By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The St. Joseph Academy girls took second place as a team in Monday’s TAPPS district cross country meet at Our Lady of Corpus Christi Retreat Center.
The meet host was Corpus Christi Incarnate Word Academy.
“I’m proud of our runners, both the girls and the boys,” SJA coach Teddy Lopez said.
It was a five-team district meet. It precedes the TAPPS state meet next Monday at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course in Waco.
Besides SJA and C.C. Incarnate Word Academy, other schools participating in the TAPPS district meet were Victoria St. Joseph, Corpus Christi John Paul II and Laredo St. Augustine.
First place in the girls division was won by Incarnate Word with 36 points. SJA was second with 44 and Victoria St. Joseph was third with 45.
Individually, the first and third runners in the girls race were from Victoria St. Joseph.
The top finisher for the SJA girls was sophomore Valeria Bazan, who came in second. Teammates Isabela Douglas and Camila Martinez finished sixth and 10th, respectively, to earn all-district honors for placing in the top 10. SJA also had runners finish 11th and 14th.
IWA’s runners came in fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and 13th.
Bazan showed great improvement, Lopez said.
“Valeria was third last year, and she knocked 23 seconds off her time this year (to finish second), so she improved quite a bit,” Lopez said.
“(The race conditions were) pretty hot and humid,” the SJA coach added. “There was no wind.”
The SJA boys placed fourth out of five teams with a squad comprised of mostly freshmen.
St. Augustine won the boys team title with 49 points. IWA was second with 56, Victoria St. Joseph was third with 74 and SJA was fourth with 85.
Individually, SJA sophomore Pedro Cardenas finished second in the boys race behind Victoria St. Joseph sophomore Nick Rodriguez.
“Those two have a nice rivalry going in cross country and track,” Lopez said. “Pedro knocked about 25 seconds off his time from last year.”
Also for SJA, freshman Alejandro Ramirez placed fifth to earn all-district status.
It was not a qualifying meet for state, but rather a “bragging rights” meet at the district level, Lopez said.
“It was fun to compete for bragging rights in a relaxed atmosphere,” the SJA coach said. “We’ve got one more race to go (at state). We’ve had a good season, and I’m just proud of our runners.”
Lopez said SJA will be taking seven boys and seven girls to the TAPPS state meet.