By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Harlingen High girls and McAllen High boys cross country teams came out victorious in the Harlingen CISD Invitational held Saturday at Keys Academy.
This is the second straight team win for the Lady Cardinals, who also took first place at the Donna Invitational last week. Harlingen High (61 points) was followed closely by Brownsville Veterans Memorial (65) and Harlingen South (71) as the top three girls teams. McAllen Rowe (95), Weslaco High (101), Brownsville Hanna (156), McHi (166) and Donna High (199) rounded out the field.
Harlingen High’s top five finishers were Victoria Scarberry (second), Ayianna Olivas (fifth), Annabel Reyes (eighth), Stephanie Suarez (21st) and Rebeca Garcia (25th). Weslaco High’s Amity Ebarb was the top girls individual.
“It was good, especially since we repeated the results from last week,” Lady Cardinals coach Eder Ramos said. “They looked good and ran strong, so I was pretty satisfied with the performance. They were excited, especially since, to my knowledge, it’s been a long, long time since we have won a meet as a team, so for us to win two is amazing.
“It’s not just one girl, it’s the whole entire team that’s standing out. It doesn’t look like they ever stopped working even with the pandemic, they just kept on rolling and it’s showing,” Ramos added. “That shows how much commitment they have for their team. The girls deserve all the recognition. It’s all their hard work.”
The Bulldogs had three top 10 finishers and all five scored runners finished inside the top 15 to win the boys meet with a team score of 37. Harlingen High’s boys team finished second with a team score of 47, following up a win at the Donna Invitational in their season debut last week. Brownsville Hanna (89) was third, followed by Brownsville Veterans Memorial (139), Donna High (145), McAllen Rowe (147), Weslaco High (171) and Harlingen South (186).
Donna High’s Kevin Hernandez was the first-place individual. The Cardinals’ top finishers were Geo Cisneros (fourth), Abel Montante (sixth), Ivan Montante (eighth), Dom Luna (ninth) and Carlos Marchand (20th). Brownsville Hanna’s John Abrego, the 2019-20 Lower Valley cross country athlete of the year, finished third.
“It was really good competition, and it’s good for our athletes to see,” Ambriz said. “We feel really good about the times they’re putting down right now. It’s a credit to their work ethic and their desire to compete. We’re so happy with them right now and we’re looking forward to district, and at regionals I think we can be there with the top teams as long as we stay focused.
“We’re being led by Geo Cisneros, he’s a junior this year and he’s really coming into his own, and we’re really happy for him,” he added. “We have Abel and Ivan Montante, twin brothers, just tremendous kids and hard workers. They started running with us as sophomores, so they haven’t had a lot of time with us, but they’ve come a long way. It’s guys like those that put in the work, put in the effort and make us really proud.”