By FREDDY GONZALEZ | Valley Morning Star
HARLINGEN — The Mercedes duo of Lupe Diaz and Julian Fuentes took the top two spots during the 44th annual Harlingen ISD Invitational cross country meet Saturday morning at the Harlingen Sports Complex.
Diaz finished first with a time of 15 minutes, 59 second, and Fuentes finished second (16:12).
“Today’s race was a flat course, which was good,” Fuentes said. “We were following the leader but we just took off, and the leader began dying off and that allowed us to win the race.”
Added Diaz, “I was already nervous before the race started. But when the race did start I was just thinking in my mind, ‘Stay with the pack, stay with the pack,’ then I just heard (Fuentes) say, ‘Let’s take off,’ so we just took the lead and I just won the race.”
The win Saturday was a nice topper to what has been a steady stream of progress for Diaz, a junior.
“He’s been training hard to be out there, and he just looks stronger and stronger every week,” Mercedes coach Pete Martinez said. “it makes me kind of nervous because I think to myself, ‘Should I switch it now, should I change or should I keep how it is?’ because he just keeps improving and improving. Normally we’ll see a kid, and once we don’t see an improvement that’s when we switch it up, but with this kid he just keeps getting strong and stronger.”
With the District 32-5A cross country meet just around the corner, Martinez believes his duo is right where it should be in the process.
“Right now I think they’re sitting where they are supposed to be,” Martinez said. “They are running good and they’re starting to get a little fresh, and they are headed where they are supposed to as we head to district next week.”
The boys team title went to Edcouch-Elsa, which finished with 57 points. Second place went to Harlingen High (68), which was followed by Mercedes in third (119).
“We just finished two hard weeks of intense workouts,” Edcouch-Elsa coach Juan Aguinaga said. “Today it wasn’t about timing it was about placing, and some of our guys stepped up and we did what we need to do and just hold off Harlingen, which came in second with 68 points.”
For Edcouch-Elsa, Dominik Medrano finished third (16:16), Albino Rodriguez placed fourth (16:32), Kristian Martinez took 10th (17:12) and Cristian Coronado was 17th (17:46).
On the girls side, Brownsville Rivera’s Andrea de la Rosa continued to do what she has been doing most of her running career: win. The senior added another distinction to her long list of accolades by grabbing her seventh consecutive first-place medal with a time of 19:07.
Saturday’s time might not have been as good as her personal best (18:26), which she achieved last month at the Port Isabel cross country meet, nevertheless, she was happy with her performance and confident heading into the District 32-6A meet next Saturday in San Benito.
“I did have some good competition for about two miles, because there were two girls from Weslaco behind me and they definitely made me work today,” de la Rosa said. “I feel I did good and today was a good race because I had someone to push me, but I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to let them pass me, I’m going to try my hardest.’ So that definitely helped me on today’s course.
“With district coming up I’m kind of emotional because it’s my last year and it feels like (the season) went super fast. It feels like yesterday was my first meet, but I feel great and ready (for district).”
Weslaco High’s Amity Ebarb came in second place with a time of 19:26, and teammate Destinée Longoria finished third (19:44).
The team title in the girls race went to Weslaco High, which finished with 26 points. Edcouch Elsa placed second with 60 points, and Brownsville Veterans Memorial took third with 124 points. Harlingen High (163) settled in fifth place, and Harlingen South (180) ended the day in sixth.