By ROY HESS/Staff Writer
Sometimes it takes great teammates to accomplish great things.
Jennifer Lopez, a senior, and Andrea de la Rosa, a sophomore, are two such teammates for the Rivera girls cross country team. They push each other and they support one another as well as everyone else on the team.
When de la Rosa showed up last year as a freshman, Lopez — better known as “J-Lo” — was the top runner for the Lady Raiders. But it became apparent rather quickly that the newcomer was going to be even faster. Sure enough, de la Rosa now has won District 32-6A two years in a row plus she has placed first in all of her meets this season but one. Lopez continues to have strong finishes, too.
The two runners have worked together to make each other better. It’s evident by their strong finishes.
Now comes their biggest challenge to date — Saturday’s Region IV meet at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer and Track Stadium. The meet will be run on a 5,000-meter course over the area surrounding the stadium. The first race is scheduled at 8:30 a.m.
The top four teams in each division advance to the UIL state meet Nov. 12 in Round Rock. The top 10 individual finishers not on a state-qualifying team also advance in each division.
Rivera girls cross country coach Jenny Schuster said it’s been a pleasure to have “J-Lo” and de la Rosa on the team.
“”They’re just phenomenal and we’re so proud of them,” Schuster said of her two standout runners. “‘J-Lo’ was always the No. 1 runner until Andrea came in the picture. Andrea’s No. 1 now, and there’s ‘J-Lo,’ completely supporting her and letting Andrea push her to do well, too. They’ve developed a really close friendship, so it’s nice to see.
“”I love to watch them as they have success,” she added. “They’ve joined forces and depend upon each other for a lot. They both have risen to become the leaders that I’ve wanted them to be.”
Runners and coaches alike are expecting the competition to be fierce at the regional meet.
“”I hope Andrea, Jennifer and Jonathan (Herrera from the boys team) perform at the regional meet to the best of their ability,” said Arturo Hurtado, also a Rivera cross country coach.
Hanna qualified both its boys and girls teams for the regional meet. The Golden Eagles are led by Cecilia Tellez on the girls side and Julio Dragustinovis for the boys.
Other Metro-area runners who qualified to compete individually Saturday in Corpus Christi are Los Fresnos’ Clarissa Tellez and Ricardo Torres, Porter’s Estrella Medellin, Pace’s Megan Villelda, Brownsville Veterans Memorial‘s Carlos Rodriguez, Port Isabel‘s Ava Gomez and Brownsville IDEA Frontier’s Sabrina Garcia.
IDEA Frontier’s boys and girls also qualified as teams for the regional meet.
HEADED TO STATE
St. Joseph Academy is taking 16 runners to the TAPPS state meet Saturday in Waco.
For the girls, the runners include Carolina Del Pozo, Tania Garcia, Macarena Garza, Melissa Torteya, Gaby Garza, Ceci De La Garza, Carolina Gomez and Sophia Douglas.
Making the trip for the SJA boys will be Ricardo Marroquin, Gustavo Ramirez, Antonio Salum, Jose Luis Almazan, Alejandro Juarez, Daniel Martin, Marte Rodriguez and Mauricio Rodriguez.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess