Photo of Krish Vijayvergia from the 2023 UIL Cross Country State Meet
One of the great things about cross country is the team aspect and the season is getting to the point where teams are taking shape. It looks like the District meets could be bring us some thrilling competitions and there is more than one team in San Antonio that could end up as eventual State champions.
Top Programs of the Week
Normally, this is where I highlight a few teams that excelled but this week there were five programs that had their boys and girls teams win invitationals so they will get the focus this week.
The Smithson Valley girls have been dominating meets this year and last Friday was no different at the Canyon Cougar Invitational hosted at Starcke Park. Brady Solansky (18:40.69), Skyler Fonseca (19:42.35) and Lilly Koenig (20:00.39) took the top three spots while Aubrey Pozzi (20:09.14) and Addison Knibbe (20:13.03) finished fifth and sixth, respectively to give the team a total of 17 points. The boys were not as dominant but still had their best meet of the year. Zebene Martine (16:46.54) and Luke Smith (16:46.69) finished in a near dead heat for the top spot while Landon Chapa (17:54.56) and Sam Hall (18:01.64) each finished in the top-10.
Fredericksburg swept the Canyon Cougar 1A-4A Division against some of the best teams in the area. Rilyn Grona (12:06.13) led the girls team with a third place finish on the 2-mile course while Abbi Brown (12:44.63) nabbed a top-10 spot. Derek Adams led the boys team with the best performance of the day on the course running a time of 16:28.04. Jose Ruiz (18:27.85) finished in 10th and they won by over 20 points.
Bandera hosted the 3rd Annual Steve Golemon Invitational and it was Lytle taking the gold in both meets. Frances Scotello is putting together a fantastic season and she won the girls 2-mile race in 11:47.07. Her teammates Kaycee Galindo (12:26.62), Elyse Cortinas (12:26.87) and Svetlana Lopez (12:31.32) each finished in the top-10. The boys tallied just 23 points in the 14-team meet. Johnny Rey Alvarez (16:22.10), Lucas Salazar Lytle (16:38.01) and Bryan Montes (16:41.54) went second, third and fourth while Yandel Esquivez (16:46.64) and Diego Reyna (17:08.29) each finished in the top-10.
At the Pearsall Maverick Invitational, Great Hearts Northern Oaks won the gold in both divisions. Julia Alcott (12:47.68) and Madison Teague (12:53.19) took the top two spots in the girls 2-mile race while Krish Vijayvergia (16:52.83), Brayden Salzwedel (17:19.71) and Joshua Mounts (17:20.25) all finished in the top-4 in the boys 5K race.
Finally, Medina Valley was dominant at the Del Rio Invitational. Reese Marshall (20:17.50), Reesa Lowell (20:22.90) and Felicity Agee (20:26.30) all finished in the top-10 in the girls 5K race. The boys put five runners in the first seven and had Nicholas Castro (16:01.7), Jaxon James (16:04.4) and Kyle Carpenter (16:08.9) go 1-2-3 in the boys 5K race.
Runners of the Week
It was a great week for San Antonio runners as five individuals were listed in the State-wide poll for TX Milesplit Runner of the Week. Elijah Bliss of Davenport won the Runnin' Rattler Invitational at Texas State in a time of 15:58.44. The senior finished 51st at the UIL State meet last year in 4A and he leads a strong squad that will likely be back again this year.
TMI's Ethan Garza and Fredericksburg's Derek Adams were also on the ballot. Garza took gold at the Steve Golemon Bandera Invitational. He won the 5K race in 16:15.70 against a tough field that had 14 teams including Lytle. He led TMI to a second-place finish as a team. Adams is putting together an outstanding senior season and he won his second straight invitational at the Canyon Cougar Invite. He won the 1A-4A division in 16:28.04, but his time was faster than the winner of the 5A-6A race. He has been a Regional finalist in numerous events on the track and finished 21st in the Region in cross country last year, but will be looking to make his first trip to the State meet later this year.
Eleanor Smith of San Marcos and Smithson Valley's Brady Solansky were each on the poll for the top girls runner of the week. Smith, a sophomore, took gold at her own Runnin' Rattler Invitational last week. She cruised to victory in the 5K in 18:30.27. It was her third straight performance of running faster than 18:40 for a 5K. Last year, she finished 17th in the Region and she should be one of the top contenders against this year. Solansky hit the ground running as a freshman leading her team to a pair of team titles this year. Last week, she won the Canyon Couger Invitational with a time of 18:40.69 on the 5K course. She won the race by over a minute and she ran a 5:12 mile as an eighth grader.
On the Radar
Many times in cross country quality runners go unnoticed if they are not winning meets. This week, a pair of runners that I noticed were Zach Born of Stacey and Alicia Galvez of Southwest Legacy. Born has competed at the UIL 2A State Cross Country Championships each of the past two years and appears to be headed for a third straight time. He ran a personal best for the 5K at the Bandera Invitational last week and took seventh place in 17:08.19. Galvez is a multi-faceted athlete at Legacy. During the track season, she is one of the best 5A runners in the Region in the 800m and 1600m and she can also be found at the high jump pit where she cleared 5-1 last year and qualified for the Regional meet. This year the senior has seen great improvement in her cross country running with four top-10 finishes including this past week where she took third at the Runnin' Rattler Invitational while posting a time of 19:52.87 for a 5K.
Can She Be Beaten?
It is a legitimate question to ask if Randolph's Sophia Bendet can lose a race. She will finish her career this year as one of the best distance runners in San Antonio history. In cross country, she has not lost a non-national meet race since the 2022 State meet where she finished in fourth place. Last week, Bendet won her third straight invitational to start the season running a 10:39.57 over the 2-mile course at Max Starcke Park. Her track performances have been nearly as impeccable as her cross country performances.
As a sophomore, she lost just one 800m and one 1600m race en route to a pair of State titles. In her junior year, she won the Nike Indoor Nationals in the 1500m and finished third in the 800m before repeating as the outdoor State champ in the 800m and 1600m. Her only blemish was finishing second in the 1600m at the Texas Relays and second in the 800m at the HOKA Festival of Miles where she ran a 2:06.65.
Around the City
The Canyon Cougar Invitational at Starcke Park was held last Friday. Smithson Valley won both the boys and girls 5A-6A meets. The San Antonio Patriots posted a quality performance in the boys meet with David Jensen, Aiden Stout and Christian Helwig each finishing in the top-5 to lead the team to a runner-up finish. In the girls race, SV easily won but the host Cougars put up a nice performance with three runners in the top-10 including Madi Molinar who finished in fourth place and just missed breaking 20 minutes for the 5K.
In the 1A-4A boys at Canyon, Fredericksburg won but the surprise performance may have been Gloria Deo Academy finishing in second ahead of La Vernia and Pleasanton. GDA was led by Eli Rogers who finished in ninth place. Canyon Lake's Tristan Schenk was the runner-up to Derek Adams while La Vernia's Corbin Barnette was less than two seconds behind Schenk to nab third place.
In the 1A-4A girls, Sophia Bendet and Aubrey Milam once again took first and second for Randolph, but they were only able to finish in third place behind Fredericksburg and La Vernia. La Vernia's Katie Dallas and Isabella Burkhalter each finished in the top-10.
The Davenport girls won the Runnin' Rattler Invitational despite being the smallest school there. Macie Fallon and Caitlyn Long led the way with top-10 performances as the squad finished with 55 points while San Marcos was second with 63 points. Eleanor Smith won the individual title for San Marcos while Steele's Kassia Kozarski took runner-up honors with another outstanding race. The Davenport boys tried to match the girls but came up two points short as Mission won the meet with 43 points while Davenport had 45. Elijah Bliss won the individual title and teammates Christian Pena and Blake Reagan took sixth and seventh, respectively. Connor McGlothlin was the overall runner-up for San Marcos as he edged out Madison's Nicholas Maldonado by less than 2/10's of a second.
The 3rd Annual Steve Golemon Bandera Invitational featured outstanding performances from both Lytle squads. In the girls race they took four of the top eight spots. Arianna Rivera of Carrizo Springs and Lillian Rumbo of Ingram finished in second and third, respectively. Bandera's Taytum Moeller sprinted to a fourth place finish for the host. In the boys race, Lytle had five of the top eight runners. Intermixed were TMI's Ethan Garza who won the race, Donovan Dixon of Devine in fifth place and Zach Born of Stacey in seventh place.
At the Pearsall Maverick Invitational, Ian Lopez of BASIS-Shavano won his third meet of the season. He covered the 5K course in 16:48.97 and held off Krish Vijayvergia of Great Hearts Northern Oaks for the title. GHNO won the meet with 30 points while Central Catholic was second with 40 points. Sergio Martinez led Central Catholic with a fifth-place finish and the Buttons had four finishers in the top-10. Northern Oaks easily won the girls 2-mile race with just 24 points while Providence took second place with 38 points. Pearsall's Angelyna Montes finished in third place while Yahdira Lujan of Natalia crossed the line in fourth place as the top individuals not attending GHNO or Providence. Avery Parvin led Providence with a sixth-place finish while teammates Abigail Montz and Helene Hargesheimer cracked the top-10.
What's Happening This Week
Reagan will be traveling to the Lucas Lovejoy Fall Festival on Saturday while a few schools will be traveling to Corpus Christi for the Islander Splash. East Central is hosting their meet at the North East Sports Park. Buda Hays is hosting an invitational that many local teams are signed up for as well.
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