Big Surprises and Big Victories on Day 2 of Regionals

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS - The second day of the Region IV cross country championships hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday proved to be one that saw most of the top teams advancing on to the State meet, but it also left some big question marks.

The biggest question comes out of the 5A race where presumptive favorite Elizabeth Leachman of Boerne Champion started the race but stopped before finishing. Fortunately, her teammates were able do enough to pick up a third place and qualify for the State meet. Senior Kynley Albright was the top Charger runner of the day finishing in 14^th place in a time of 19:36.61. The youngsters on BC came through with sophomore Luciana Zazueta Ibarra (20:37.67) and freshmen Rebecca Bezerra (20:08.39), Addison Graham (20:12.26) and Payton Kidder (20:50.87) taking the scoring spots for the team to finish with 125 points.

The Smithson Valley girls answered every question that was asked of them as they easily won the team title with 39 points. In addition, freshman Brady Solansky took home the individual Regional title with a time of 18:05.58. Two of her freshman compatriots, Aubrey Pozzi (19:24.33) and Skyler Fonseca (19:37.66), were the #4 and #5 runners for the Rangers while veterans Lilly Koenig (18:58.23) and Mia Perez (19:18.86) grabbed the other two spots. Koenig was fifth overall and Perez finished in 10^th.

New Braunfels finished as the fifth place team but will be sending their super sophomore Savanah Moya to the State meet after she finished third in 18:43.57. Another local freshman, Emerald Aguirre of Southside, also punched her ticket by finishing in 20^th place in a time of 19:57.36.

The 5A boys race featured four of the top six ranked teams in the State, but the rankings coming in did not hold true. Boerne Champion entered as the #2 team in the State but had to hold on for a fourth-place finish with 94 points even though Charlie Houck (15:56.69) finished as the overall runner-up. McAllen (#3) and Boerne (#6) finished in a tie for second place with 80 points, but the trophy goes to McAllen because their #6 runner finished ahead of Boerne's. The Greyhounds had two runners finish in the top-10 with Carsten Bain (16:22.28) and Valor Menn (16:36.16). That left the team title to #5 Weslaco East who finished with 69 points.

Boerne posted their usual close team running with Aaron Garcia, Barrett Crofut and Jackson Temple all finishing within seven seconds of each other to help lock down their position. All three runners finished between 17:04.00 and 17:11.38.

Champion had two other runners in the top-20 in addition to Houck with Caleb Dehart (16:41.00) in 14^th and Luis Tovar (16:51.59) in 18^th. Shawn Edwards (17:05.65) and Mason Nelson (17:39.19) were their final two scoring runners.

Local talents Channon Davis of Wagner and Ethan Herrera of Lockhart both qualified for the State meet as individuals. Davis took sixth place in a time of 16:25.74 while Herrera was 10^th in a time of 16:36.75.

The big surprise at the 3A level was that Lytle did not qualify for the State meet despite entering the meet ranked #3 in the State. Two of their normal scoring runners, including their top runner Frances Scotello, suffered injuries prior to the meet. They ended up in seventh place overall, but Svetlana Lopez will still run at the State meet after finishing 12^th in 13:27.26.

With Lytle facing their struggles, Poth ended up taking the team title with 95 points. They were led by Brooklyn Albert who finished third in 12:37.49. Rylee Ellis (13:16.32) and Katelyn Poth (13:33.76) gave the team two more runners who finished in the top-15 while Sadie Skloss (14:10.26) and Rhyan Montez (14:25.00) were their other two scoring runners.

San Antonio Cole finished a strong second place after being upset at their District meet. Katherine Zinnante (13:03.49) and Destiny Villegas (13:13.45) led the team by finishing sixth and ninth, respectively. Their next three runners; Amanda Gallardo (14:09.43), Morgan Rogers (14:10.46) and Reagan O'Neal (14:26.91) ran a solid split to keep their points to a minimum with 114.

The Randolph girls faced heart-break as they finished in a tie for fourth place with Vanderbilt Industrial with 160 points. However, Vanderbilt's #6 runner finished a scant 10 seconds in front of the Ro-Hawks' #6 runner breaking the tie. Sophia Bendet and Aubrey Milam gave Randolph an impressive 1-2 overall finish in the race as Bendet won in 11:19.74 and Milam was comfortably in second with a time of 12:01.86.

Stockdale was the sixth-place team and they will send Peyton Keller to the State meet after she finished fourth in a time of 12:55.76. Madison Teague (13:08.74) and Juliet Alcott (13:18.96) will represent Great Hearts Northern Oaks at the big meet after they finished eighth and 11^th, respectively. One final local runner to qualify for the State meet was Luling's Meadow Guillen who finished 13^th in a time of 13:28.12.

The Lytle boys had no difficulties in taking the 3A Regional title with only 60 points. Johnny Rey Alvarez (16:33.79) was their top finisher in third place but Lucas Salazar (17:06.52), Bryan Montes-Rodriguez (17:23.82) and Diego Reyna (17:27.94) all posted top-15 finishes and Yandel Esquivez (17:45.84) finished well as their #5 runner.

GHNO, the reigning State champions, finished in second place with 128 points. Krish Vijayvergia led the way in fifth place with a time of 16:53.31 while Brayden Salzwedel cracked the top-20 with a time of 17:33.23. Joshua Mounts (17:38.64), Carter Hasler (18:40.75) and Marcus Knight (18:48.28) rounded out their scoring runners.

Only two other San Antonio area runners advanced out of the 3A boys, Cooper Warrick of Stockdale and Ilias Braxton of Cole. Warrick finished eighth in a time of 16:59.56 while Braxton crossed in 17:21.55 to take 13^th.

At the 1A level, both of Utopia's teams finished in fifth place, one spot out of a State qualifying position. Their girls were just three points behind fourth place and were led by Leighton Leavelle (14:58.81) and Kinsley Cox (15:08.86) while Taylor Wiekamp (19:11.44) was the top runner on the boy's side.