KRISTELA GARZA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
Edinburg High’s Alexandria Cruz and Mission Veterans Memorial’s GJ Reyna took top honors at the Rio Grande Valley’s Meet of Champions, hosted Saturday at Donna High School.
The meet comes at a time when the cross country athletes throughout the Valley are more than halfway done with their season. Their competitive spirits are still in full swing, as the top teams have a chance to challenge each other head to head.
Cruz won the girls’ 3-mile event in the girls Elite division with a time of 17 minutes, 57 seconds. Her closest competitor was Edinburg North rival Beth Ramos, whose time was 18:17.
For Cruz, this year is important. The senior and defending champion has made it a goal this to lead her team to the state finals. Keeping her crown at the Meet of Champions is only a step in the right direction.
“It is a great feeling to know where I am at right now is ahead of where I was last year,” Cruz said. “Today I had to keep pushing and we are all running through the same obstacles and had to keep striving for that goal of mine, to get my team to state.”
Cruz did not stand alone in the winner’s circle, as Reyna from Mission Veterans ran the course in 15:55 to win on the boys side. His closest competitor was Albert Herrera, from Weslaco High, who was right behind with a time of 16:04.
Though the race was close for the Elite Boys division, Reyna held his own. He carried with him the momentum of his last first place win. As a senior his ultimate goal was to take home a 1st place plaque one last time.
“Last week we had an awesome race,” Reyna said. “The momentum has shifted for me over here. I’ve definitely been waiting for this one for a while and it is awesome to get it (first place) my last time around.”
Both Reyna and Cruz are leaders among their fellow classmates as experienced runners, and both are well known in the Rio Grande Valley endurance rankings. Because of this, both students are now looking to finish up the season strong. Both have aspirations to take their team to state before they say goodbye to the competitive life of high school cross country and take on their Division-I college prospects.
Despite the efforts of Cruz and Reyna, neither Edinburg’s girls nor Mission Vets’ boys won a team title. Edinburg Vela finished with 77 points to claim the boys’ team title ahead of Mission Veterans, which finished with 84 points. On the girls’ side, Edinburg Economedes took the team crown with 73 points, while La Joya Palmview finished with 86 and Edinburg High finished with 103.
Palmview and Edinburg North were the only teams to finish in the top five of both the boys’ and girls’ competitions. North finished third in the boys’ race and fourth in the girls’ race, while Palmview finished fourth in the boys’ race and second in the girls’ race.