By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRESNOS — Despite a humid conditions, soggy terrain and course confusion, Rivera cross country runner Andrea de la Rosa continued to do what she has done all season: Win.
Only this time, the stakes were higher as de la Rosa cruised to her second consecutive District 32-6A title, finishing the 5K course in 19 minutes, 28.2 seconds Friday morning at the Leo Aguilar Stadium grounds in Los Fresnos.
Midway through the race, the leading guide cart strayed slightly from the mapped trail, causing coaches and spectators to get the attention of the runners so they could back on the original path.
The confusion caused some runners to turn around and in some cases, stop briefly.
But despite some disappointment with the incident, de la Rosa is happy to be heading to the Region IV-6A meet on Oct. 23 in Corpus Christi.
“I got a little frustrated because (the spectators) messed it up and I just stopped and wondered what to do because everyone was screaming and I didn’t know where to go,” she said. “Other than that, the course was good. It feels super great because I felt i was going to get second for a while, but I just told myself ‘I got this.’ It feels really great.”
Weslaco High’s Destinee Longoria finished second with a time of 19:35.5, followed by Weslaco East’s Tessie Garcia (19:51.8) in third, Hanna’s Cecilia Tellez (20:24.7) in fourth and Los Fresnos’ Clarissa Tellez (20:27.3) in fifth.
Over in the team standings, the Weslaco High girls took the district title with 52 points.
I think it was a good run, but I think our girls did look a little sluggish,” Weslaco high coach Pablo Almaguer said. “I think all teams did because of the humidity with having to run at 9 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. did that. It was a race and everyone had to compete in it. I was proud of the girls form persevere through all that.”
Hanna placed second as a team with 69 points, followed by Weslaco East in third (79), Harlingen in fourth (110) and San Benito in fifth (129).
The top 10 runners will go on to regionals, as do the top three teams.
For the boys, it was Harlingen High’s Art Benavides emerged from the pack of Cardinals dominating the front of the pack to take home the gold, finishing with a time of 15:54.4.
Benavides credited his and his team’s performance to their ability to come in prepared as far as course familiarity goes.
“We have some of the best coaches arguably in the Rio Grande Valley and arguably the region,” Benavides said. “They came out here and really prepared us and brought us out here, ran the course and learned step-by-step what we could do to give us an advantage. I felt really comfortable running today — it was a great race overall.
Weslaco East’s Luis Ramirez finished in second with a time of 16:07.6, while the Harlingen duo of Edward Ramos (16:10.6) and Escobar Fernando (16:13.9) finished in third and fourth place, respectively.
Rivera’s Ruben Chapa (16:16.3) bounced back this year with a fifth place finish after a disappointing outing in 2016 in which he didn’t crack the top 20.
Harlingen High took home the district title with 41 points.
It is the second straight title for the Cardinals.
“I’m so proud of my guys,” Harlingen head coach Efrain Ambriz said. “This makes them back-to-back district champions. I don’t think that’s been done in a long time or if ever at Harlingen High School. I’m really proud of them and my coaching staff.”
Weslaco East placed second (68), Hanna placed third (92), Weslaco finished fourth (100) and San Benito (110) rounded out the top five.
Like Weslaco East, Hanna will be sending both its boys and girls teams to regionals, which allowed Eagles head coach Olaya Teran to breathe a sigh of relief after a wild morning.
“The girls were impressive and they knew they had a chance, but it just came back to our fourth and fifth runners,” Teran said. “For the boys, I knew our top two needed to make the top 10 to qualify and I knew it was going to be close getting that third place (in the team standings) so that they would be able to make it. I’m just glad we have another opportunity at regionals for both our teams.”