By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
For just the second time in eight seasons, the Hanna boys and girls teams will head to the Region IV-6A cross country meet as District 32-6A champions.
It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.
“We have girls who are experienced and are seniors, so we knew had a good chance to win district,” Hanna cross country coach Olaya Teran said. “Nothing is for sure sometimes, but the girls were able to do it. While watching the boys race, I thought Harlingen High had gotten it, but then we were told that we had won by four points. It was a really good race. It’s been, like, six years since both teams have won and it feels really good — I’m really happy.”
The Golden Eagles turn their attention to the regional meet at the Islander Cross Country course located on the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Dugan Track and Soccer Stadium.
They should have plenty of momentum heading to Corpus, as the girls had six runners place in the top 15 at district and the boys had five finish in the top 20.
Senior Nadia Sifuentes placed second, completing the San Benito course in 21 minutes, 12.8 seconds.
Cecilia Tellez placed sixth (22:11.5) and Alexia Perez was ninth (22:40).
For the boys, it was freshman John Abrego coming up big with a fourth-place finish (17:39.7), followed by Felipe Parra (17:52.7) in sixth and Marcos Tellez (18:13.5) in seventh.
Teran believes that her team is capable of topping those district times if the weather and course, which is different this year than in the past, cooperates with them.
“We’re hoping maybe we have faster times at regionals, but it’s going to be wet and muddy, and it’s not a very good course,” the Hanna coach said. The course (map) used to go like in a snake through some of the hills, but now it goes around them. In a prior meet this season it had been flooded, and rain is expected this time around.”
Another team riding high into the regional meet is District 32-3A boys champion IDEA Frontier. Frontier has won the district title four out of the past five seasons and is advancing to the regional meet for the fifth straight year.
Coach Albert Alanis said the school’s campus size has a lot to do with the recent success.
“We have tried to establish a good running program here since we have K-12 here,” Alanis said. “We have a middle school feeder right on the same campus, and we’re always trying to bring in freshmen and make sure they’re prepared for varsity running. Every year we have a good team. This was the first year … we had nine teams in our district, up from five. It was unfamiliar, but the kids went out there and did well.”
Alanis expects his team to do well and is expecting to get back to the state meet for the third time in five seasons.
Frontier dominated the district meet as sophomore Victor Leos won with a time of 17:43.5, followed by junior Jose Mendieta in second (17:54.7).
All seven Frontier runners finished in the top 20.
Other Metro-area teams runners heading to the 6A meet include district champion Andrea de la Rosa of Rivera, who has yet to lose a race this season.
She will be joined by teammate Bethany Guzman, who placed seventh at district, and Los Fresnos’ Clarissa Tellez, who placed third to qualify.
For the boys, Rivera’s Julian Tavares will aim for state after a third-place finish at district.
The top four teams qualify for the state meet as well as the top 10 individuals not on a team.
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial girls team also will be in Corpus after a second-place finish at district.
Valeria Gamez placed fifth, Loren Averyt was sixth and Christian Pena took 10th. They will be joined by Porter’s Estrella Medellin, who finished eighth at district.
In the boys race, Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Demian Rodriguez snuck into the regional meet with a 10th-place finish.