the 3-mile course led by Brandeis' Hayden Scott cruising to a win in 14:12.30. Eight other boys broke 15:30, including Andrew Rivas of Central Catholic who clocked a 14:57.20. The team title came down to Brandeis versus Central Catholic and their #5 runners, Alejandro Yamamoto crossed the line in 22^nd place in 16:00.40 to secure the Brandeis victory. After Central Catholic, Holmes and Clemens were a close third and fourth place, respectively.

The girls' race featured five runners who averaged better than a 6-minute mile pace with Taft's Brooklyn Crow taking home the title in 17:04.18. Jadeyn Perez of Clark was the runner-up and Anabella Palumbo of Brandeis took third. Pieper's Sadie Larson and Steele's Kassia Kozarski rounded out the top 5. Brandeis won the team title thanks to a strong first four runners who all finished in the top 11. Pieper was second with 83 points and then New Braunfels was third with 91 points.

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