For many cross country teams and
athletes this week was the culmination of all their training since the track
season ended. District meets are fun because the teams are usually running against
other teams that they are very familiar with and in some cases have even
trained with in the off-season. It also shows which teams have lined up their
training to get their squads to start performing at their highest levels. For
some teams, the goal is to peak at the District meet so they have a chance to
advance to the Regional meet while others are trying to maintain that balance
needed to peak later in the season. In any case, it is fun to watch, and everyone
always wants to run their best at their District meet.
How Did I Do?
I am sure everyone is wondering how I did on my predictions for district titles... at least I am curious. Below are listed the picks I made last week. If the team is bolded that means I picked them correctly while if I missed it the winning school is in parentheses. Overall, I got 15-of-24 champions which is alright, but I thought I would do a little better than that.
District 27-6A: Johnson boys, Brandeis girls (Johnson)
District 28-6A: Brennan boys (Holmes), O'Connor girls (Taft)
District 29-6A: Clemens boys, Canyon girls
District 26-5A: Boerne Champion boys, Smithson Valley girls
District 27-5A: Edison boys (Seguin), Brackenridge girls (Edison)
District 28-5A: Eagle Pass Winn boys, Southside girls
District 26-4A: Davenport boys, Davenport girls
District 27-4A: Devine boys (Floresville), Pleasanton girls (Floresville)
District 28-4A: La Vernia boys (Kennedy), La Vernia girls
District 26-3A: Stockdale boys, Poth girls
District 27-3A: Great Hearts Northern Oaks boys, Cole girls (Randolph)
District 28-3A: Lytle boys, Lytle girls
I was most confident about picking the Davenport and Lytle teams to sweep their district titles as well as the Boerne Champion boys and Smithson Valley girls. The pick I am most proud of is taking the Southside girls to win District 28-5A. I severely underrated both Floresville squads as they took care of business on their home course and I think I totally misread the District 28-6A girls race.
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)
Top Programs
It is impressive when a school can take top honors with both their boys and girls programs. This year, only Johnson (District 27-6A), Davenport (District 26-4A), Floresville (District 27-4A) and Lytle (District 28-3A) were able to accomplish the feat.
The Johnson boys were expected to win and they took care of business with only 27 points. Michael Repper-Molina went under 16 minutes for the first time with his third-place finish in 15:52.27 and Kyle Wunderli and Nicolas Repper-Molina came in right behind him in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The Jaguar girls ran a brilliant race and knocked off Brandeis and Reagan who each entered with thoughts of winning the title. Isabella Porter took the individual title in 18:21.39 and Emily Krot finished second in 18:38.39. Ariana Pinheiro Barrei add a sixth-place finish to give them a great 1-2-3.
The Davenport boys handled business as they nearly doubled up second place Fredericksburg. Elijah Bliss took the individual title in 16:23.98 while Blake Reagan and Christian Pena each finished in the top-5. The Davenport girls had a bigger challenge with a solid Fredericksburg team in the District but they topped them by 18 points. Sisters Kendall Fallon and Macie Fallon were the top two finishers for the team as each broke 12 minutes on the 2-mile course.
The Floresville sweep was probably the most surprising to me but each easily won their team title. The boys went 1-2-4 with Kaden Cypert winning in 16:32.3, Joshua Simmons was second in 17:04.8 and Isaiah Cruz was fourth in 18:11.6. The girls knocked off a strong Pleasanton team by 31 points. Nora Felan was the individual champion in 12:19.8 and Adonai Solis took the bronze in 12:49.9.
Lytle posted the least surprising sweep as their boys and girls bulldozed the competition. Their boys posted a perfect score with Johnny Rey Alvarez, Lucas Salazar, Bryan Montes-Rodriguez, Diego Reyna and Yandel Esquivez taking the top five spots. They posted a 1-5 split of 33.9 seconds as Alvarez won in 16:14.06. The girls had their top five runners all finish among the first eight. Frances Scotello and Svetlana Lopez went 1-2 with Scotello winning in 12:02.50.
Surprise Me!
The Randolph girls came together at just the right time as they won the District 27-3A title even though I thought they were a third-place team. There were no doubts about the top of their team with Sophia Bendet and Aubrey Milam taking the top two spots in dominating fashion, but I did not think the rest of the team would be able to hold up, but I was wrong. They were able to hold off Cole by three points. Caroline Finley finished in a strong seventh place while Alexis Milam took 12th and Lindsey Howard was 21st.
District 28-6A had a phenomenal boys championship with the top three teams separated by just four points. I thought it would be Brennan taking the title, but the Holmes Huskies proved to be up to the challenge. Jeremiah Rodriguez ran his best race of the season to finish in fourth place in a time of 16:12.56 and Uriel Arizpe improved upon his recent races to take seventh in 16:18.94. Armando Cantu, Luke Adams and Noah Gonzalez all finished in the top-12 to give the team a formidable quintet.
In the 28-6A girls meet, I was surprised, but I should not have been. All season long the Taft Raiders have been posting great results and I still picked against them. Madeleine Farr set the tone for the team as she outran Brennan's great duo of Kailyn Brunson and Caila Lyons. Farr won in 18:32.87 and she was backed up by Adelyn Miller and Kelsay Edwards who finished in fifth and sixth, respectively.
In District 27-5A, I really thought the Edison boys would be able to take the title. However, Seguin stepped up to the challenge and ran an outstanding race. Adrian Rangel won the individual title for them in 16:07.80 while Prince Medrano and Noah King Seguin took home top six finishes.
The Top District
There are a few districts that could make the claim as tops in the area this year such as such as 27-6A and 28-6A but for my money I am going with District 26-5A as the best district in the area this year.
The girls meet featured two of the top four teams in the State according to the CCCAT poll. It is the only meet to feature a runner who competed at the Olympic Trials, Boerne Champion's Elizabeth Leachman. Leachman did what she normally does and won the race in 17:20.35 in only her third race of the season. Finishing in second place was a runner who can make a claim as one of the five best in San Antonio, Savanah Moya of New Braunfels who finished in 18:13.77. While those two individuals are fantastic, it is Smithson Valley who has eyes on a State team title. The Rangers have been winning big meets all year long and they comfortably won the District title with 29 points while Champion had 47 and New Braunfels had 78. SV's first four runners took spots 3-6 in the final standings as Brady Solansky (18:24.67), Mia Perez (18:44.80), Lilly Koenig (18:59.69) and Aubrey Pozzi (19:02.23) ran their normal races. Overall, there were 19 runners who broke 20 minutes in the race.
The Boerne Champion boys entered the meet ranked second in the State but they had to sweat out the final results as cross-town rival Boerne nearly pulled off the upset. BC finished with 43 points while Boerne had 48 and New Braunfels had 78. What really set apart the boys is the depth of quality teams in the District. Alamo Heights is a perennial District champion but moved to 26-5A this year and they will not even be advancing to Regionals despite having another strong, quality team. Champion's top-two runners, Charlie Houck and Luis Tovar, have led the team all season long and they forced the pace in the race and even took turns leading before Houck finally pulled away with a strong final 600m push to cross the tape in 15:35.53 and Tovar settled for second in 15:47.90. Boerne's amazing pack-running nearly got the job done with Carsten Bain, Valor Menn, Barrett Crofut and Aaron Garcia finishing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Their 1-4 split was just six seconds! The race had 21 runners break 17 minutes for the 5K.
Who's In?
The top three teams from each District advance automatically to the Regional meet. Locally, here are the team that will be competing at the Regional meet.
2A boys - Stacey
2A girls - Falls City
3A boys - Great Hearts Northern Oaks, Cole, Randolph, Lytle, Dilley, Comfort, Stockdale, Poth
3A girls - Randolph, Cole, Great Hearts Northern Oaks, Lytle, Dilley, Comfort, Blanco, Ingram, Poth, Stockdale
4A boys - Floresville, Devine, Uvalde, Kennedy, La Vernia, Davenport, Fredericksburg, Bandera
4A girls - Floresville, Pleasanton, Devine, La Vernia, Kennedy, Davenport, Fredericksburg, Wimberley
5A boys - Southwest, MacArthur, Boerne Champion, Boerne, New Braunfels, Seguin, Edison, Brackenridge
5A girls - Southside, Southwest, Southwest Legacy, Smithson Valley, Boerne Champion, New Braunfels, Edison, Jefferson, Highlands
6A boys - Holmes, Brennan, Sotomayor, Clemens, Judson, Johnson, Reagan, Brandeis, Medina Valley
6A girls - Taft, Brennan, Marshall, Canyon, Steele, Johnson, Reagan, Brandeis, Medina Valley