Emily Kroot, Johnson
It was the final big regular season of racing for most of the teams in the area with District meets popping up early next week. With that said, there was a lot of great racing from programs across the area. The next month should be a great time for San Antonio area cross country fans.
Top Programs of the Week
This week I will be highlighting two programs that have been running well all year long, the Brandeis girls and the Lytle boys.
Brandeis won the Islander Splash Gold division this past weekend with 71 points. Their top four runners all finished inside the top 20 and they are ranked as the top 6A school in the area heading into the District meets next week. Ada Mathias was their top finisher taking fifth place in 19:00.64 while Annabella Palumbo (11th, 19:43.92) and Violet Ostrowski (15th, 19:53.17) were in their usual spots. The surprise for the meet was Danelly Carrion (19th, 20:14.68) finishing as the team's #4 runner this week. The Broncos are a deep team which makes them dangerous since they have six runners who could finish in their top 5 each week.
The Lytle boys always run with a tight pack. For the season they have a 1-5 split of 46.19 which is the best mark among all the top teams in 3A this year. They won the Islander Splash small school division with just 33 points. Their top 5 runners all finished within the top-10 and had less than a 24-second 1-5 split for the meet. Johnny Rey Alvarez has consistently been their #1 runner, and he was again last week taking fifth place in 17:37.36. The rest of the squad was right behind him as Lucas Salazar (6th), Bryan Montes-Rodriguez (8th), Yandel Esquivez (9th) and Diego Reyna (10th) all ran between 17:41 and 18:01 for the 5K.
In the Rankings
3A Girls - Lytle (#3), Poth (#4)
3A Boys - Lytle (#3), Great Hearts Northern Oaks (#5)
4A Girls - Davenport (#7), Fredericksburg (#8)
4A Boys - Davenport (#10)
5A Girls - Smithson Valley (#2), Boerne Champion (#4)
5A Boys - Boerne Champion (#2)
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 4A girls both dropped a little bit in the rankings this week while the Davenport boys made their first ever appearance in the regular season poll.
At the 5A level, all three local teams moved up in the rankings. The Smithson Valley girls traveled North to the Dallas Jesuit Classic and won the 5A-6A division scoring 50 points and winning by 52 points. The Boerne Champion girls won the Tivy Antler River Run with 28 points. The Champion boys ran at the Nike South Invitational Elite Division and finished in 16th place.
Runners of the Week
It was extremely difficult to pick the Runners of the Week with so many top-notch performances. Since it is the final big regular season week of the year I am going with a pair of seniors, Mia Perez of Smithson Valley and Zac Miller of Brennan.
In only her second race of the season, Perez led Smithson Valley to an impressive team title at the Dallas Jesuit Classic against 27 teams including at least one ranked 6A school and three other ranked 5A schools. Perez was the top finisher for the Rangers taking second place overall in 18:26 on a course that was slightly longer than 5K and had 241 runners.
Miller won his fourth race of the season at the Islander Splash Invitational where the Regional meet will be held. He ran 15:45.00 to win a meet that had 20 teams. He will head to Regionals in a few weeks on the short list of runners who could take home the individual title.
Winning the Race
There seemed to be a large number of local runners winning races this week. At the Billy Nabours Oktoberfest run in Comfort it was La Vernia's Corbin Barnette and Katie Dallas who each won. Barnette ran 16:46.66 to win the boys 5K by 15 seconds over the next runner and Dallas won the 2-mile race in 12:49.48 in a very close finish. Ariana Rivera of Carrizo Springs won the 2nd Annual Robert Salazar Invitational hosted by Dilley. She easily won the 2-mile race in 12:02.40. At the Islander Splash, Zac Miller won the boys Gold Division while Lockhart's Ethan Herrera won the Big School division in 16:57.33. Marshall's Jayda Lara won the girls Big School Division in 21:23.74 and Brooklyn Albert of Poth won the 2-mile Small School division in 12:37.20.
Alamo Heights hosted a meet at the North East Sports Park. Reagan's Samuel Ackerman won the boys race in 16:28.52 while Kallie Van Prooyen of Churchill took gold in the girls' race in 17:32.78 although the course was cut short when the cart driver took a wrong turn shortening the race a little bit. Daniel Garcia of Highlands and Emerald Aguirre of Southside each took top prize at the Southwest Legacy Invitational. Tivy's Hattie Gilbreath won the Antler River Run in 19:22.62 and Titus Gill of the San Antonio Spartans took the boys meet in 15:59.98. Jill Hilliard of San Antonio Christian won the girls 2-mile division at the River Run. The Luling Sandia City Invitational featured State champion Sophia Bendet of Randolph winning the girls 2-mile in 10:38.75 while Antonian's John Boland won the boys race comfortably. At the Seguin Matador Invitational Adrian Rangel of Seguin won the 5A-6A race in 16:12.75 while Jessie Waschek took the girls 5A-6A race in 19:44.34. In the 1A-4A division it was Davenport sweeping the gold medals with Elijah Bliss and Kendall Fallon taking the top spots.
Making Picks
It is always fun to make predictions so I will make my district picks.
District 27-6A: Johnson boys, Brandeis girls
District 28-6A: Brennan boys, O'Connor girls
District 29-6A: Clemens boys, Canyon girls
District 26-5A: Boerne Champion boys, Smithson Valley girls
District 27-5A: Edison boys, Brackenridge girls
District 28-5A: Eagle Pass Winn boys, Southside girls
District 26-4A: Davenport boys, Davenport girls
District 27-4A: Devine boys, Pleasanton girls
District 28-4A: La Vernia boys, La Vernia girls
District 26-3A: Stockdale boys, Poth girls
District 27-3A: Great Hearts Northern Oaks boys, Cole girls
District 28-3A: Lytle boys, Lytle girls
Around the City
Johnson and Boerne Champion traveled to the Nike South Regional this past week at The Woodlands and ran in the Elite Division. The Johnson girls took 12th place and were led by Isabella Porter (18:39.70) and Emily Krot (18:42.80) who each finished in the top 20. The Johnson boys took home eighth place, and their top finisher was Michael Repper-Molina who ran a quality 16:01.90. The Chargers were 16th overall and had two runners in the top 25 with Charlie Houck (15:56.00) and Luis Tovar (16:09.00).
At the Comfort Billy Nabours Oktoberfest it was the Pleasanton boys winning a close fight with Stacey and Comfort. They had three runners in the top 10 with Joaquin Zuniga (17:30.04), Elijah Marquez (17:41.58) and Joe Martinez (18:12.78) leading the charge. The Wimberley girls topped La Vernia by just five points for the team title. Allison Dodds (12:50.67) was second and Corina Joyce (12:55.22) was third and Kate Sharp gave them a strong third runner taking eighth place in 13:37.11.
Dilley hosted the 2nd Annual Robert Salazar Invitational, and their boys took the team title with 58 points, three in front of Laredo Harmony. Josiah Benavides (17:29.15), Xavier Hernandez (17:36.81) and Brazos Viesca (17:50.93) each finished in the top 10. The Bandera girls dominated the meet scoring just 25 points in their win. Taytum Moeller, Aubrie Moore, Kaylee Fried and Riley Lalanne all finished in the top six for the team and they finished within 11 seconds of each other.
The Islander Splash featured numerous San Antonio programs. In the boys' gold division, Clemens took runner-up honors while Holmes was third and Brandeis was fourth. After Zac Miller's individual title, it was Jayce Love of Clemens who finished second and was the only other runner to break 16 minutes. Clark's Aiden Adams (16:01.00) and Madison's Nick Maldonado (16:07.23) finished third and fifth, respectively. Overall, 11 of the top 20 finishers were from San Antonio. In the girls' gold division, Brandeis took home the gold medal with 71 points while Canyon grabbed fourth place. Eleanor Smith of San Marcos was the top local finisher taking the silver medal in 18:37.42. Brennan's Kailyn Brunson took third, less than two seconds behind Smith. Ada Mathias, Kassia Kozarski of Steele, Jade Perez of Clark and Caila Lyons of Brennan were all top 10 finishers.
The Lockhart boys took third in the Islander Splash big school division. Ethan Herrera won the race and teammate, Ivan Gonzales, was fourth in 17:05.83. Israel Cuellar of Cornerstone Christian finished in a virtual tie for first with Herrera. The Marshall girls took fourth place in the big school division. They were led by Jayda Lara in first and Madison Criollo in ninth. Canyon's Mollie Allan added a sixth-place finish.
The previously mentioned Lytle boys dominated the Islander Splash small school division with 33 points. Donovan Dixon of Devine was the top local with a fourth place run in 17:27.72 and he led his team to a fourth-place finish. Poth's Brooklyn Albert won the small school race and Katelyn Poth was fourth in 13:04.63 and the team finished in fourth overall. Lytle nabbed third place behind Frances Scotello and Svetlana Lopez who each ran well.
The Alamo Heights Invitational turned out to be a tight title race for the boys' teams. Reagan held off the hosts by just three points despite not having top runner Gavin Chapa competing. Sam Ackerman (1st), Logan Martinez (3rd) and Blaine Gendron (6th) picked up the slack for Chapa and each broke 17 minutes. The Mules had four runners finish in the top 10: Joshua Sharp, Santiago Berenguer, Jackson Cummings and Owen Feinstein. The girls' race was accidently shortened due to a wrong turn, but it did not stop Reagan from winning with 30 points. They had their entire first five runners finish in the top 10. Kallie Van Prooyen won the race for Churchill and Theone Glosser of Reagan was the runner-up in 17:46.69. Micah Monteleone of Alamo Heights, Reese Sweatman of Reagan and Destiny Duenas of Jefferson rounded out the top five finishers. All five broke 18 minutes in a race that was likely a little bit under three miles.
The Southwest Legacy Invitational boys meet was won by O'Connor even though they only had one runner in the top 10, Fernando Lazo-Cazares who finished sixth in 16:07.72. They finished with 80 points and held off Judson (94) and LEE (114). Daniel Garcia was the individual champion from Highlands while Judson was led by Darien Lemus (15:47.45) in third place. LEE easily won the girls meet with a total of 39 points while Wagner was second with 76 points and Sotomayor was third with 86 points. Penny Pim (18:41.06) and Sofia Cantor (18:59.33) were second and third, respectively, for LEE. O'Connor had three runners finish in the top 10, but they only had four runners so they could not qualify for the team title.
Medina Valley took the boys team title at the Tivy Antler River Run with a total of 36 points. Nicholas Castro (16:48.78), Jaxon James (16:50.95) and Ezra Gonzalez (16:59.21) took three of the top six spots in the race. San Antonio Christian finished in second place behind Adrian Rule's runner-up finish in 16:15.82. Boerne Champion took the top spot in the girls' race despite Tivy having the top two finishers in Hattie Gilbreath and Hannah Hood who finished a second apart. The Chargers had five of the next six finishers despite not having Elizabeth Leachman for the race. Rebecca Becerra was the first one across the tape for them in 19:30.87.
The Antonian boys knocked off Great Hearts Northern Oaks at the Luling Sandia City Invitational. Antonian had 42 points and had three runners in the top 10 with John Boland winning the race while Channing Shaeffer and Jonavon Lott came through in eighth and ninth, respectively. Northern Oaks finished nine points behind in second place. They had three runners in the top six but were unable to match the Antonian #4 and #5 runners. Floresville's Kaden Cypert was the individual runner-up in 16:15.08.
The Antonian girls had their hands full in the closest meet of the week. They finished with 66 points while Randolph had 72, Floresville had 73 and Navarro had 76. Alexandra Johnson led Antonian with her second-place finish in 11:21.09 for the 2-mile race. Randolph had Sophia Bendet (10:38.75) and Aubrey Milam (11:27.10) finishing first and third, respectively. Floresville had no runners in the top 10 but nearly won the meet.
The Seguin Matador Invitational featured a 5A-6A race and a 1A-4A race. In the big school division, it was the Boerne boys who were champions. All five scoring runners finished within the top eight. Carsten Bain was their top finisher taking second place with a time of 16:14.63. Seguin was second with Adrian Rangel winning the individual title and Prince Medrano was fifth. Boerne also won the girls' big school division with 49 points. Eleanor Davis, Penelope Kirk and Sophia Karageorge were their top three runners and they each finished in the top 10.
In the small school division, Davenport swept both races which only had about 20 competitors each. They had the top four boys and the top five girls in the race.
Smithson Valley went to the Dallas Jesuit Classic. Their girls won the meet with 50 total points. Their top six runners all ran 19:30 or faster and it was Mia Perez and Brady Solansky finishing in second and third, respectively in a race with 241 runners. The boys finished in 14th out of 33 teams. Zebene Martine and Luke Smith finished with identical times in the top 25.
What's Happening This Week
There are a few meets this week but most teams are off with District meets starting next Tuesday and finishing by Thursday.