Photo of Jayce Love from the McNeil Invitational
The heart of the cross country season is upon us and last week many teams took the opportunity to travel to Round Rock for the McNeil Invitational that was run on the State meet course. The local teams fared quite well which could mean great things when the State meet rolls around.
Top Programs of the Week
The same programs have been getting mentioned here week-after-week so I wanted to dive a little deeper and write about some teams that haven't been mentioned much in the "Top Programs of the Week" section.
The Taft girls have had an outstanding season thus far and last week they won the Judson Invitational hosted at the North East Sports Park. Their top two runners, Adelyn Miller and Madeleine Farr, have been top-notch all year long and they received strong support from the rest of their squad as they finished with just 28 points. The Raiders had six runners finish in among the first 16 runners at the 7-team meet. Miller won in 19:46.11 and Farr was second in a time of 19:51.40. Natalie Badillo (20:30.25) finished in fourth while Kelsay Edwards (21:02.00) and Jayla Bradley (22:31.69) rounded out the scoring runners in seventh and 14th, respectively. Taft has finished in first or second place at all five meets they have competed in this year.
The Davenport boys appear to be hitting their stride and could be serious contenders for a podium spot at the 4A State meet this year. They took second place at the McNeil Invitational 4A Division last week. They were led by Elijah Bliss who finished a strong fourth place in a time of 16:37.8. They also had two more runners in the top-40 of the huge invitational. Christian Pena (17:52.0) was 34th while Jake Vidrio (17:57.0) was 38th. Last year, Davenport finished in fifth place in the Region, just four points from a State berth and I am sure they will be looking to get back to the State championships as a team this year.
In the Rankings
3A Girls - Lytle (#4), Poth (#10)
3A Boys - Lytle (#3), Great Hearts Northern Oaks (#5)
4A Girls - Davenport (#3), Fredericksburg (#5)
5A Girls - Smithson Valley (#4), Boerne Champion (#6)
5A Boys - Boerne Champion (#3)
The Lytle and Poth girls each ran well in the McNeil Invitational 1A-3A race with Lytle finishing as the runner-up and Poth in fifth place. The Lytle boys won the 1A-3A division while Northern Oaks finished as the runner-up.
The Davenport and Fredericksburg girls were also competing in the same race in the McNeil Invitational 4A division where Davenport finished in sixth place and Fredericksburg was in seventh.
The Smithson Valley and Boerne Champion girls each ran the McNeil Gold Division race. Smithson Valley took home the team title while the Chargers finished in 10th place without Elizabeth Leachman. They would have likely finished in the top-4 if Leachman had run the race. The Champion boys ran in the Gold Division as well and took third place and were the top local team at the meet.
Runners of the Week
Randolph superstar Sophia Bendet has to be one of the runners of the week after winning the McNeil Gold Division 5K in a time of 17:10.3. Bendet is having a season to remember and the Texas A&M-commit will be the heavy favorite to repeat as the 3A State champion. On the boy's side, I want to highlight Boerne Champion's Luis Tovar who ran his best race of the year in the McNeil Gold Division. He finished ninth in a time of 15:35.3 and it was the first time all season that he was the top runner on the team. He finished 37th at the State meet a year ago but ran a time that is 40 seconds faster than he ran last year this week.
A Perfect Score
The San Antonio Patriots posted a perfect score at the Southside Cardinal Invitational last week. The boys took each of the top six spots in the race and dominated the competition. Their first six runners had a 1-6 split of only 36 seconds. David Jensen was the individual champion in 16:55.62 and he was followed by Aiden Stout, Ethan Hoglund, Christian Helwig, Liam Hoglund and Nune Cantu who each ran between 17:07.85 and 17:31.48.
Early District Predictions
The District championship meets are less than two weeks away with the majority of the Districts holding their races October 8-10. Taking a look at the stats there are a few districts that appear primed for a tight team finish. In District 27-6A boys, Johnson is favored by four points over Reagan while in District 28-6A, the Brennan boys are only three points in front of Sotomayor based on each runner's best time this year. The closest race among girls teams looks like it will be District 27-5A where Brackenridge is 10 points better than Jefferson at this time. Only time will tell on the District races but competition should be fierce for the team spots that advance to Regionals.
Around the City
The biggest meet of the week was the McNeil Invitational which had local teams competing in the Gold, Silver, 1A-3A, and 4A Divisions. In the boys Gold Division, Boerne Champion finished in third place behind Luis Tovar and Charlie Houck who each finished in the top-15. Reagan and Johnson were neck-and-neck with the Rattlers finishing in fifth place and the Jaguars in sixth. The two teams were separated by eight total points. Reagan's Gavin Chapa was the top local individual finishing in second place in a time of 15:11.0 and Brennan's Zachary Miller was close behind in fifth place running a time of 15:20.1.
San Antonio runners dominated the girls Gold Division race with Sophia Bendet (17:10.3) and Elin Latta (17:23.0) of South Texas Heat taking the top two spots and Smithson Valley winning the team title. Brady Solansky led SV with a time of 18:50.9 and their top five were separated by just 46 seconds. Savanah Moya (17:55.6) of New Braunfels, Iris Latta (18:07.1) of South Texas Heat and Eleanor Smith (18:08.6) of San Marcos were the three other locals to finish in the top 10. Brandeis also had a strong team finish taking fourth place.
Lytle and Great Hearts Northern Oaks took the top two spots in the 1A-3A boys. Lytle's trio of Johnny Rey Alvarez (16:57.2), Lucas Salazar (17:17.7) and Bryan Montes-Rodriguez (17:31.5) finished in the top 20 while Khrish Vijayvergia (17:13.8) and Joshua Mounts (17:40.4) were eighth and 21st, respectively for GHNO.
The local 1A-3A girls had seven runners finish inside the top-20 led by Poth's Brooklyn Albert (11:54.2) in second, Lytle's Frances Scotello (12:14.7) in fourth and GHNO's Juliet Alcott (12:23.2) in fifth. Lytle finished in second as a team while Poth was fifth and Cole was sixth.
Davenport was the top local boys 4A team taking second place while Floresville was sixth and Fredericksburg was ninth. Floresville freshman Kaden Cypert (16:24.2) finished as the overall runner-up while Elijah Bliss (16:37.8) was fourth for Davenport and Israel Cuellar (16:51.2) took seventh for Cornerstone Christian.
Fredericksburg's Rilyn Grona was the only local to finish in the top-20 of the 4A girls race in which she finished third in a time of 11:40.0. She led her team to a seventh place finish while Davenport edged one place in front of them.
The boys Silver Division was a good one for local teams with Boerne finishing second, Brandeis in third and Clemens in fourth. Jayce Love of Clemens was the individual champion in a time of 15:46.9. Boerne had three runners in the top-20 with Valor Menn (16:32.7), Barrett Crofut (16:33.0) and Aaron Garcia (16:55.8). Devin Malesich (16:38.4) of Brandeis and Talmadge Powell (16:44.5) of New Braunfels each cracked the top-10.
Reagan took home the team title in the girls Silver Division with just 81 points. They had four runners finish inside the top-20 including Ariana Stark (19:45.0) in fifth and Theone Glosser (19:50.6) in sixth. Brennan finished in sixth place and were led by Kailyn Brunson who won the individual medalist honors with a time of 18:33.2 and Caila Lyons (19:53.1) who nabbed seventh place.
At the Falls City Invitational, Stockdale took the girls title with 23 points behind top-5 finishes from Peyton Keller, Abrielle Chavez and Adryana Chavez. Gloria Deo Academy won the boys title with only 21 points. Owen Rogers, Eli Rogers, Jaxon Smith and Levi Dice took the top four spots for Gloria Deo.
The Judson Invitational at North East Sports Park saw the Central Catholic boys take the team title with 54 points while LEE (75) and Wagner (93) took the next two spots. Daniel Garcia of Highlands was the individual winner by nearly 25 seconds with a time of 16:46.19. Wagner's Channon Davis was second in 17:10.51. The Buttons had three runners inside the top-10 with Sergio Martinez (17:29.76), Adam Lozano (17.49.00) and Mike Castillo (18:05.43).
Taft won the girls title with 28 points thanks to their foursome of runners mentioned earlier. Anastacia Garza of Judson grabbed third place with a time of 19:59.09. LEE was led by Penny Pim (20:41.89) in fifth and Sofia Cantor (20:54.23) in sixth. LEE finished second as a team with 52 points while Wagner was third with 71 points.
The San Antonio Patriots dominated the Southside Cardinal Invitational boys division. Nataniel Garcia St. Anthony's was the top finisher that wasn't from SAP and he finished in seventh with a time of 17:36.84. Fox Tech had two runners in the top-10, Nathan Perez and Diego Ibarra.
The girls team title was the closest of the weekend with Southside and Incarnate Word tying with 41 points but Southside took the title since their #6 runner finished before the IW #6 runner. Emerald Aguirre of Southside took the individual gold with a time of 19:28.47 while Jessie Waschek of San Antonio Patriots was the only other runner to break 20 minutes with her time of 19:52.13. The Patriots also had Florence Rosenthal (20:27.14) and Katelyn Henwood (20:55.13) finish in the top-5. The Shamrocks had their top three runners; Olivia Lopez, Emma Ponce-Mata and Isabel Bainbridge, all finish in the top-10.
What's Happening This Week
It looks like there are at least five meets this weekend that local teams will be attending. Alamo Heights, Kerrville Tivy, Seguin and Southwest ISD are all hosting meets while Smithson Valley is traveling to the Dallas Jesuit Invitational.
Photo of Jayce Love from the McNeil Invitational
The heart of the cross country season is upon us and last week many teams took the opportunity to travel to Round Rock for the McNeil Invitational that was run on the State meet course. The local teams fared quite well which could mean great things when the State meet rolls around.
Top Programs of the Week