Photo of Jade Perez, Clark HS
It was a fun week with all the UIL District meets taking place between Tuesday and Thursday in the San Antonio area. I was able to make it out to the District 26-3A championships that were held at Medina Valley High School on Tuesday and then made it out to the District 28-6A meet held at the North East Sports Park.
In the Rankings
The Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas (CCCAT) released their pre-district meet coaches poll. The Boerne Champion girls and boys are each ranked in the 5A top 10. Their girls team comes in at #10 while the boys maintained their #4 ranking. At the 4A level, the Fredericksburg girls remained the #1 team in the state while Davenport is still #6. The Boerne boys moved into the rankings at #7. The San Antonio area has a strong contingent at the 3A level with Poth (#2) and Lytle (#4) appearing in the girls poll and Lytle (#2), Great Hearts Northern Oaks (#6) and Randolph (#8) in the boys poll.
My Picks
If you remember from last week, I made tried to give predictions for each of our local districts so I wanted to go back and see how I did. I actually did well when picking the team champions getting 20-of-22 correct. My two misses were picking the Great Hearts Northern Oaks boys to win District 26-3A where Randolph knocked them off by two points and I picked the Clemens boys to win District 27-6A, but it was New Braunfels that prevailed by four points. I did not do as well when it came to picking the individual champion, but still got 10-of-20 correct (I didn't make choices in two districts for some reason). My picks did well with the lowest finish being fourth place.
6A District Results
District 27-6A ran at Max Starcke Park in Seguin on Tuesday. In the boys race, it was San Marcos junior Connor Mcglothlin who pulled off an upset win running 16:28.68 to lead his squad to a third place finish. New Braunfels and Clemens each had three runners finish in the top 10, but it was the Unicorn 1-5 split of 0:43 that led to their victory with 44 points while Clemens had 48 points. The individuals who advanced to the Regional meet were Josiah Harris of Judson (6th, 17:09.09) and Thomas Arispe of East Central (10th, 17:18.93).
The girls race featured New Braunfels freshman Savanah Moya as the run-away winner in 19:15.70. Her top four teammates all finished in the top 14 to give the Unicorns a comfortable win with 43 points. Steele was led by Kassia Kozarski's runner-up finish and they easily finished second as a team with 56 points. The third-place team ended up being San Marcos who edged East Central by four points. In addition, Lilyana Castro of Clemens (5th, 19:46.01), Destiny Hernandez of East Central (6th, 19:48.39) and Anastacia Garza of Judson (8th, 20:12.86) all advanced to the Regional meet as individuals.
District 29-6A was also held on Tuesday at Gustafson Stadium. In my preview, I mentioned that Sotomayor senior Joseph Lopez would contend for the individual title, but I did not think he would win which he did in 16:17.70. The Wildcats had three runners finish in the top six, but Holmes had better #4 and #5 runners to narrowly win the title with 50 points while Sotomayor had 53 points. Uriel Arizpe finished as the overall runner-up for Holmes. Brennan finished a close third place with 62 points. Taft did not advance as a team, but did see Jovanni Rosas (5th, 17:04.30) and Sean Torres (9th, 17:10.80) both move on.
The Taft girls earned a District title thanks to a brilliant first four runners who all finished in the top 10. They were led by senior Brooklyn Crow who ran an outstanding race to win in 19:14.10. O'Connor finished just two points behind Taft with 55 points and had three runners in the top seven with Araceli Ford leading the way with a second-place finish in 19:26.20. The third-place team was Brennan who finished with 70 points. Sotomayor's Emma Wallace (4th, 19:52.90) and Harlan's Reese Luquis (10th, 21:14.50) were the individual qualifiers.
District 28-6A ran on Thursday at North East Sports Park. In the boys race, Reagan's Gavin Chapa was able to hold off Hayden Scott of Brandeis with a strong last 800 meters to win in 15:33.63 while Scott was second in 15:44.86. Reagan narrowly defeated Johnson for the team title, 53 to 56. The Jaguars had an outstanding 1-5 split of just 0:46, but the difference ended up being Chapa finishing four spots ahead of Emanuel Mood, the top Johnson runner. Brandeis grabbed third place with 72 points. Churchill, LEE and Madison all had individual qualifiers as it was a very competitive meet among all the schools. Arlo Gonzales (3rd, 15:54.38) and Angel Ortiz (9th, 16:46.74) moved on for LEE while Churchill's Alejandro Rosales (4th, 16:28.45) and Madison's Nicholas Maldonado (6th, 16:37.12) also advanced. Maldonado was the only varsity runner for the Mavericks, but he represented his school quite well.
The girls race featured one of the top individuals in all of San Antonio, Clark's Jade Perez. Perez did not disappoint as she took home top honors with a dominant win in 18:56.27. Reagan did not put a runner across the finish line until Katlin Foster crossed in sixth place, but the rest of the team followed in quick succession as their top five runners were separated by a total of 0:11 to give them an impressive victory with 45 points. Johnson's dynamic freshmen, Emily Krot and Isabella Porter, each finished ahead of all the Rattlers, but their team was not able to match Reagan as they finished second with 64 points. Brandeis took a close third with 70 points. In addition to Perez, Marshall's Hanah Dismukes (4th, 19:54.83) and the LEE duo of Virginia Lessner (9th, 20:08.94) and Sofia Cantor (10th, 20:10.56) all advanced to the Regional meet.
5A District Results
The District 26-5A boys race ended up being the closest one in the area with Smithson Valley's Bradyn Youngdahl nipping Boerne Champion's Luis Tovar by 0.14 seconds as both went under 16 minutes at Max Starcke Park in Seguin. While Youngdahl got the individual title, Tovar and his teammates took home the team title with just 29 points as they had four runners finish inside the top eight. Smithson Valley took second and Pieper was third. Individually, it was Hunter Evans of Tivy (6th, 16:34.64) and Wagner's Korey Shuler (7th, 16:37.52) moving on.
In the girls race, Champion sophomore Elizabeth Leachman took the next step in her historic season with a winning time of 16:32.80, over 2:30 better than second place. Leachman ranks among the top runners in the entire nation this year. The Chargers had three finish in the top 10, but they could not match the tight pack of runners that Canyon put together as they had their top five finish between 6th and 12th place with a 1-5 split of 0:32 and 46 points. Freshman Madi Molinar was their top finisher in 19:49.48. Boerne Champion was second with 51 points and Pieper took third with 69 points. Smithson Valley's Mia Perez (2nd, 19:13.54) and Tivy's Hannah Hood (3rd, 19:30.06) were the long individuals to advance to the Regional meet.
District 27-5A was dominated by Alamo Heights as expected. In the boys race, they took home four of the top five places en route to 26 points. Sophomore Joshua Sharp was the individual champion in 16:05.94. Edison had a pair of runners finish in the top 10 and took second overall with 59 points while Brackenridge was third with 84 points. Jordan Avila of Burbank (7th, 17:12.37) and Daniel Garcia of Highlands (8th, 17:13.38) were the individual qualifiers in the district.
The Mules were not quite as dominant in the girls race but still won with only 34 points behind individual champion, senior Avery Brawner who finished in 19:27.17. Overall, they put four runners into the top 10. Brackenridge took second place with 55 points behind a runner-up performance by Jadyn Gonzales who crossed the tape in 19:38.72. MacArthur nabbed third place with 76 points. Highlands freshman Zoe Barron (7th, 20:25.39) and Edison's Aubry Ybarra (8th, 20:36.83) advanced in the postseason.
In District 28-5A, Southwest Legacy senior Anthony Zapata cruised to victory in 16:07.70. Medina Valley served as host of the meet and won with 36 points as their top five runners all finished in the top 10. Eagle Pass Winn finished in second as a team with 43 points and were led by freshman Dante Jimenez's runner-up finish while Southwest took third with 90 points.
The girls race was won by Southwest Legacy's Annabella Zapata, the sister of Anthony, giving the Zapata's a pair of titles. Medina Valley easily won the meet with 26 points. Southwest Legacy edged out Southwest for second place, 72 points to 75 points. McCollum freshman Bryanna Garza (10th, 23:01.90) was the lone individual qualifier in the district.
4A District Results
Geronimo Navarro junior Ethan Luu was the individual boys champion in District 27-4A finishing the 5K race in 15:42.96. Boerne won the team title with only 32 points. They had five runners finish between 3rd and 11th place led by Jackson Temple's time of 16:09.22. Davenport nabbed second place thanks to a pair of runners finishing in the top four. Bandera took third despite not having any runners in the top 10. In addition to Luu, Wimberley's Arlen Hanle (5th, 16:19.45), Canyon Lake's Tristan Schenk (8th, 16:43.90) and Derek Adams (9th, 16:46.77) of Fredericksburg advanced on to Regionals.
In the girls race, it was no surprise that #1 ranked Fredericksburg won the title with 29 points, but it was a bit of a surprise that Fredericksburg's Taylor Grona upset Canyon Lake's Cadence Patterson for the individual title. Grona finished the 2-mile race in 10:57.09 while Patterson crossed the tape in 11:06.17. Davenport, the #6 team in the State, took second place with 60 points behind a pair of top 10 performances by Madeline Reagan and Kendall Fallon. Navarro was the third team qualifier with 109 points finishing ahead of Canyon Lake, Bandera and Boerne by 10 points or less. Patterson and Eva Zabarcenco (9th, 11:57.92) were individual qualifiers from Canyon Lake and Boerne's Eleanor Davis (7th, 11:54.04) also advanced.
District 28-4A was controlled by La Vernia. Their boys won with 23 points and a 0:23 1-5 split. Gonzales sophomore Ramos Ckristofer was the individual champion in 17:51.11, but La Vernia had the next four finishers. Gonzales ended up in second place with 39 points while Fox Tech took third with 81 points. Kennedy senior Pedro Rodarte (10th, 18:39.83) was the only individual qualifier.
In the girls 2-mile race, La Vernia took the top spot with 31 total points. Junior Katie Dallas led the way running 12:47.84 to win by nearly 30 seconds. She had three more teammates finish in the top seven. Gonzales took second place with 43 points while YWLA edged out Kennedy for third place by three points. Kennedy freshman Haydee Vail-Lopez's (3rd, 13:27.86) season will continue after her performance.
Floresville hosted the District 29-4A meet and their boys won the title with 38 points. They were led by individual champion Eli Perez who finished in 16:57.50 while teammates Diego Fernandez and Joshua Simmons took third and fourth, respectively. Uvalde had three runners finish in the top six to earn second place with 52 points while Pearsall slipped in as the third-place team with 76 points. Devine had three individual qualifiers: Jesse House (8th, 18:31.50), Donovan Dixon (9th, 18:31.70) and Jaiden Alvarez (10th, 18:31.80).
In the girls race, three teams were in hot competition for the team title. Floresville ended out on top with 56 points while Devine was second with 61 and Pleasanton took third with 62 points. Alyssa Quinones of Floresville was the individual winner in 12:50.70. There were three individual qualifiers for the Regional meet: Anissa Ojeda (2nd, 13:00.60) of Carrizo Springs, Arianna Rivera (5th, 13:09.90) of Carrizo Springs and Pearsall's Angelyna Montes (9th, 13:39.90).
3A District Results
Last Tuesday, I was able to see some of the top 3A runners hit the trails at Medina Valley. In the 26-3A boys race, Isai Moran of Great Hearts Northern Oaks won the race easily in 16:08.94. GHNO entered the race ranked #6 in the State, but they could not hold off #8 Randolph who won the meet with 37 points while the Griffins had 39. After the top two teams, Cole took third with 64 points thanks to a solid pack of runners. Luling's Miguel Silva-Hernandez battled Josh Howard of Randolph for second place but was passed in the final 150 meters to take third in 16:35.63.
In the girls race, Randolph's dynamic duo of Sophia Bendet and Aubrey Milam took home the top two spots in 11:13.56 and 11:45.36, respectively. Bendet remained perfect on the season. GHNO had three of the next four finishers but were not able to overtake Randolph for the team title as the Ro-Hawks had 46 points and the Griffins had 47 points. Cole finished a strong third place with 55 points as their pack of runners took place 9-14. Luling's Meadow Guillen (5th, 12:37.61) and Marion's Kelli Cielencki (8th, 13:07.10) were the two individual qualifiers.
In District 27-3A, Poth was the big winner with a pair of team titles. Their girls posted a perfect score of 15 points while their boys had all five finishers earn top 10 honors. The Poth girls entered the week ranked #2 in the State.
District 28-3A saw the Lytle boys and girls have little trouble winning their district titles. The boys posted a perfect score and remain poised to try to defend their State title while the girls scored 19 points and are ranked #4 in the State.
What's Next
The Region 4 championships will take place October 23-24 in Corpus Christi. In addition, TAPPS district meets as well as the TCAF and Homeschool State Championships take place this week.