Photo of Reagan's Gavin Chapa
There were a couple of big meets this past weekend and San Antonio runners and teams made a big impact at the Hays CISD Invitational, Lucas Loveyjoy Fall Festival and the Texas A&M Invitational in addition to the local meets in the area. Gavin Chapa (Reagan), Savanah Moya (New Braunfels), Sophia Bendet (Randolph) and Katie Dallas (La Vernia) all came up big with individual victories this weekend at large invitationals.
Top Programs of the Week
The two best girls teams this year just happen to hail from the same district and they have been going head-to-head multiple times already this year. On Friday, Smithson Valley and Boerne Champion squared off again at the Hays Invitational and despite both missing important runners they went 1-2 at a meet that had 21 teams, including many 6A programs.
The Rangers have yet to run with their full lineup this year. Senior Mia Perez was expected to be the top runner on the team but has not run a race this season. She is slated to run her first race this upcoming week. They also held out freshman Brady Solansky who has been their #1 runner all season long. Despite that, Lilly Koenig led the team with a personal best time of 18:53 to finish in fifth place. She was followed closely by Aubrey Pozzi (19:08), Skyler Fonseca (19:16) and Addison Knibbe (19:21) who all finished in the top-15.
The Rangers won the meet with 67 points while the Chargers finished second with 79 points and they were without Elizabeth Leachman who was at the meet but did not run to allow her some rest. Leachman is the defending State champion and should be in line for her second in a row this year. The rest of the Chargers ran well, and they had three runners in the top-15 with Peyton Baldwin (19:19), Rebecca Bezerra (19:22) and Kynley Albright (19:25).
Expect to see the two teams battle it out for District and Regional titles and possibly a State title if everything breaks right for one of them.
Runners of the Week
I already mentioned the runners of the week in the opening paragraph but let's take a look at what they each accomplished. Reagan made the trip to the DFW area to compete at the Lucas Lovejoy Fall Festival. Gavin Chapa topped a field of 289 runners and broke 15 minutes for a 5K course for the first time in his career with a 14:57.0 which immediately puts him on a short list of runners competing for a 6A State title. Savanah Moya and New Braunfels went to the Hays Invitational where she bested a field of 21 teams. She ran a time of 18:03 which is a top-25 time in the State this year for any classification. Randolph went to the Hays Invitational, but Sophia Bendet made the trek to College Station. She does not usually run in the 5K division but made the step up and she dominated the race running a time of 17:23.2 to win over nearly 500 runners. She is ranked #6 in the 5K and #1 in the 2-mile this year. Finally, La Vernia's Katie Dallas ran everyone down in the 2-mile race at the Texas A&M Invitational winning in a time of 12:17.4 in a race that had 283 runners.
One District to Watch
District 27-6A is always competitive in both the boys and girls divisions and this year is no different. It is one of the District's that I will be watching closely that second weekend of October. According to the Texas Milesplit team scores calculator, the Reagan boys are slight favorites over Johnson but I would not want to make my pick right now. The Rattlers have the #1 runner in the District in Gavin Chapa but the Jaguars have been rolling over the competition and have a deeper roster.
Right now, the calculator has four teams projected to finish within 20 points of each other in District 27-6A girls. Brandeis is currently the favorite behind Ada Mathias who is the clear top runner in the District at this point in the season. Brandeis and Johnson each have three runners who have broken 20 minutes this year. Reagan has an advantage when it comes to their depth as they are the only team that has seven runners who have run at least 21:00.78 for a 5K this year. Churchill should also be considered a contender with freshman Kallie Van Prooyen leading the way. It will be exciting to see which squad improves the most over the next three weeks.
A Family or a Team?
Some people may have noticed a new team out there this year, the South Texas Heat Homeschool team. They finished a strong fourth place at the Texas A&M Invitational this past weekend and the most interesting fact about the team is that it is five sisters competing together. The Latta family is led by Elin who set national middle school records last year and is already one of the best high school runners in the State. She finished second to Sophia Bendet by running a time of 17:45.5 last weekend. Iris finished fourth in 18:18.2 while Remy and Reese both ran faster than 20 minutes and finished in the top-25. Addyson, the oldest of the bunch, ran her first race of the season and handled herself well finishing in the top 25% of all runners.
Around the City
I have already written a lot about the Hays Invitational girls race where Smithson Valley and Boerne Champion took the top two spots and Savanah Moya won. In the team standings, Canyon finished in third while New Braunfels took fourth in the 21-team race. Eleanor Smith (18:25) of San Marcos and Aubrey Milam (18:48) of Randolph each posted top-5 finishes while Kallie Van Prooyen (19:05) of Churchill finished in seventh place.
In the boys division of the Hays Invitational, Boerne Champion won another team title this year with 70 points in the 26 team race. They were led by Charlie Houck (15:42) in fourth, Luis Tovar (15:59) in ninth and Caleb Dehart (16:16) in 14th place. Floresville freshman Kaden Cypert solidified his claim to be the top newcomer in the area by running 15:49 and finishing in sixth to lead his team to an eighth place finish.
At the Texas A&M Invitational, many girls who will run two miles during championship season stepped it up to the 5K in addition to Sophia Bendet. Poth's Brooklyn Albert (18:56.0) took 10th place while Rilyn Grona (19:23.8) of Frederickburg finished in 19th place. Antonian's Alexandra Johnson also ran a great race and took home top-10 honors with a time of 18:54.8.
The rest of the Antonian team ran the 2-mile race and they finished in third place and were led by Eleanor Legault (13:28.7) who finished in 12th place. La Vernia's Katie Dallas won the race and they finished in fifth as a team. Rylee Ellis (12:52.6) of Poth and Emma Lane (13:16.4) of San Antonio Antonement each finished in the top-10.
Boerne had the best team finish for a local boys team at the Texas A&M Invitational with their fifth place performance. They were led by Valor Menn (16:25.4) and Aaron Garcia (16:31.5) who each finished in the top-30. Uriel Arizpe of Holmes was the next best local runner crossing the tape in 16:32.4. Titus Gill of the San Antonio Spartans and John Boland of Antonian each broke 16:40 at the meet.
Reagan was the only local team to go to the Lucas Lovejoy Fall Festival. Their girls finished in 12th place behind strong performances by Ariana Stark and Reese Sweatman. The boys finished in sixth place overall and were led by Gavin Chapa's winning run.
The Brandeis girls and the Clemens boys each comfortably won the SAISD Invitational. Ada Mathias (18:39.56) was the individual champion for Brandeis and they finished with only 30 points as a team. Violet Ostrowski (19:43.41), Ashlyn Shields (19:57.40) and Delilah Huntley (20:02.69) finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively for the orange and blue. Steele's Kassia Kozarski took second place with a time of 18:50.81 while Madeleine Farr led Taft to a second place finish with her third place time of 19:40.60.
The Clemens boys had four runners among the first seven finishers including Jayce Love who won the race in 15:40.00. Aric Pinguelo (16:22.35), Trenton Bilderback (16:33.92) and Sean Gonzalez (16:37.86) where their next three finishers. Brandeis' Tristan Cardenas and Devin Malesich finished third and fourth, respectively to lead their team to a runner-up finish. Aiden Adams of Clark was the individual runner-up in a time of 16:04.79.
East Central hosted their invitational at the North East Sports Park where Johnson dominated the proceedings as they easily won both races. Their girls finished with 33 points as Isabella Porter (19:01.54) and Emily Krot (19:24.40) took the top two spots. Alicia Galvez of Southwest Legacy, Emerald Aguirre of Southside and Anastacia Garza of Judson rounded out the top five runners.
The Johnson boys had six runners finish in the top-10 and they had 18 total points. Michael Repper-Molina continues to be their top runner and he won in a time of 16:16.42. Alexander Williams (16:31.07), Jameson Stewart (16:36.15) and Emanuel Mood (17:05.37) all finished in the top five for the Jaguars. Ilias Braxton (16:54.63) of Cole was the only non-Johnson runner in the top-5.
There were some smaller schools who made the trip to the Ingram Warrior Invitational. In the girls division, Ingram's Lillian Rumbo (12:17.1) took home the gold medal on the 2-mile course. Ellie Scott (12:34.1) of St. Mary's Hall was the runner-up and Noel Dryer (12:45.9) from first-year program Long Creek too, third place. Hondo won the meet with 41 points while Blanco had 44 points and Ingram had 45 points in a tight competition.
The boys division had a few more full teams than the girls division and St. Mary's Hall took home the big trophy with 27 points. They were led by Joe Lechowick (17:14.8) who won and teammates Park Higdon, JC Yaeger, Colston Book and Veeraj Bajaj all finished in the top-10. Blanco's Sebastian Galvan (17:17.0) was the individual runner-up.
What's Happening This Week
One of the big meets this week is the Hoka McNeil Invitational at The Old Settlers course that serves as a de facto State meet preview. The small schools will run on Friday starting at 7:30 a.m. while the Elite divisions and larger schools will run on Saturday starting at 7:30 a.m. Southside and Judson are each hosting invitationals on Saturday.