By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
EDCOUCH — The Brownsville Veterans Memorial girls and Donna High boys cross country teams were victorious at the District 32-5A meet Thursday in Edcouch to advance to the regional meet.
The Lady Chargers won with a team score of 31 after all five scored runners finished in the top 10. Freshman Naia Gracia led the way, earning the individual bronze with a time of 20 minutes, 36.7 seconds.
“It feels good. I feel proud, and I’m proud of the girls, too,” Gracia said. “We’ve been working hard. I knew we were going to get it, because when I got third and I saw all my girls behind me I was, like, ‘Wait a minute, we’re all top 10.’ I was happy because we stuck together as a group.”
Senior captain Valeria Gamez finished fifth and was closely followed by Sofia Ramirez (sixth), Loren Averyt (seventh) and Cynthia Ramirez (10). Brownsville Veterans coach Jorge Medina said he felt blessed to have girls that worked hard despite the unusual offseason and ran well as a team, which was an emphasis all season.
“It’s an amazing feeling. We all worked really, really hard to do this, but our work doesn’t stop now. We have to work even harder to get to the next level,” Gamez said. “We were a little skeptical because it was really close, but when we found out we won, we were all jumping in the air and hugging each other. It was a really special moment.”
Edcouch-Elsa (47 points) was second to also qualify as a team for the regional meet. Lady Yellowjackets senior Vanessa Cerda handily won the girls individual district championship with a time of 19:47.6. Teammate Rebecca Davila was the runner-up. Teresa Gallegos (fourth), Jasmine Mireles (19th) and Alexis Ramirez (21st) were scored as well.
“It feels good, especially after all my other years coming in third and second. It feels good to finally be the district champ,” Cerda said. “We were the underdogs, so even to get second we were really happy. I knew I wanted to get first, but I also wanted to get a strong time to see more or less where I’m at for regionals. I feel good with my time. I’ll probably have an even better race knowing I did pretty good today.”
Weslaco East (61) was third in the girls team standings, followed by Donna High (88), Mercedes (106) and Brownsville Porter (132). Weslaco East’s Jennica Paz and Donna High’s Lili Acuna finished eighth and ninth, respectively, to qualify as individuals.
The Donna High Redskins took home the trophy as the top boys team. Junior Kevin Hernandez dominated the course to also win the individual title with a time of 15:42.1, crossing the finish line 37 seconds before the runner-up, teammate Erick Chavez Carreon.
Though tired, the duo ran alongside its teammates as they finished the race, cheering them on as the Redskins battled closely with the Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets.
“My mentality for this race was, ‘Go for place. Don’t worry about time, just get to regionals and state,’” Hernandez said. “(State) has been my goal. Last year, I missed it by four places. At this race, I came in fourth. So, to come back and get first, it feels awesome, it feels amazing. Summer training was hard for us, doing long workouts on our own in the very hot days. And now, to get this result, it makes it feel great. Hard work pays off.”
Javier Calvillo (sixth), Marcos Mejia (seventh) and Aaron Mateo (12th) ran hard to separate from a pack of runners competing for a top-20 finish and contributed to Donna High’s winning score of 28.
“It was panicking, nerve-wracking, because outside of one and two, our three, four and five (runners) were in a little bunch and I was just trying to get them going,” Donna High coach Juan Davila said. “If they really wanted it, they knew what they needed to do. It feels good after the pandemic and all that (to win the district championship). It’s amazing. But without a team, we’re not district champs. We always preach team and family.”
Edcouch-Elsa (53 points) finished second to qualify for the regional meet. Alexis Mata (fourth), Matthew Garcia (fifth), Daniel Ibarra (11th), Naataanii Collins (13th) and Jesus Contreras (20th) were the Yellowjackets’ scored runners.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial (70) finished third, followed by Weslaco East (82), Mercedes (112), Brownsville Porter (135) and Brownsville Pace (150). Weslaco East’s Rene Tamez and Jesus Garza took third and 10th, respectively, to qualify as individuals, along with Brownsville Veterans’ Christian Solis (eighth) and James Puckett (ninth).