Region 4-3A Girls
The top eight girls from last years regional championships are back. That includes the state champion Sophia Bendet (Randolph).
Bendet won the region in 11:28 and then eventually the state meet with at time of 11:13.
Aubrey Milam is another outstanding Randolph runner. She finished runner-up last year, giver her squad a 1 - 2 finish.
Also returning from the top ten and under 13-minutes in last year's race are:
3rd - Brooklyn Albert (Poth) - 12:24
4th - Kate Simons (Vanderbilt Industrial) - 12:27
5th - Katelyn Poth (Poth) - 12:34
6th - Isabella Haas (Great Hearts Northern Oaks) - 12:45
7th - Elizabeth Felcman (Hallettsville) - 12:45
8th - Frances Scotello (Lytle) - 12:45
So far this year, it's Bendet with the fastest time by far. Her 10:40 not only leads the region and the state, but she is also one of the state leaders at 5,000m, which she focused racing the majority of this season.
Albert has the second best two-mile run at 11:23 and Milam has a 11:29.
Right at 12:00 is newcomer to 3A Peyton Keller (Stockdale). Stockdale moved up a classification and she was third in last year's 2A race.
Scotello is way passed her times from last year with a 12:02 season best and Great Hearts Northern Oaks has a new leader in freshman Juliet Alcott who has already ran 12:08, just ahead of Meadow Guillen (Luling) and her 12:09.
For the girls teams, the region has Lytle at No. 2 and Poth at No. 7 holding down statewide rankings.
Those two teams have been battling for regional supremacy the last four years or so.
Poth won last year's meet with 72 points with Lytle second by their 109 tally.
Lytle did grab a podium spot at state where they got up for third place overall. Poth was seventh.
Vanderbilt Industrial qualified for state in third and Randolph secured the fourth state meet spot by a narrow seven points over Hallettsville.
There is no doubt Lytle and Poth will battle for first and second on Tuesday.
Hondo, Cole, and Randolph should be motivated and could use some extra encouragement in the middle and later stages of the race because it could be very close for the third and fourth qualifying positions.
I definitely wouldn't exclude Vanderbilt Industrial, Great Hearts Northern Oaks, and Stockdale from the picture either.
Region 4-3A Boys
Gary Custer (Hebbronville) was runner-up last year and with the regional winner Isai Moran graduating, the path to the top in in Custer's hands....or legs.
Krish Vijayvergia (Great Hearts Northern Oaks) finished seventh last year and is the second best returning finisher from that race.
Dominic Padron (Mathis) was right behind Vijayvergia in eighth place as was Tristan Lopez (Lytle) in ninth, and Ilias Braxton (San Antonio Cole) to round out the top ten.
Custer went on to finish eight at state and he has a 15:55 performance entering the races this weekend. Padron has run and 16:02 Vijayvergia enters with a 16:15.
There are three ranked teams in this region and they figure to have dibs on the state meet qualifying spots.
The ranked squads are No. 3 Lytle, No. 5 Great Hearts Northern Oaks (GHNO), No. 9 Progreso.
Lytle won the regional title last year going for a 17:14 average. It was thanks to a 28-second split that gave them the not over GHNO who ran a faster average with a 17:10.
The two squads went 1 - 2 at state with GHNO flipping the script in Round Rock.
Lytle ran faster than they did in Corpus when they went for a 17:01 average and still ran tight with their 35-second spread.
However, GHNO played a better card. They ran a 16:53 team average to take the state title and they only had a 1:01 spread.
Lytle graduated their No. 1 and No. 5 runners, but they enter with the best average this season of 16:42 and still boast a sub 60-second gap.
GHNO graduated their No. 1 and No. 2 runners from last year's regional race. However, they can still go sub 17-minutes with their 16:58 team average.
Mathis has a 17:15 team average, Yoakum has a 17:23 and Progreso, has a 17:29, Vanguard Rembrandt has a 17:32, and San Antonio Cole has a 17:38.