NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
Maybe it was a case of the Mondays that caused the confusion in scoring and tabulating at the 31-5A District Cross Country Meet in Laredo.
It took some time after the initial racing was done, but in the end, Rio Grande City edged out Sharyland Pioneer 36-39 for the boy’s district title.
Rio Grande City’s Brandon Gracia ran a 15:15 and Alex Lopez posted a 15:47 as they finished one-two and were joined by teammate JD Corona (eighth) in the top 10.
“When it gets so close like that, it could have gone either way,” Rio Grande City coach Joe Ramirez said. “You could run that race maybe 10 times, and maybe we win it five and they win it five. It was that close. It’s a numbers game, a matchup game. It’s hard to match up when you have a Brandon Gracia and Alex Lopez one and two at the top.”
Gracia defended his district title from a season ago and cut down nearly half a minute from his 15:59.6 last year as a junior.
Ramirez is hoping that a strong showing at district is just the beginning of a successful stretch.
“We told our kids today, the prize at the end of the tunnel is trying to get to the state meet,” Ramirez said. “Phase one was accomplished here today, winning district. Phase two is going to be trying to get through at regionals. We’re telling our kids to stay focused and not let this be the highlight of your year.”
The Rattlers needed every point they could get, because Sharyland Pioneer had a strong day, as well. Willie Soberanis, Rudy Aranda and Marcos Garza finished third through fifth, directly behind Lopez of RGC.
David Munson, the coach of the Pioneer boys, said that despite the disappointment of finishing second, qualifying the team for regionals is an accomplishment.
“Regional qualifiers — we’re happy about that,” Munson said. “We wanted to win, obviously, but bottom line, you need to advance to regionals. It was a great run. Rio had to run well. We ran well. No regrets.”
On the girls side, Pioneer narrowly beat Sharyland High 48-50 to win a second consecutive district championship despite initial confusion about the score.
Pioneer’s Ana Hernandez ran a personal record time of 18:43, good enough for second place and first among RGV runners.
Nadia Gutierrez finished ninth, and Yanelly Garza finished 10th. Garza was racing her second race of the season after injury. Last year, she was the second-place finisher at the 2016 district meet.
Pioneer girls coach Sandra Guerrero said it was an “unexpected win” after the results were wrong at first.
“Stats showed us getting 2nd place behind Sharyland High by 34 points.” she said through text.
After a long day of racing, confusion and disappointment followed by joy, Guerrero said she was proud of her team’s efforts.
“It was a tough race, the girls pulled through.” Guerrero said.
The next step for the advancing runners and teams will be the Region IV meet Oct. 23. All classifications in the region will convene at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to fight for the chance to run at the state meet.