Photo of Christian Pena
This week had the most local meets of the season up to this point. The majority were conducted under normal team scoring rules, but the Edgewood Invitational was a relay consisting of three members each running a two-mile course for both boys and girls. The team that made a big statement at the meet was the Sotomayor boys who had the top 3-man relay that averaged 5:23 per mile and the fourth-best relay that averaged 5:37 per mile. They went up against several Northside schools at the meet and will likely head into the district meet as one of the favorites after their performance last week.
Dominating Performances
This seemed to be the week of dominant performances as multiple teams threatened a perfect score. Davenport traveled north to Pflugerville and both of their teams stole the show for the 1A-4A division. In the girls race, Madeline Reagan, Kendall Fallon, Olivia Bounds and Macie Fallon swept the top four spots while Rylee Reisdorph was eighth to give them a total of 18 points. Reagan's winning time was 12:38.8 for the 2-mile course while Kendall Fallon was six seconds behind her. In the boys race, Christian Pena and Eli Bliss took the top two spots with Pena finishing the 5K race in 17:14.1. The rest of the top five all finished among the top eight runners giving the team 23 points.
The 2nd Annual Steve Golemon Bandera Invitational featured a pair of runaway team champions. The Fredericksburg girls totaled 19 points. They were led by Taylor Grona, Ann Claire Cop and Rilyn Grona who took the top three spots. Taylor Grona cruised the 2-mile course in 11:38.00 and Cop also broke 12 minutes. In the boys division, TMI took the top four spots in the 5K race led by twin seniors Franco and Marcelo Parra. Franco was the individual winner in 16:06.45. In addition, Wells Peterson and Ethan Garza took third and fourth for the team. They finished with 27 points overall.
La Vernia hosted a small meet where their boys team put five runners in the top-7 to win the team title with 21 points. Dylan Mills and Alejandro Placencia were the top two individuals overall and for the team.
Around the City
Canyon hosted a meet in Seguin at Max Starcke Park, although they ran a slightly different course than the normal District meet setting. The course ended up being around 3.3 miles instead of 5K. In the girls 5A-6A race, Boerne Champion's Beth Leachman continued her winning ways crossing the line in 17:30.85, over 2:30 ahead of second place Mia Perez of Smithson Valley. There was another 45+ second gap after Perez to Champion's Kynley Albright in third place. Canyon had three runners: Madi Molinar, Yazmin Torres and Mollie Allen, all finish in the top 10. The Cougars won the team title with 42 points thanks to a tiebreaker over Champion who also had 42 points. San Antonio Patriots took the third spot with 91 points.
In the boys 5A-6A race it was Farrin Mangelson of San Antonio Patriots who took the gold medal with a time of 16:50.07. Mangelson is putting together a fantastic season with three victories and two third place performances this year. He held off LEE's Arlo Gonzales who was second in 16:59.97. Smithson Valley's Bradyn Youngdahl finished in third about 20 seconds in front of Boerne Champion's Luis Tovar and Caleb Dehart in what could be a District meet preview. Champion won the team title with 33 points while Smithson Valley was second with 54 and the Patriots were third with 94.
In the 1A-4A girls 2-mile race, Canyon Lake had four of the top five runners overall, but it was Wimberley who won the team title by 13 points. Cadence Patterson (Canyon Lake) won the individual title by over a minute in 12:27.42 and I would not be surprised if the course was slightly longer than two miles. Allison Dodds led Wimberley with her runner-up performance.
The Canyon Lake boys won the 1A-4A race with 58 points. Layton Hemann won in 18:05.34 while his teammate, Tristan Schenk was third. Arlen Hanle of Wimberley was the runner-up and Gloria Deo's Jaxon Smith took sixth place.
The Reagan boys competed at the Runnin' Rattler Invitational hosted by San Marcos and came away with the team title despite running without their top runner, Gavin Chapa. They featured a nice pack of runners with Luke Munoz, Sebastian Gamiz, Adam Saif and Bryce Williams all finishing in the top 10. They beat Laredo United by six points for the team title. Randolph's Joshua Howard was the top local at the meet taking second place in a time of 15:35.66 for the 5K course.
In the girls race, Randolph's Sophia Bendet ran her first 5K of the season and she won by over a minute in 17:34.77 against a solid field that included Sadie Larson (Pieper), Hannah Hood (Kerrville Tivy) and Alexandria Juarez (San Marcos). Those three all ran between 18:35 and 18:53. Overall, it was Pieper winning the team title with 65 points over Georgetown East View (72 points), Laredo United (85) and Reagan (86).
At the Bandera Invitational, the Fredericksburg girls easily won the title. The were other locals who ran well at the meet including Frances Scotello (Lytle) in sixth, Taytum Moeller (Bandera) in seventh and Rachel Stotts (Devine) in ninth. In the boys race, the top non-TMI finisher was Christopher Chan of St. Mary's Hall who took fifth in 17:29.51. Fredericksburg's top duo, Emmitt Harper and Derek Adams, nabbed sixth and seventh place, respectively.
What's Happening This Week
The schedule for this week includes Seguin hosting a meet at Starcke Park on Thursday and SAISD hosting a second meet at Brooks City Base. In addition, Davenport is headed to the Texas A&M Invitational and Smithson Valley is lined up to go to Buda Hays. Finally, a large group of schools are headed to the Islander Splash hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on the Regional meet course.