BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
Some regular season cross country meets feel like the actual district competition, but they aren’t quite that.
Coaches like the experience of racing against district opponents in September, so that they can know where they stand before facing them again in October. Those regular season dates are all the more important to districts like 31-6A and 32-5A, who are under different UIL configurations than they were last year.
The Weslaco High girls went from one 6A district to another, but not much else has changed. The Panthers won their second district title in two years, leaving the rest of 31-6A in their dust with a team score of 20. Edinburg High took second (91 points) and Edinburg Economedes (100 points) was third, but both the Bobcats and Jaguars will compete at the UIL Region IV meet in Corpus Christi on Oct. 22.
“We knew how we were running all year compared to the other teams. We have a lot of respect for the Edinburg schools, Donna North and Weslaco East,” Weslaco High girls cross country coach Pablo Almaguer said. “We were confident coming into the race. We wanted to come in here and make a statement today before we head out to regionals in a couple weeks.”
Weslaco High sophomore Destinee Longoria won her second 5K race in five tries this season. She finished in the top five in four of those face races. Longoria’s time of 19 minutes, 53.3 seconds paced the rest of her teammates as the only runner in the field to check in at under 20 minutes.
Samantha Cienfuegos (second place), Amity Ebarb (fourth place), Lisamarie Sanchez (fifth place) and Natalie Garcia (eighth place) rounded out the Panthers’ five runners with top-10 finishes, tightening their grip on the district title.
“With this group that we have, we could have our No. 1 individual change from week-to-week,” Almaguer said. “I’ve told the girls that we have a lot of No. 1’s on this team. It doesn’t matter who it might be. They have to be ready to run their best race.”
Donna North boys have historical day
The Donna North boys made history at the 31-6A meet at Ebony Hills Public Golf Course in Edinburg. The Chiefs officially moved up from Class 5A to Class 6A in August, and have now captured the school’s first 6A district title in any sport.
Donna North (58 points) scored a narrow victory over Weslaco East (65 points). The Wildcats’ winning margin over third-place Edinburg North was even slimmer (66 points).
Juniors Jesus Mora (16:02.4) and Jorge Ponce (16:03.0) earned the two fastest times in Friday’s race.
“It’s great considering all our kids are coming back next year,” Donna North boys cross country coach Basilio Mendoza said. “We always talk about getting back to state, but winning this district against talented runners and talented coaches is special. Some of the best coaches in the Valley are in our district. (Edinburg Vela) Coach (Hernan) Fig(ueroa) is a guru, (Edinburg North) coach (Homer) Martinez is a guru and coach (Tom) Owens from Weslaco East is a guru. You’re going up against coaches that have been to state numerous times and have won state medals. That’s big for our program.”
With the Donna North boys bumped up a classification, Donna High (41 points) was able to seize the District 32-5A championship Friday morning in Elsa.
The race’s top five consisted of two Mercedes runners (first-place Guadalupe Reyes and fourth-place Julian Fuentes) and three from Edcouch-Elsa (second-place Albino Rodriguez, third-place Dominik Medrano and fifth-place Kristian Martinez), but four different Donna High runners (Kevin Hernandez, Erick Chavez, Samuel Martinez and Abdiel Ramirez) took sixth through ninth places.
Edcouch-Elsa (51 points) and Mercedes (88 points) clinched spots for the upcoming regional meet, as well.
“No words can explain this, winning a district championship against some strong teams,” Donna High boys cross country coach Juan Davila said. “We just showed up and competed. We had a couple of runners that should have been in the top five, but our pack helped us out. That’s all we needed.”
Mercedes’ Soledad Cruz won the individual girls 5,000-meter race, but Edcouch-Elsa (24 points) won the team title. Brownsville Veterans (52 points) finished second while the Tigers (89 points) took third.