Lilly Koenig, Aubrey Pozzi and Savanah Moya (l-r)
The theme of the UIL Region IV Cross Country championships was repeat champions for the San Antonio area. On Monday and Tuesday, five local teams repeated as champions on a hot and humid Corpus Christi course.
The meet opened on Monday morning with the 3A division races. The girl's race was a near sweep for San Antonio teams with Poth repeating as the champion with 66 points followed by Lytle (78) and Cole (112). Great Hearts Northern Oaks just missed out on the fourth spot by 17 points to San Diego. Poth received a great performance from their top three runners as Brooklyn Albert took second, Katelyn Poth was third and Chelsea Gorzell followed in fifth place. Albert was one of two runners to break 12-minutes on the 2-mile course with her time of 11:53.89. Lytle's first runner finished behind Gorzell when Frances Scotello crossed the line in sixth place, but they made the meet close because Annalise Quintanilla, Elyse Cortinas and Svetlana Lopez all finished in the top-20, before Poth's #4 runner.
Individually, the San Antonio area boasted the top eight runners in the Region. In addition to the Poth and Lytle runners, Juliet Alcott of Great Hearts Northern Oaks took home individual medalist honors with a time of 11:31.69 to win by over 20 seconds. Alcott's teammate, Madison Teague, finished in seventh place while Katherine Zinnante (Cole) took fourth and Caroline Finley (Randolph) finished in eighth. Alexys Cheney (Cole), Aurora Jones (Luling) and Jersey Brantley (Stockdale) qualified individually for the State meet giving area runners 7-of-10 individual spots.
The 3A boys featured defending State champion Lytle and they secured their spot back at the State meet with another Regional title with 54 points. Cole was runner-up with 80 points while Great Hearts Northern Oaks grabbed fourth with 151 points. Freshman Jacob Cantu led Lytle with his individual title covering the 5K course in 16:21.87. He had three of his teammates follow him in close succession with Diego Reyna (6th), Adrian Reyna (11th) and Bryan Montes-Rodriguez (15th) all finishing among the first 15 runners. Cole powered to a runner-up finish behind the brother duo of Caden Kitson and Levi Kitson. Caden finished in third place in 16:44.19 while Levi, a freshman, took fourth place in 16:52.20. Brayden Salzwedel and Carter Hasler gave Northern Oaks a pair of top-20 finishers. Cooper Warrick (Stockdale), Josiah Benavides (Dilley) and Cole Durbin (Great Hearts Monte Vista) gave the San Antonio area three more individual State qualifiers.
The 5A boys had a repeat team champion, Weslaco East, but they do not hail from the San Antonio area. Boerne Champion was the top local team finishing in third place with 127 points. Noah Moreno was their top finisher with his 26th place performance in 17:06.77 and he was quickly followed by four teammates who gave them a 1-5 split of 25.24s. Lockhart's Ethan Herrera led the local contingent of runners with his fifth place finish in 16:22.12. Boerne's Brayden Scott finished 10th and Luke Smith of Smithson Valley finished in 15th place to grab the last individual qualifier spot. Wagner's Channon Davis and Brackenridge's Reyes Arteaga each finished in the top-20 but missed out on an individual State qualifier spot.
The 5A girls race was dominated by District 26-5A. Defending State champion Smithson Valley repeated as the Region champ with 49 points while New Braunfels was second with 89 points and Boerne Champion finished in third with 115 points. Smithson Valley also boasted the individual Regional champion for a second straight year, although it was a different runner this year. Aubrey Pozzi ran away from the lead group over the final half of the race and cross the tape in 18:26.79 for the victory. Savanah Moya (New Braunfels) settled for second place with a time of 18:34.25.
SV had four runners finish in the top-20. After Pozzi, Lilly Koenig used a late sprint to go from eighth place to sixth place. Skyler Fonseca (14th), Addison Knibbe (20th) and Parker Julian (23rd) followed in short order. Ava Briley gave the Unicorns a pair of top-20 finishers with her 10th place performance. Boerne Champion was led by Rebecca Bezerra (7th) and Emma Radtke (18th). Pieper's Sadie Larson (8th) and Southside's Emarald Aguirre (13th) each qualified for the State meet as individuals.
The 1A races closed out Monday. There are not any true San Antonio area schools in the division, but Tilden McMullen County and Utopia are reasonably close. McMullen County swept the boys and girls team titles. Utopia is sending three individuals to the State meet; Brayden Long, Macee Rhodes and Leighton Leavelle.
The 4A boys race was won by La Feria while San Antonio area schools Floresville and Devine finished in third and fourth place, respectively. Floresville finished 10 points behind runner-up Tuloso-Midway. Kaden Cypert led the team with a third-place individual finish in 16:19.27. His teammate, Jack Zarosky, finished in 17th place. Devine was led by Urijah Velasquez and his 18th place finish. Caleb Bliss of Davenport and Jose Ruiz of Fredericksburg were each individual State qualifiers finishing in the top-15.
The 4A girls race was dominated by local teams with all four State qualifying squads and five of the top six teams overall calling the San Antonio area home. Davenport ran their best race of the season to win a second straight Regional title. They finished with 95 to hold off Fredericksburg by 17 points. Floresville followed in third place and Wimberley finished it off with a fourth-place finish.
Davenport received top-10 performances from Kendall Fallon and Macie Fallon while Olivia Bounds chipped in with a 17th-place performance. Fredericksburg was led by the repeat Regional champion Rilyn Grona who won in 11:42.14. Abbi Brown gave the Billies a second runner in the top-15, but Davenport's #3 and #5 runners were a combined 18 spots in front of Fredericksburg's same runners to supply the difference in the meet. Nora Felan led Floresville with a top-10 finish while Wimberley's Corina Joyce competed with Grona for the individual title before settling for second place.
The 4A girls also had many individual State qualifiers from the San Antonio area. Navarro's Lilia Flo led the way with her bronze medal performance. Eva Zabarcencu of Canyon Lake and Arianna Rivera of Carrizo Springs added top-10 finishes while Shalyn Gutierrez (Pleasanton) and Angelyna Montes (Pearsall) each finished in the top-20.
The local 6A boys were led by Clemens and their fourth-place finish with 131 points to edge out Lake Travis by five points for the final State qualifier spot. It is the first time the Buffalos have qualified as a team for the State meet. Sean Gonzalez led the way with a runner-up finish in 15:33.95. Jayce Love gave the team a second runner in the top-10.
Individually, five other San Antonio 6A boys qualified for the State meet. Clark's Aiden Adams continued his fantastic season with a fourth-place finish in 15:50.47. Reagan's Logan Martinez and Johnson's Nicolas Repper-Molina each qualified while Churchill qualified a pair of runners in Caleb Esquivel and Zach Hudson for the State meet.
In 6A girls, Johnson won their second straight Regional title despite not having their best day. For the first time this season, neither Isabella Porter nor Emily Krot was the team's #1 runner. Ariana Pinheiro Barrei led the way in 14th place with a time of 19:27.32 and she was followed quickly by teammates Kira Albino, Krot and Porter who all finished inside the top-20 and crossed the line within 10 seconds of Pinheiro. Reagan took runner-up honors in the meet with a strong performance. They were led by Theone Glosser's top-5 finish and time of 19:03.76. She was their only top-20 finisher, but their other four scoring runners all finished within 40 seconds of each other.
The San Antonio area girls nabbed six of the 10 individual qualifier spots. Canyon's Madi Molinar and Churchill's Mia Kellogg finished nearly side-by-side in seventh and eighth place, respectively while Anastacia Garza (Judson), Kassia Kozarski (Steele), Adelyn Miller (Taft) and Kailyn Brunson (Brennan) all finished consecutively from 10th to 13th place.
At the 2A level, the Stacey boys took fifth place to finish just outside the team qualifiers. Jarred Dunn qualified in 18th place for Stacey as an individual and Gabriel Liska of Falls City finished right in front of Dunn to punch his ticket as well.