There is dominance.
Then there is the Sharyland High girls cross-country team, one step above dominant.
The Rattlers won their third straight district title led by junior Danielle Salinas, who crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, 30.20 seconds, 37 seconds ahead of teammate, sophomore Daylah Vega. Salinas was the only runner to break the 19-minute mark and all five Sharyland’s point-awarding runner finished in the top eight. (All seven runners in total finished in the top 15). The Rattlers finished first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth (and 12th and 15th) out of 54 runners.
And this was supposed to be a rebuilding year after the Rattlers graduated five runners from last year’s squad, which advanced to state and finished in a school-best eighth as a team.
A perfect score is 15 points for a team finishing in all top-five spots. Sharyland earned 20 points to outdistance McAllen Rowe’s second-place finish with 54 points.
Sharyland and Rowe will both advance to regionals Nov. 9 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The top 10 overall finishers will also advance. The girls race begins at 8 a.m. and the boys at 8:30 a.m.
Sharyland High head coach Melissa Death said she wasn’t sure if her girls team would be able to run due to COVID-19 concerns at the school the day before.
“Thank goodness all my girls are virtual learners because if they were face-to-face, they weren’t going to be able to competed,” Dearth said. “That was nerve-wracking.”
Sharyland has dominated the pandemic-shortened season with finishes similar to the one Saturday at Sharyland Pioneer high school, finishing in the 20-point range at each meet, sometimes even scoring fewer points. During one weekend during the season, Dearth’s “A” team won a meet as well as her “B” team.
“Last year we had a veteran team and this year a young team but I think we can get at least our top two individuals to state,” Dearth said. “I think they can even have a better shot next year and maybe to even better than the eighth place — the best the school has even done even before the split (when Sharyland High split into Sharyland and Sharyland Pioneer).”
On the boys side, Williams Macias continued to be in a class of his own in South Texas, completing the course in 14:47.60. He was the only runner to finish in a sub 15-minute time and 23 seconds ahead of second place Cesar Ramirez from Sharyland Pioneer.
“Those two were in a class by themselves,” McAllen High head coach Luis Cantu said. “That was some serious racing.”
McHi won the boys event, placing its scoring runners in the top 13 and scored 48 points, beating out second-place Sharyland Pioneer, which scored 51. Similar to the girls meet, the top two teams and top 10 individuals will advance to the regional meet. It was the Bulldogs’ second straight district title.
Runners from five different schools finished in the top six spots, creating a fairly competitive race as McAllen Memorial ended in third with 66 points.
“Today’s meet was probably one of the toughest district meets,” Cantu said. “Pioneer has been a top program since they opened and McAllen Memorial is another top team — they were ranked No. 8 in the state when the season opened. So this was a serious battle today. It was fun and it was some great racing, but it was really a battle.
Ismael Hernandez paced McHi in 15:49.80 to finish third overall, and fellow senior Hunter Herrera captured ninth in 16:07.10. Rounding out McHi’s runners were junior Matt Gonzalez in 11th (16:14.80), senior Julio Alanis in 12th (16:21.90) and junior Joe Rios in 13th (16:28.00).
“It could’ve gone either way today,” Cantu said. “We have a senior group so the experience is there and this is a sport where you control your own destiny. You don’t have to be inside a court or wherever. You can go out and run any time you want. Today could’ve gone either way. It was a tough one.”