By MARK MOLINA|STAFF WRITER
For the third consecutive year, IDEA Frontier senior cross country runner Sabrina Garcia will be heading to the UIL state meet.
She will enter the meet riding a wave of momentum after winning the Region IV-3A meet with a personal-best time of 12 minutes, 1.9 seconds Monday morning on the grounds of Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Dugan Stadium.
For Garcia, everything went her way, from being prepared for the course’s rough terrain, to good weather and all the way down to being able to don a brand new uniform.
“We had been practicing on the hills at the park maybe one or twice a week,” Garcia said. “The course was tough the first time around because of the hills, but this time around it was great because of the weather. We also got our new uniforms so we were all feeling really great.”
The state meet will be on Nov. 4 at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock, where Garcia has improved each time she has qualified, placing 93rd her sophomore year and 17th as a junior.
Frontier head cross country coach Albert Alanis hopes Garcia can crack the top 10 in her final go round.
“Every year she has gone down several places, so this year we’re really looking for (Garcia) to break the top 10 and see what she can do,” he said. “She ran a really smart race today. She held back the first mile to pace herself and then made her move the last 400 meters and paid off.”
Garcia won’t head up to Round Rock alone as the Charger boys qualified as a team, finishing second overall with 152 points behind Lulling High, which won the meet in dominating fashion with 33 points.
Much like Garcia in the girls race, Alanis said his team was simply well prepared.
“We had a taste of the course, which is a hard course because of the hills and the whole course is uphill,” he said. “We had a good chance to see it four weeks ago. We put a plan together as far as just being a certain distance from each other. We knew that was our best chance of advancing was to come in as a group and that’s exactly what they did.”
The finish is the best in the program’s history and was led by a young corps of runners.
Freshman Victor Leos finished the 5-kilometer course with a time of 17:53.4.
Teammate Jose Mendieta (18:07.2) finished 23rd, Irving Chavira (18:38.4) came in 36th, Cristian Davila (18:41.3) placed 38th and Diego Alfaro finished in 66th.
“This year we have a lot of underclassmen, which is awesome, because that’s a good future for us,” Alanis said. “
DE LA ROSA BREAKS THROUGH
Rivera’s Andrea de la Rosa is also state bound after she finished 13th in the Region IV-6A 5K girls race with a mark of 19:35.1.
While de la Rosa placed 13th overall, she was officially eighth after the runners on state qualifying teams were removed.
“I feel happy and excited for state,” de la Rosa said. “I felt really good about the race, but I also felt like it was a tough (outing) and it was my worse one. I will work really hard for state because I’m a getting a chance to run there and I will take that chance.”
While there is still once more race for de la Rosa, head cross country coach Arturo Hurtado said he was pleased with the program’s progress this year and is very much looking forward to having a stronger team next season.
“I’m very happy for (de la Rosa), I know she went out there and tried her best,” head cross Hurtado said. “I’m happy for her and the program. We have a lot of girls coming back for next year. We have some freshmen and of course, (de la Rosa), so it will be a good team next year.
The Hanna boys and girls team also were at the regional meet.
The boys finished 22nd with 518 points, while the girls placed 24th with 606.
In Class 5A, Balmoris Deodanes (16:49.2) placed 23 for Porter. Teammates Jesus Delgadillo (17:01.6) and Sherard Anabwani (17:52.2) came in 41st and 97th, respectively.
For the girls, Porter’s Estrella Medellin (20:51.9) placed 42nd and Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Valeria Gomez (21:06.6) finished 55th.