Region 4-1A Girls
Last year, it was a Tilden McMullen County sweep on the podium. Isabella Billingsley, Camie Taylor, and Cassidy Slavinski went 1, 2, 3 at the Region 4-1A Championships. Billingsley might be able to pull off another individual win, but she'll have to fend off another teammate this year.
Taylor has run well this year and has already put her teammate on upset notice when she beat her at Poth, the Texas A&M Inv., and the Islander Splash.
This isn't to pit one teammate over the other, rather than to show how much Taylor has improved and how much better the team is getting because of it.
With that said, Billingsley won the most recent race and ran a 12:12 SB to win the district meet where the team went 1-7 .
Can they do it again at regionals?
Well, they are the No. 1 team in the state and I don't doubt Coach Billingsley's girls wouldn't try to be good enough to accomplish something so rare, but it is highly improbable.
Rylie Eckert (Richland Springs) will be one girl who'll try to keep that from happening. She ran 12:45 at McNeil last month.
Percy Torrez (Nordheim) has also run under 13:00 with her 12:54 SB performance.
Last year, Tilden McMullen County (TMC) dominated the region going for a lowly 27 point total en route to their third place finish at state.
Port Neches-Groves was second, Brookeland was third, and Martinsville got up for the fourth and final state meet qualifying spot.
TMC has a 12:52 average so far this year and their spread time is only 1:07.
Moulton has a 14:28 team average and a 1:45 spread.
Round Top-Carmine goes 14:49 and 21 and Brookeland looks to go 14:39 and 2:36.
At 3,200m, Martinsville has a 14:48 has a 14:48 average and a 1:22 spread, Richland Springs has gone 14:35 and 2:59.
Outside of TMC dominating, it's going to come down to the 3, 4, 5 runners for Moulton, Round Top-Carmine, Martinsville, and Richland Springs.
Region 4-1A Boys
Sebastian Talamantez (Comstock) is unquenchable. He won the regional title last year, then won the state title in cross country.
That wasn't enough as he then qualified for the state track meet in not one, not two, but three individual events.
Now, he is back to win another regional title to give him a shot at his second state title.
Talamantez has the region's best performances with his 15:33 and 15:59 runs.
Don't think he is going to have a cozy run in the park though. He migrated over from Region 2-1A to Region 4 and the reigning defending regional champion Jose Ventura (Lasara) won't be so willing to just give his title away.
Ventura was third at the state meet last year and at 16:08, he is the second fastest guy in the region.
Brandon Timms (Tilden McMullen County) was third last year and 10th at the state meet and he'll also want to press for the win himself.
The other Comstock boys are looking to impose on Region 4 as well. They defending state team champions didn't graduate anyone from last year's title team.
They're ranked No. 1 in the state and I compare the situation to a bully coming to take the rest of Region 4 team's lunch money.
Also ranked in the region is No. 3 Zephyr and No. 6 Tilden McMullen County.
The team race last year was extremely close. Goodrich won with 101 points, Nordheim was second with 106 points, Fayetteville was third with 110 points, TMC was fourth with 115 points, and Elkhart Slocum was on the outside looking in at the fifth place position with 125 points.
Goodrich only graduated their No. 1 runner Amareion Bookman.
Nordheim graduated their No. 2 and No. six runners.
Fayetteville graduated their No. 1 and No. 5 runners.
TMC graduated their No. 2 and No. 6 runners.
Comstock has the best team average with a 16:38, TMC has a 17:52, Zephyr has a 18:18, and Dime Box has a 18:21.