Photo of Jayce Love
It is the second week of September and the season is in full swing. It has been a fun first four weeks of the season and it promises to be great for the San Antonio area once the championship season starts in about a month.
Rangers Lead the Way
Sophomore Aubrey Pozzi has become the top runner for the Smithson Valley girls team that is the defending UIL 5A State Champions. Last year, Pozzi was the team's #5 runner at the State Cross Country meet where she finished in 20th place overall. That team only graduated current University of Texas runner Mia Perez but Pozzi has continued to make big strides. During the track season, she nearly qualified for the State meet in the 3200m but was edged out for the at-large qualifier spot. This week she won the Canyon Cougars Invitational at Starcke Park in Seguin.
It was the second week in a row that she had finished ahead of teammate Lilly Koenig who was 10th at the Cross Country championships and second in the 3200m at the State Track meet. Pozzi won in a time of 18:46.59 on a challenging 5K course while Koenig was second in 18:57.52. The team should be welcoming back Brady Solansky into the mix soon which will only strengthen the top ranked 5A team in the State since Solansky finished third at the State meet last year.
In the Rankings
The Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas puts out State rankings throughout the season. The following teams appeared in the Regular Season Poll #1:
3A Girls - Poth (#2), Lytle (#7), Cole (#9)
3A Boys - Lytle (#1), Great Hearts Northern Oaks (#6)
4A Girls - Davenport (#4), Fredericksburg (#6)
4A Boys - Floresville (#7)
5A Girls - Smithson Valley (#1), Boerne Champion (#10)
5A Boys - Boerne (#6)
6A Girls - Johnson (#7)
There was not a new State rankings released this week. The Poth girls won their own meet with 20 points behind a 1-2-3 finish by Brooklyn Albert, Katelyn Poth and Chelsea Gorzell. The Lytle girls ran at the Steve Golemon Invitational hosted by Bandera and finished fourth without their top runners competing. Their boys ran at the same meet and held out most of their top runners. The Cole girls were at the Edgewood ISD relays where their top team finished in fourth place. The Davenport girls were at the Runnin' Rattler Invitational and finished in third place against much larger schools. Kendall Fallon and Audrey Orgill each finished in the top-7 for the squad. The Fredericksburg girls were at the same meet as Lytle and won a tight competition by two points over Saint Mary's Hall. Rilyn Grona was the individual champion while Abbi Brown and Madalyn Kovar were top-10 finishers. The Smithson Valley girls won the team title at the Canyon Cougars Invitational with 31 points. All five of their runners finished in the top-15 of the 10-team race. The Boerne Champion girls were the second-place team to SV and they had all five scoring runners finish in the top-20.
Clemens Keeps Rolling
The Clemens boys continued their perfect season with a fourth straight invitational victory. They took the title at the Cedar Park Invitational with 40 points. Sean Gonzalez was the individual winner of the meet clocking a time of 15:05.6 to win by over 20 seconds. Teammates Jayce Love, Aric Pinguelo and Trevor Lawson each finished inside the top-10 with each running faster than 16:30. Timothy Lawson was the team's final scoring runner as he crossed in 25th place. They topped second place Round Rock by 48 points in the 14-team invitational. Three weeks ago, Clemens went up against Round Rock and only won by five points. The Buffaloes seem like a team that could get ranked the next time the CCCAT posts their rankings.
Private School Runners vs Public School Runners
Ethan Garza of TMI and Adrian Rule of San Antonio Christian took the top two spots at the Canyon Cougars Invitational and Rule's teammate Christian Tarver grabbed ninth place giving the two private schools a strong showing against 12 other public schools. Garza won the individual title in 15:45.23, nearly 30 seconds faster than Rule. TMI finished in second place as a team with 115 points while San Antonio Christian was fifth with 132 points. The two schools were part of a tightly packed group of six teams that all had between 115 and 138 points.
Shining the Light
Judson's Ana Garza is putting together an outstanding season even though the Rockets have yet to field a full squad. Garza, a senior, won her first career cross country invitational with her victory at the Runnin' Rattler Invitational. She has finished no worse than fifth place so far this year. Last year, she finished in third place in District 29-6A and has run at the Regional meet each of the past two seasons. She was also a Regional finalist in both the 800m and 1600m this past season in track and field. It appears she might be making the breakthrough that will allow her to advance all the way to the State meet this year. The road will be difficult for her with no chance of a State meet berth due to overall team performance.
Around the City
The Canyon Cougars Invitational was held on Friday at Starcke Park in Seguin. Boerne Champion took home the boys team title with 70 points. Their top four runners all finished within 17 seconds of each other and they were led by Mason Nelson's 7th place finish in 17:10.14. TMI followed in second place with only one top-20 finisher, Ethan Garza in first place at 15:45.23. Pieper grabbed third place ahead of many other contenders for a podium spot thanks to a trio of top-20 finishers. Smithson Valley's Luke Smith and Canyon's Cooper Anderson were also top-10 individual finishers.
The Smithson Valley girls won the Canyon team title with 31 points while Boerne Champion was the runner-up and Canyon was third place. SV's Aubrey Pozzi, Lilly Koenig, Skyler Fonseca and Addison Knibbe all finished in the top-10. Emma Radtke and Rebecca Bezerra led BC with top-10 finishes while Madi Molinar propelled Canyon with her third place finish. Sadie Larson (Pieper), D'Vani Hernandez (SAC) and Dani Shelfo (TMI) were other locals in the top-10.
Canyon also hosted a 1A-4A Division. The boys meet was won by Gonzales with Pleasanton taking the runner-up spot. Stockdale's Cooper Warrick was the individual champion in 17:14.88 while Tristan Schenk (Canyon Lake) was a solid third place in the meet. Pleasanton was led by Micah Klein who nabbed seventh place. In the girls race, Wimberley edged out both Canyon Lake and Tilden McMullen County by less than 10 points. Corina Joyce (3rd) and Avery Wymore (7th) helped lead Wimberley to the team title. Eva Zabarcencu was the individual runner-up for Canyon Lake in 12:07.41 while Lilia Flo took fourth place for Navarro.
Lockhart traveled to the Austin ISD Invitational. There boys finished in fifth place and they were led by Ethan Herrera who crossed the line in 16:12.4 which was good enough for sixth place.
At the San Marcos Runnin' Rattler Invitational Fabian Cerda of Southwest Legacy was the individual boys champion with a time of 16:49.92. Mission was the overall team champion while Reagan finished a solid second and San Marcos was third. Moses Garcia led San Marcos with a third-place finish in 17:02.50 while Brandon Nielson was the top runner for Reagan finishing in eighth place. Davenport had a pair of top-10 runners in Jake Vidrio and Jayson Loyola.
The Reagan girls took home the Runnin' Rattler team title by a bare point over McAllen Rowe while Davenport was another 10 points back in third place. Judson's Ana Garza was the individual champion in 19:26.64 as she gapped the field by over 30 seconds. Ariana Stark led Reagan with a runner-up finish and teammate Katherine Jackson crossed in sixth place. Davenport received two top finishes from Kendall Fallon (fourth) and Audrey Orgill (seventh). Aaralyn Julian took home fifth place for the host San Marcos.
The Edgewood ISD Relays consisted of 3-person teams and featured many local schools. In the boys division, Clark won with a cumulative time of 30:37.0 and Holmes had the second-best team that was only seven seconds behind them. Sotomayor had the most impressive showing with teams that finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively. Central Catholic was the only other school to place at least two teams in the top-10. Taft's top team took home the gold medal in the girls division in 38:41.1 while Sotomayor was second in 38:52.8. The SotoCats were the only team to have two squads finish in the top-10.
Bandera hosted the 4th Annual Steve Golemon Invitational on Saturday. Bulverde Gloria Deo Academy came away with the boys title with 55 points. They were led by Jackson Playford who finished in second place in a time of 16:47.00. Eli Rogers gave them a second top-10 finisher. Devine finished in second place behind Zach Guerra's sixth place individual finish. Pablo Garcia (Cotulla), Augie Cummings (Saint Mary's Hall) and Jose Ruiz (Fredericksburg) all finished in the top-5 runners.
In the girls division, Fredericksburg edged out both Saint Mary's Hall and Bandera for the team title. The Billies had 47 points while SMH finished with 49 and Bandera with 54. Rilyn Grona was the individual champion for Fredericksburg covering the 2-mile course in 12:01.07. Ellie Scott and Micah Monteleone were the next two finishers for Saint Mary's Hall, but then Abbi Brown and Madalyn Kovar each crossed the line in the top-7 for Fredericksburg to give them the edge they needed. Arianna Rivera of Carrizo Springs took fourth place while Angelyna Montes of Pearsall finished in sixth place. Bandera was led by Kaylee Fried who crossed the line in eighth place.
At the Poth Pirate Cross Country Meet, the Randolph boys grabbed the top prize with 57 points while Nixon Smiley had 59 points and Hondo was third with 63 points. Elijah Epstein was the top runner for Randolph finishing in seventh place. David Gardiner of Castle Hills was the individual champion in 17:12.59 while Luling had a pair of runners finish inside the top-10, Zain Fischer and Brandon Ferry. Poth's Dane Nichols and Dominick Jansky also took home top-10 honors.
The Poth girls easily won their race with only 20 points while Randolph was second with 77 points. Brooklyn Albert won the race for Poth in 12:01.87 and they had a 1-2-3 sweep with Katelyn Poth and Chelsea Gorzell. Savannah Parker (Castle Hills) and Caroline Finley (Randolph) rounded out the top-5. Rylee Ellis gave Poth a fourth runner in the top-10.
The Clemens boys dominated the Cedar Park Invitational with 40 points to finish 48 points ahead of the second-place team. Antonian finished in fourth place and Steele took eighth place. Clemens had their top-4 runners all finish within the first seven total finishers with Sean Gonzalez winning the meet. Antonian's John Boland was the runner-up in 15:27.0 and teammate Channing Schaeffer crossed in 18th place. Steele was led by Peyton Sturm who finished inside the top-20.
In the girls division of the Cedar Park Invitational, Steele was the top local team in fourth place while Antonian took fifth place. Kassia Kozarski (Steele) continues to pile up excellent performances week in and week out with a silver medal finish in 18:45.2 and teammate Peyton Jarzombek added a 10th place finish. MacKenzie Kanz led Antonian with her eighth place finish in 19:48.6. In the Division 2 race, Blanco's Lily Zamora and Ashton Uballe each finished in the top-10 of the 2-mile race.
What's Happening This Week
This week, the Hayes CISD Invitational is on Friday. On Saturday, East Central/Harlandale Invitational, SAISD Invitational #2 and St. Andrew's in Austin are taking place. There will also be many teams at the Texas A&M Invitational on Saturday.
Photo of Jayce Love
It is the second week of September and the season is in full swing. It has been a fun first four weeks of the season and it promises to be great for the San Antonio area once the championship season starts in about a month.
Rangers Lead the Way