Davenport and Johnson Girls Take Regional Titles

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS - The first day of the Region IV cross country championships hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi featured nine teams from the San Antonio area advancing on to the State meet. In addition, Gavin Chapa (Reagan), Rilyn Grona (Fredericksburg) and Eleanor Smith (San Marcos) each won individual Region titles.

The Region IV cross country championships began on Monday with the 2A races. In the girls race there were only two individuals competing from local schools, Abby Deleon of Falls City and Addison White of Stacey. Deleon ended up in 39^th place after completing the 2-mile course in 14:57.98 and White was a few places back in 50^th after finishing in 15:15.48. Neither individual qualified for the State meet.

In the 2A boys division there was one full local team entered in the race, Stacey. Despite only two of their runners finishing inside the top-40, they were able to qualify in fourth place with 172 points thanks to a tight pack of runners in spots 3-5. Zach Born ran a great race for the team and finished in fourth place with a time of 17:48.82 and Jarred Dunn also ran quite well in taking 19^th overall in 18:45.31. The reason the team will be moving onto the State meet is because Eduardo Barajas, Caden Kelstrom and Lazaro Barajas posted a 12-second split. It was close scoring for the final spot, but Stacey finished five points in front of Premont who had three runners in the top-20, but their #5 runner was tagged with 94 points which allowed Stacey to take fourth place. Gabriel Liska of Falls City was also in the race as an individual and finished in 54^th place with a time of 20:16.21.

The 4A girls Regional title came down to the #6 runners of Davenport and La Feria after each school scored 92 points. Davenport's Julianna Gonzalez finished ahead of the La Feria #6 runners to give her team the title. The Wolves were led by sisters Kendall (13:00.14) and Macie Fallon (13:04.11) who finished ninth and 10^th, respectively on the 2-mile course. Caitlyn Long (13:21.39) slipped in as the 20^th overall finisher and their scoring runners who capped off by freshmen Audrey Orgill (13:27.64) and Beth Bates (14:12.89). The Wolves finished fifth at last year's State meet and Kendall Fallon was the lone finisher to break the top-20.

Fredericksburg and Floresville gave San Antonio schools three of the top four spots that advance to the State meet. Fredericksburg was led by Region champion Rilyn Grona who won in 12:16.73. Last year, Fredericksburg finished as the State Runner-up and Grona was eighth overall. After Grona, they had a tight pack of runners that had a 2-7 split of less than 50 seconds. All five of their scoring runners finished in the top-45. Floresville was only seven points behind Fredericksburg in fourth place. Nora Felan led the team with a 15^th place finish in 13:10.22. Their next four runners all finished in front of their corresponding Fredericksburg runners.

Wimberley was the first team out of luck as they finished in fifth place with 159, 31 behind Floresville. However, their top two runners, Allison Dodds and Corina Joyce, each qualified for the State meet. There were five other local individuals who also qualified for the State meet; Eva Zabarcencu (Canyon Lake), Madison Gilliam (Navarro), Katie Dallas (La Vernia), Lilia Flo (Navarro) and Taytum Moeller (Bandera).

The Davenport and Floresville boys will each be headed to Round Rock with their girls teams. Davenport finished second with 86 points and Floresville was third with 100 points. Davenport was led by the senior triumvirate of Eli Bliss, Blake Reagan and Christian Pena. Bliss finished as the overall runner-up in 16:05.67 while Reagan was ninth in 16:59.11 and Pena was 19^th in 17:44.83. Jake Vidrio (18:01.70) and Caleb Bliss (18:18.96) rounded out their scoring runners.

Floresville has followed the charge of freshman Kaden Cypert all season long and it was no different on Monday. He took sixth place in a time of 16:49.77 while Joshua Simmons was 12^th in 17:08.67. Jack Zarosky (17:51.20), Riley Silva (18:12.46) and Isaiah Cruz (18:17.95) brought the team home comfortably in third place. La Feria won the title with 41 points while Hidalgo Early College finished in fourth place.

Fredericksburg took fifth place at the 4A Regional meet and missed out on the State meet by 38 points. They will be sending one individual, Derek Adams, to the State competition after he finished in eighth place. Tristan Schenk of Canyon Lake and Donovan Dixon of Devine are the other two local runners who qualified as individuals for the State meet. Schenk finished in seventh and Dixon was 13^th overall.

The 6A girls team title was a bit of an upset as San Antonio Johnson took home the top honors with 103 points, just three ahead of Cedar Park Vista Ridge. The top team in the CCCAT State rankings, Vandegrift, finished in sixth place. The Jaguars showed that what they have been doing all season long was real. Isabella Porter (18:25.76) and Emily Krot (18:52.40) were their top two finishers again as Porter was second and Krot was sixth. Ariana Pinheiro Barreira gave them a great #3 runner with her 12^th place finish in 19:33.27. Kira Albino (20:26.26) and Isabela Arias (21:19.27) were the final two scoring runners.

The Reagan girls added a second San Antonio squad headed to the 6A State meet as they were able to hold off Austin Bowie by 11 points for fourth place and they missed out on third place by only four points. The strength of the Rattlers has been their 1-5 split this year and it showed up when they needed it the most as they posted a 55-second split. Theone Glosser was the top finisher on the squad taking 17^th overall in 19:46.15. Ariana Stark, Addison Jackson, Reese Sweatman and Paige Opaska all finished within 19-seconds of each other as they ran between 20:22.16 and 20:41.70.

Individually, there were six area runners who punched their ticket to the State meet. Eleanor Smith of San Marcos won the Regional title in 18:22.99. Locals took five of the first six spots as Porter was second, then Kailyn Brunson (18:26.26) of Brennan was third, Steele's Kassia Kozarski (18:33.96) was fourth and Krot was sixth. Joining them at the State meet will be Churchill's Kallie Van Prooyen (19:35.16), Ada Mathias (19:37.51) of Brandeis and Adelyn Miller (19:41.17) of Taft who finished back-to-back-to-back.

Last year, there were only three 6A San Antonio girls to run at the State meet and this year there will be 20 runners from the area at the meet.

In the 6A boys race, Johnson finished a solid second place while Reagan's Gavin Chapa took the Regional title in 15:24.28 and defeated last year's State runner-up, Hudson Haley of Vandegrift, in the process.

Despite not having a runner finish in the top-15, the Jaguars were able to hold off both Harlingen and Round Rock by less than five points for second place. Michael Repper-Molina was the top finisher for the squad taking 18^th place in a time of 16:29.88. Kyle Wunderli, Nicolas Repper-Molina and Manny Mood each ran in the 16:40's and Angel Olmo (17:11.95) was the final scoring runner on the team.

Last year, Brennan's Zachary Miller finished 47^th in the State, but after a 4^th place finish today he appears ready to compete for a top-10 spot at the State meet this year. He ran 15:37.39 and broke up Vandegrift's top-3. Jayce Love (Clemens), Aiden Adams (Clark), Nick Maldonado (Madison) and Connor McGlothlin (San Marcos) each qualified for the State championships individually.