Photo of Cadence Patterson, Canyon Lake
The Regional meet is where the pressure of the season really hits a high point with no room for mistakes for those teams and individuals hoping to get to the State meet. Local San Antonio teams shined brightly this week, especially at the 3A and 4A levels where they dominated.
2A Region Recap
There are not many 2A schools that fall within the San Antonio Metro area, but that did not stop some very nice performances. The Stockdale boys finished in third place with 98 points to advance to Round Rock. They were led by Taylor Warrick (2nd, 17:16.89), Cooper Warrick (6th, 17:40.16) and Matthew Kurtz (20th, 19:12.91) who each finished in the top 20. Falls City's Kash Brown (5th, 17:31.35) was the top local and Zach Born (17th, 19:08.48) of Stacey will join him at the State meet.
In the girls 2-mile race, Stockdale took third with 133 points and Falls City finished tied for fourth with 186 points and advanced to the State meet based on their sixth runner, Libby Lee, who finished ahead of Johnson City LBJ's sixth runner. Stockdale's Peyton Keller (3rd, 13:01.10) and Brianna Tomerlin (18th, 13:45.38) each finished in the top-20 while Falls City's Hannah Thomas was their top finisher in 13:47.26 to take 20th.
3A Region Recap
The local 3A boys put on a show as Lytle, Great Hearts Northern Oaks and Randolph went 1-2-3 while Cole finished a close sixth place. Lytle, the 2022 State Champs, won the title with 50 points thanks to a 1-5 split of 0:28 as their top-5 runners all finished in the within the first 17 runners. The group of Abel Sanchez (6th, 17:04.65), Tristan Lopez (9th, 17:08.00), Yandel Esquivez (11th, 17:11.85), Bryan Montes-Rodriguez (12th, 17:15.83) and Brandon Obando (17th, 17:33.34) held off the Griffins who finished a close second with 56 points. GHNO's Isai Moran was the individual champion crossing the tape in 16:23.86 while Benjamin Alcott (5th, 16:52.55) and Krish Vijavergia (7th, 17:05.60) also came through in a big way. Randolph took third with 104 points and were led by Josh Howard (4th, 16:43.61) and Elliot Ludington (14th, 17:21.35). There were also a pair of individual qualifiers from the area with Luling's Miguel Silva-Hernandez (3rd, 16:38.59) and Cole's Ilias Braxton (10th, 17:10.82) each runner excellent races.
The 3A girls nearly matched the boys but had to settle for a 1-2-4 finish with Poth, Lytle and Randolph each moving on. In addition, Great Hearts Northern Oaks, Cole and Dilley each finished in the top 10. Randolph's amazing duo of Sophia Bendet (1st, 11:28.82) and Aubrey Milam (2nd, 12:05.00) took the top two spots just like they did at their district meet. Bendet remained perfect on the season and already has a pair of State titles to her name after winning the 800m and 1600m in track last Spring. Last year, she finished fourth at the State meet in cross country and lost to Poth's Brooklyn Albert who finished third on Tuesday running 12:24.29.
Poth won the Regional title in comfortable fashion with 72 points. In addition to Albert, they had Katelyn Poth (5th, 12:34.00) and Rylee Ellis (14th, 13:09.33) finish inside the top-15. Lytle finished with 109 points and had a pair of top-10 runners in Frances Scotello (8th, 12:45.82) and Samantha Mujica (10th, 12:53.33). GHNO had a pair of runners move on to the State meet, Bella Haas (6th, 12:45.14) and Josie Davis (9th, 12:51.72) while Kelli Cielencki (17th, 13:22.39) of Marion will also be making the trip to Round Rock. Dilley's Chloe Rodriguez (20th, 13:27.50) added a top-20 finish and just missed qualifying for the State meet.
4A Region Recap
The San Antonio Metro area had four of the top six 4A boys teams, but only two of them, Boerne and Floresville, qualified for the State meet. The Greyhounds finished as the runners-up with 83 points despite only have one runner finish in the top 10. Their top two finishers were Carsten Bain (9th, 17:15.23) and Aaron Garcia (17th, 17:41.92). Floresville was able to hold off Davenport and Bandera for the final State spot. They were led by Diego Fernandez (11th, 17:22.94) and Eli Perez Floresville (16th, 17:34.38). Floresville finished with 173 points while Davenport had 177 and Bandera had 183 despite not having a runner finish in the top-25. Bandera's 1-5 split was an outstanding 0:31 and almost got them to the State meet. Davenport nearly qualified for the State meet despite only running five runners and they were without their top runner, Christian Pena who finished second in District 27-4A just two weeks ago.
Individually, Navarro's Ethan Luu won the individual title in 16:26.43 while Jack Collins (6th, 17:03.36) of Uvalde, Arlen Hanle (7th, 17:07.41) of Wimberley, Eli Bliss (8th, 17:07.85) of Davenport and Tristan Schenk (12th, 17:23.48) of Canyon Lake will all join him in Round Rock.
The 4A girls were dominated by #1-ranked Fredericksburg who took home the title with 37 points, 81 points ahead of second place Davenport. The Billies' top four runners of Taylor Grona (1st, 11:42.95), Ann Claire Cop (3rd, 12:00.62), Rilyn Grona (5th, 12:08.78) and Anna Munoz (12th, 12:35.56) all finished in the top-12 and they will be the top choice for the State title. Davenport has had a great season and have just had the misfortune to be in the same district as Fredericksburg. They were led by Madeline Reagan (6th, 12:15.14) and Kendall Fallon (13th, 12:36.37).
Canyon Lake only sent two runners to the Region meet and both advanced to the State meet. Cadence Patterson (2nd, 11:44.45) will be one of the top contenders for the State title while freshman Eva Zabarcenco (10th, 12:28.42) will cap off a great season in Round Rock. Floresville's Alyssa Quinones (14th, 12:36.71) and Boerne's Eleanor Davis (15th, 12:36.95) also advance to the State meet.
5A Region Recap
Boerne Champion was the big winner at the 5A level with boys teams winning Regional titles. In the boys race, they put their top four runners in the top-20 and won with 86 points. Luis Tovar (9th, 16:23.57), Charlie Houck (12th, 16:29.23), Caleb Dehart (18th, 16:41.84) and Ben Matamoros (20th, 16:43.71) were their top four finishers. Lockhart took home silver medals with 127 points and they were led by Zeke Sanchez (7th, 16:12.65). Alamo Heights was the third local team to qualify for the State meet after finishing in fourth place. Joshua Sharp (11th, 16:27.15) was the top finisher for the Mules who finished two points in front of McAllen. Individually, it was Anthony Zapata (3rd, 15:56.28) of Southwest Legacy who was the top local runner.
In the 5A girls race, Boerne Champion's Elizabeth Leachman set the tone with a dominating race covering the 5K course in 16:50.61, over 1:40 ahead of second place. The Chargers finished with 101 points and had one other runner in the top-10, Kynley Albright (12th, 19:42.29). Canyon finished a close third place with 131 points behind Madi Molinar (17th, 19:54.22), Yazmin Torres (19th, 19:54.36) and a solid 1-5 split of 1:16. Pieper put in a solid performance to finish in sixth place with 198 points. Two other locals qualified for the State meet, Mia Perez (7th, 19:10.63) of Smithson Valley and Avery Brawner (13th, 19:44.36) of Alamo Heights.
6A Region Recap
Only one local team qualified for the 6A State meet and that was the Reagan boys who finished third with 193 points. It is believed to be the first ever Reagan cross country team to qualify for the State meet. The Rattlers were led by junior Gavin Chapa's fourth place finish in 15:35.10. Chapa's biggest rival has been Brandeis' Hayden Scott. At the district meet, Chapa was able to run away from Scott in the last 800m, but this time it was Scott who came out on top as he finished as the overall runner-up in 15:29.67. LEE's Arlo Gonzales (6th, 15:42.52) and Brennan's Zachary Miller (9th, 15:58.75) both put in top-10 performances to qualify for the State meet. Sotomayor had a pair of runners, Joseph Lopez (18th, 16:20.64) and Paul Wallace (19th, 16:22.75), finish in the top-20 and just miss advancing.
The local 6A girls teams were shut out of the State meet, but there were four individuals who qualified: Savanah Moya (9th, 19:06.89) of New Braunfels, Caila Lyons (10th, 19:10.96) of Brennan, Brooklyn Crow (11th, 19:12.72) of Taft and Araceli Ford (12th, 19:23.17) and O'Connor.
What's Next
The State meets are coming up soon with the TAPPS State Championships coming up on Monday in Waco and the UIL State Championships November 3-4 in Round Rock.