Region 3-6A Girls
Top 6A Girls Teams-
At the start of the season, Katy HS having been cooking. The Tigers finished fourth place last year edging out their district rival Katy Tompkins by 29 points. Senior Victoria Guerrero leads the Tiger den with her PB of 18:09.58. With all this said the Katy Tigers should be coming into the meet with all the confidence stepping the line at Kate Barr Ross Park.
Coming in are the new kids on the block Katy Mayde Creek. The Lady Rams have been stepping up their game as the season started seasoning itself. Jamie Klander has been one of the top runners in the state of Texas, she dropped her PB down to 17:24.97 at her district meet last week. Ava Gonzalez has a PB of 18:45.36 and Jamie's twin sister Claudia Klander who has a season best time of 18:50.10. She is still recovering back from an injury from last year's outdoor track season but is still looking fantastic. This could be the year the Lady Rams send their team to the UIL State meet.
Humble Kingwood girl's a program you can never leave out of the conversation when you talk about Houston metro teams let alone a team to always pave their path to the UIL state meet. Senior Eliana Contreras has a PB time of 18:28.13 and junior Clara Dye has a PB time of 18:34.46 just six seconds from Contreras. Kingwood is looking to keep their legacy going of always contending for a state title the same way they did back in the 2022 XC season.
The fourth place spot is going to be a battle for who wants it more when toeing the line. Last year's state qualifying team Humble Atascocita who are led by sophomore Taryn Hogarth who has a season best of 18:39.69.
LC Clear Falls is led by Katherine Valentine who has a season best of 18:50.10. Some of the teams looking to send their team to the state meet.
Another honorable mention is Katy Jordan, they have just a 45 second spread for their one through five runners. One of the other final teams that could squeeze their way are the Lady Antlers of Deer Park who are led by freshman Jimena Cavazos who has a PB of 19:40.45, her team has a 52 second one through five split by the way.
Top 6A Girls Individual
In the team preview, we talked about the top few runners from teams but now we will cover some of the top individual runners.
Senior from Pasadena Dobie Lauren Garza is one of the top returning runners from last year's Region meet, she punched her ticket last for the state meet and is looking to go back-to-back.
Junior Sophia Hamdani of Houston Bellaire has a season best time of 18:47.80, she has qualified for the state meet for the first half of her HS running career and is looking to make a third trip back to Round Rock.
Senior Bissinatt Abdelasis of Alief Elsik comes in with a season best time of 19:04.42 and is coming off a gold medal she won at her district meet. If Abdelasis pulls it off this will be her third trip to the state meet and she is definitely looking to close her HS career off with a great close.
Senior Alexandra De Hoyos of Pearland is coming off a good district meet where she set her new PB of 19:07.55 and is looking to close her senior year off with a bang.
Junior from Katy Seven Lakes Kingsley Brown has had a great postseason, just one month ago her PB was 19:22.85 then she shadders it come district running a time of 18:43.18. Coach Crocker knows a thing or two about coaching runners come championship season
Freshman Caroline Barrow of Katy Taylor HS who is also a super star on the soccer pitch has only raced one race which just so happened to be at the 6A District 19 meet where she ran her first HS race clocking a blazing time of 17:54.51, and her teammate junior Casey Scherpereel ran a time of 18:20.80.
Another duo coming from Houston Memorial is senior Addison Scott who has a PB of 18:33.70 and sophomore Sophie Peterson who has a season best time of 18:50.00.
Closing off some of the top individuals is a trio from Manvel HS. The trio of Manvel Mavericks had a superb result at their district meet last week. Leading the herd of Mavs is junior Danna Ramirez who shaved off well over a minute from her season best coming in with a time of 18:48.59. Then we have the twins Jannie Cardenas who also dropped a huge amount of time off her personal best clocking in a time of 18:49.52, she shaved off nearly 30 seconds from her old personal best. Jessica Cardenas clocked a new personal best time at district too with her time of 19:14.26.
Region 3-6A Boys
Just like the girl's side, the Katy tigers are looking to take over the throne toeing the line at Kate Barr Ross Park. Junior Ryder Darcey is leading the Tigers with his new PB he ran at his district meet last week where he clocked a 15:00.26.
Coming in just behind is last years 6A Region 3 Champions the Katy Tompkins. The Falcons are looking to defend their title they won in last years regional championship. With the absence of their top four runners from last year a handful of new faces have stepped up and filled some shoes in for the Falcons. The Falcons have had good turnouts in each and every race this season and are led by seniors Diego Reyes and Mathias Pitzel.
Humble Summer Creek are coming in as the new kids on the block and have added many team titles throughout the season. Sophomore twins Da'Juan Allison and Ja'Juan Allison have been carrying the torch for the Bulldogs but senior Michael Menke is looking to reel himself back in the conversation coming back from a minor injury.
This is a school that has worked it's way to becoming known a track program on both the girls and boys sides. However, not only can this team qualify for state on Monday, but I dare to say that they can compete for the regional title.
Battling for the fourth spot is going to be a bloodbath for who is more hungry to run their way to the state meet. Some of the teams that consist of them are coach Kenny's boys at Katy Seven Lakes. The Spartans are led by junior Samuel Garcia Camejo who dropped his PB down to a 15:31.47.
More teams to add are Houston Strake Jesuit who are led by sophomore Alex Montoya who has a PB of 16:08.54, the Crusaders have a twenty one second one through five split so if they can use that to their advantage and copy and paste that to the regional course they can sneak their way into the conversation.
Humble Kingwood boys are wanting to take the program into their own hands and take the Mustangs to Round Rock as well, they're led by senior Emilio Garza who has a PB of 15:55.07.
Richmond Foster Boys program qualified for state last year when they were in 5A, but this year they're looking to make a second trip in a row to Round Rock. The Falcons are led by senior Grant Currier and sophomore Brody Sullivan.
The Pasadena Dobie Longhorns have officially entered the chat folks, the program had one of the best outcomes in the Houston metro at their district meet, they're led by freshman Cruz Jasso who shattered his old PB of 16:24.07 and ran 15:55.24 where he took the gold medal at the 6A District 22 meet.
Top 6A Boys Individual
Fort Bend Elkins senior Zachariah Morin is looking to close out his senior year with a great close, Morin was just a couple of spots from qualifying from the state meet last year, and he is looking to take the confidence from his district win where he set a new PB of 15:11.
Katy Cinco Ranch senior Alex Hahn Vadstein is coming off a huge PB where he clocked a 15:28.15 at his district meet, his older brother was the runner-up in the 2022 regional meet and is looking to carry the family torch lit on fire headed into regionals.
LC Clear Creek senior Chris Creedon is having a good season but not by his standards. Creedon has a 15:30.30 season best time where he just so happened to run at the Region 3 Preview meet, he is looking to take the win but he is going to have plenty of others who are looking to take home gold too.
Katy Taylor senior Michael Klahn has had quite the comeback season as well. Klahn was running low sixteen minute to high fifteen minute 5k's and ran a PB at his district meet clocking a time of 15:28.35.
One of the other heavy favorites to win and top returning runner from last years 2023 UIL Region 3 Championships is Stratford HS senior Benjamin Pearce, just three weeks ago Pearce lowered his PB down to 15:28.40 at Nike South.
Sophomore Eli Mugambi of Humble Atascocita has been on fire throughout the season and dropped his PB down to 15:31.92 at the 6A District 23 meet held at Atascocita HS.
Katy Paetow senior Elijah Emerson was on fire at the start of the season and continued to show his presence at each meet he competed at leading into district, he ended up finishing ninth in his district meet and is hoping to spark a fire within to carry him to state.
Alief Elsik senior Hazael Perez is looking to put the SWAT on the map when it comes to xc, Perez is coming a newly set PB from his district meet where he ran 15:58.59.