By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
OLMITO — Andrea de la Rosa of Rivera and Cruz Gomez of PSJA Memorial are starting off their cross country seasons with some top finishes.
Each of the two sophomores is a defending district champion and each won for the third straight week by dominating the field at Saturday’s annual Brownsville ISD Meet at the BISD Encampment.
De la Rosa, previously a winner at the San Benito and McAllen Rowe meets, won her race Saturday with a time more than a minute faster than the second-place finisher, who is her teammate. De la Rosa won District 32-6A last school year as a freshman and her goal now is to advance to state for the first time as a sophomore.
“I had wanted to hit 18 (minutes) today with my time, but it was still a good race,” said the Rivera sophomore, who came in at 19 minutes, 28.84 seconds. “I feel good about it. I feel that my season’s going great. I’m working hard and I’m going to keep working hard.”
Rounding out the top five finishers in the girls 3.1-mile varsity race were Rivera’s Jennifer Lopez (20:38.84), Harlingen South’s Mya Price (20:49.53), Hanna’s Nadia Sifuentes (21:01.31) and South’s Lindsay Zamorano (21:04.12).
For the varsity boys, Gomez was followed closely for a little while early in his race, but he soon distanced himself from the rest of the field and won in 16:14.12 over the same 3.1-mile course.
“I felt good during the race,” said Cruz, who advanced to state last year as a freshman and has won meets so far this season at Zapata and Falfurrias. “I really wasn’t pushed that much today. It was just like a regular practice run for me. I’m using these meets to get ready for the really big meets (such as District 31-6A in October in Edinburg). I feel stronger than last year and I think I’m getting faster.”
Finishing second behind defending 31-6A champion Gomez was Donna North’s Fernie Teran (16:36.72). Rounding out the top five were Rivera’s Jonathan Herrera (16:39.25) and Donna North teammates Danny de la Cruz (16:51.44) and Jesus Mora (16:52.81).
Donna North was the boys team champion and South captured the girls team crown.