Photo of Charlie Houck at the 2024 UIL 5A Track State Meet
The calendar has turned over to September which means that District meets are only about five weeks away. This past weekend also saw slightly cooler temperatures than the first few weeks of the season and it showed in the results on the course.
Top Team Performances of the Week
Boerne Champion and Johnson had the top team performances of the week. Both schools swept the team titles at their respective meets. The Chargers were particularly impressive in taking the top prize at the 22nd Annual San Antonio Patriots Invitational since over 30 schools were competing in each division.
The BC boys tallied 101 points and held off Katy by 10 points. Charlie Houck led the team with an overall fourth place finish in 15:50.73 and Luis Tovar finished sixth in 15:55.75 on the 5K course. In addition, Caleb Dehart finished in 25th and Shawn Edwards took home 28th place. As a team, they had a 1-5 average of 16:22 and a 1-5 split of 1:15.
The Charger girls matched their boys with a team title and finished with 107 points. A&M-Consolidated took runner-up honors 11 points behind them. As usual, Elizabeth Leachman led Boerne Champion by finishing as the individual medalist. She won by nearly a minute and a half with a time of 16:39.16. The team's #2 runner has consistently been Kynley Albright and it was no different on Saturday as she finished 20th overall in a time of 19:36.41. The team's #3-5 runners bunched up very well finishing within four seconds of each other. Freshmen Rebecca Bezerra and Addison Graham finished in 32nd and 34th, respectively while Luciana Zazueta Ibarra closed out their scorers in 35th place.
The Johnson boys nearly swept the NEISD Meet #2 and finished with 18 points. Their seven runners finished in the top eight spots in a meet that featured eight teams and 64 runners. Michael Repper-Molina was the individual champion in 16:07.2 on the 5K course and teammates Alexander Williams, Jameson Stewart, Kyle Wunderli and Ethan Aponte all broke 17 minutes.
The Johnson girls could not match the dominance of their boys team, but still won the meet with 25 points and had all five scoring runners finish in the first 11 runners. Emily Krot took home the individual title in 19:11.0 and Kira Albino was second in 19:47.0. Their next three runners were all freshmen; Ariana Pinheiro Barrei, Isabela Arias and Alyssa Gonzales. The Jaguars were particularly impressive considering they were missing their top runner, Isabella Porter.
In the Rankings
The Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas puts out State rankings throughout the season. The following teams appeared in the regular season poll #1 rankings:
3A Girls - Randolph (#7), Poth (#9)
3A Boys - Great Hearts Northern Oaks (#1), Lytle (#2), Randolph (#8)
4A Girls - Fredericksburg (#3), Davenport (#5)
5A Girls - Boerne Champion (#6)
5A Boys - Boerne Champion (#2), Alamo Heights (#10)
There was no update to the rankings this past week.
She's Back
It was good to see that Savanah Moya of New Braunfels was running this week. The junior was one of the top distance runners in the Region last year. She posted a strong third place finish in her first meet of the season at the SA Patriots Invitational. She ran a time of 18:26.42 over the 5K course. This year, New Braunfels has dropped down to the 5A level, but they are in an extremely tough district with both Boerne Champion and Smithson Valley. Last year, Moya was the top local 6A runner at the State meet finishing in 43rd place.
Winning Ways
Brennan's Kailyn Brunson and Zachary Miller have been racking up individual titles this year. Both have won their first three races of the season. Brunson opened her season at the NEISD Invitational on August 17 and posted a time of 19:51.49 on a 5K course to win by 24 seconds. The following weekend, she won the SAISD Invitational at Brooks City Base with a time of 18:01.20 on a 3-mile course and won by over 40 seconds. This week, she took gold at the Medina Valley Panther Invitational in 18:14.4 to win by over a minute.
Miller has been just as good as Brunson through the first three meets. He won the NEISD Invitational in 16:40.46 to win by 40 seconds. He led Brennan to a team title at the SAISD Invitational with a time of 15:13.20 and won by 35 seconds. He took gold at the Medina Valley Invitational with a time of 15:29.9 and won by 18 seconds.
Team on the Rise
The Taft girls appear to be a team that can contend for a District title this year. They won the Medina Valley Panther Invitational this past weekend by 23 points over a strong Boerne squad. The Raiders have a strong top three runners in Adelyn Miller, Madeleine Farr and Natalie Badillo. All three finished in the top-10 at MV. The week before, all three finished in the top-8 at the SCUC Invitational where they finished second as a team. They opened their season with a runner-up performance at the NEISD Invitational. Miller has shown the most improvement as she started the year as the team's #3 runner and has moved up a spot each week until this week where she was the team's top runner finishing in third place overall.
Around the City
There were fewer local meets this week with many local schools competing at the San Antonio Patriots Invitational. Boerne Champion won the boys meet with 110 points while Clemens was fourth, San Antonio Christian was sixth, Reagan was seventh and New Braunfels was eighth. Reagan's Gavin Chapa was the individual champion with a time of 15:22.62 on the 5K course and the runner-up was Jayce Love of Clemens who ran 15:40.89. Adrian Rule led a strong San Antonio Christian squad with a time of 16:10.97 to finish in 12th place overall while Wells Peterson of TMI took home ninth place. There were 35 teams competing in the elite boys division.
The elite girls division had 30 and Boerne Champion won with 107 points behind meet winner Beth Leachman. Brandeis was the next local school posting a fifth-place finish and they were followed by Reagan in seventh, Canyon in eighth and Churchill in ninth. In addition to Leachman and Savanah Moya's top finishes, Brooklyn Albert of Poth impressed with a fourth place run of 18:36.00 and Eleanor Smith of San Marcos posted another qualify result with a fifth place time of 18:38.65. Steele's Kassia Kozarski was the only other local runner to finish in the top-10.
The Johnson boys dominated the NEISD Meet #2 with 18 points. Michael Repper-Molina won the race with a time of 16:07.2. Daniel Garcia of Highlands was the only non-Johnson runner to finish in the top eight. He grabbed third place with a time of 16:45.7. Wagner grabbed team runner-up honors and were led by Rolando Urbina who finished in ninth place.
The Johnson girls also won in convincing fashion with 25 points. Emily Krot was the individual winner with a time of 19:11.0. Marshall's Hanah Dismukes and Southside's Emerald Aguirre each ran well and finished a second apart from each other in third and fourth, respectively. Wagner finished in second place as a team and were led by Lillyana Terry who finished eighth in 21:43.1.
Medina Valley hosted a 5A-6A meet and a 1A-4A meet. There were 23 teams in the 5A-6A boys division and Boerne came away with the team title with 84 points while Lytle (96) and Medina Valley (98) finished in the next two spots. Boerne was led by their top trio of Carsten Bain, Aaron Garcia and Barrett Crofut who all finished among the first six runners. Brennan's Zachary Miller won the individual title in 15:29.9 over TMI's Ethan Garcia who crossed the line in 15:47.5. Madison's Nicholas Maldonado nearly beat Bain for third place but had to settle for fourth in time of 15:51.8. Lytle was led by Johnny Rey Alvarez in 10th place and a time of 16:26.8.
Gloria Deo Academy won the 1A-4A boys race with 55 points. Owen Rogers was their top finisher taking home sixth place in the 11-team meet. Donovan Dixon of Devine, Zach Born of Stacey and Adrian De Los Santos of Holy Cross finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Medina Valley 5A-6A girls division was won by Taft with 74 points while Boerne (97) took second place and Lytle (119) finished in fourth place. There were 15 teams overall in the 5K meet. Brennan's Kailyn Brunson was the individual champion in 18:14.4 and was not seriously threatened. Lytle's Frances Scotello ran an excellent race to finish in second place in 19:20.0. Adelyn Miller, Madeleine Farr and Natalie Badillo led Taft to the title as they each finished in the top-8. Boerne was led by Eleanor Davis who finished sixth in 19:52.0 and Micah Monteleone broke 20 minutes for Alamo Heights to take the seventh spot.
There were only four full teams in the 1A-4A girls division. Bandera finished in second place while Great Hearts Northern Oaks took third place behind Julia Alcott and Madison Teague who took the top two individual spots in the 2-mile race.
The Lockhart Hippensteel Invitational hosted a 1A-4A division and a 5A-6A division with all races covering a 2-mile course. In the 1A-4A girls division, La Vernia won a closely contested team title with 72 points while Wimberley had 74 points and Pleasanton had 75 points. Katie Dallas was the individual champion for La Vernia with a time of 12:42.4 while teammate Isabella Burkhalter took third place in 13:07.2. Wimberley's Allison Dodds finished as the runner-up in 13:03.4 while Pleasanton was led by Shalyn Gutierrez's seventh place finish. Meadow Guillen of Luling added a top-10 place with her time of 13:53.4.
The La Vernia boys nearly matched their girls but had to settle for second place even though they had three runners in the top-10 in the 1A-4A division. Corbin Barnette led the team with a fourth-place finish in 11:18.3 while Alejandro Placencia took sixth and Logan Kirkwood was eighth. Pleasanton finished in third place with 80 points and Micah Klein was their top finisher in seventh with a time of 11:53.0.
In the 5A-6A division, the Davenport girls and boys took both team titles. The girls tallied just 35 points in the 10-team race. Kendall Fallon (3rd), Olivia Bounds (6th), Macie Fallon (7th), Cailtyn Long (9th) and Beth Bates (10th) each finished in the top-10. The boys tallied 72 points and won a closer team title. They were led by Eli Bliss who ran 10:35.9 and finished in third place. Blake Reagan and Christian Pena each finished in the top-10. Lockhart finished fourth as a team and received a second place finish by Ethan Herrera while Seguin was fifth and Prince Medrano took sixth place for them.
Fredericksburg traveled to the Brownwood Invitational in the middle of the week. The boys finished in third place while Derek Adams was the individual champion in 15:29.73 for the 5K course and Alfredo Rodriguez finished in 11th. The girls were fifth as a team, but Rilyn Grona won the individual title in 12:09.99 for the 2-mile course.
What's Happening This Week
There are a few more meets on the schedule this week. Canyon will be hosting their meet on Friday in Seguin while San Marcos, Bandera, Edgewood, Pearsall and Southwest ISD all have meets scheduled for Saturday.