By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It hasn’t gotten any easier for the cross country teams at Porter and Pace this school year after they remained in District 32-5A and didn’t move up to District 32-6A with the other Brownsville schools.
“This district is very tough,” Porter boys coach Clemente Delgado said of 32-5A. “There are some pretty good teams.”
Among the strongest teams for the boys in 32-5A are Mercedes, Donna North and Edcouch-Elsa. For the girls, the 32-5A favorites appear to be Mercedes and E-E.
District 32-5A will hold its conference meet Oct. 25 at Donna North. There is a meet scheduled there Saturday, which will give 32-5A teams a chance to become familiar with the course that will be used for their conference meet in two weeks.
Among the top runners for the Porter boys are juniors Julio Chavez and Gerardo Perez, Delgado said.
“They’ve been consistently finishing in the top 10, top 15 and top 20 (at meets),” Delgado said. “They’re our hope for regionals.”
Porter girls coach Abraham Gracia said Marcela Galvan has been a strong competitor for the Cowgirls.
At Pace, boys coach Mario Cisneros listed Simei Tovar, Ricky Moncivais and Miguel Hernandez as being among the top runners for the boys team.
For the Pace girls, Hope Ngo and Vivian Allen are among the top runners.
Tovar and Ngo consistently have finished in the top 20 at meets so far this season. They appear to have their team’s best chances of advancing out of district to the Region IV meet Nov. 1 at San Antonio. The UIL state meet is set for Nov. 8 in Round Rock.
Cisneros said things are “more open” now as four teams instead of the previous three will be advancing this year from the regional meet to state. Also, the top 10 boys and girls individual finishers not attached with the top four teams also advance to state, which is another change.
“They’ve made it more open,” Cisneros said of the UIL.
UPCOMING
It’s a busy weekend as meets Saturday in the Rio Grande Valley include the Donna North Invitational, the Progreso Invitational, the Bobcat Invitational in Edinburg and the Fly Like An Eagle meet in Mission.
Of note next week is the District 32-6A meet Oct. 17 at Brownsville Sports Park. In addition to the District 32-5A meet set for Oct. 25 at Donna North, the District 32-4A meet, which will include Port Isabel’s runners, is scheduled for Oct. 20 at Progreso.