FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — Twenty seconds was all that stood in the way of San Benito’s entire girls cross country team from booking a trip to today’s UIL Region IV-6A meet in Corpus Christi.
At the District 32-6A meet, which was held a couple of weeks ago in San Benito, Brownsville Hanna placed first, Brownsville Veterans came in second and Los Fresnos finished in third to become the final team to qualify for regionals. The top three teams and top 10 individuals advance to the regional meet.
Meanwhile, San Benito came in sixth place, right behind Harlingen South and Brownsville Rivera. The Lady Greyhounds finished three places out of a qualifying spot, but only a mere 20 seconds separated the teams.
However, as San Benito girls cross country coach Danny de la Rosa said, 20 seconds is a long time in cross country.
But all was not lost that day at the district meet as junior McKayla Guerra and sophomore Monica Hernandez were able to finish in seventh and ninth place, respectively, to earn spots at regionals.
Guerra finished with a time of 21:14.74 while Hernandez ran her race in 21:22.80.
For Guerra, making the regional meet was the culmination of three years of training. Training that includes running at 6 a.m. every day.
“I started taking cross country a bit more seriously after track season when I was able to break a five-minute mile,” said Guerra. “Afterward, it made me want to push myself to work harder because I thought to myself, ‘Wow I can actually go far.’”
De la Rosa has seen the change in Guerra.
“I think with McKayla it was actually more of a confidence issue and just believing in herself, rather than her ability to race,” he said. “As a freshman and sophomore, I don’t think she believed that she was that competitive, but we all saw it as coaches.
“Now, she’s actually running really well and competing really well, and you’re obviously seeing it in her races now. She believes in herself a lot more and it shows in the success that she is having.”
Hernandez is also on the right path. This season the sophomore has been working harder and training longer to continue to improve her times.
“Last year she started a little slow, but by the end of the season she had improved significantly. This year she’s been fantastic and has done really well throughout this season,” De la Rosa said of Hernandez.
“These girls really work hard and just come to work every day. Cross country is a grind because you get at it and you build up your base, and you build it up through the years, and they have done that. I expect them to do well in the following years because they have been working really hard for the past couple of years to get to where they are right now.”
The Class 6A girls meet is set to begin today at 12:10 p.m. on the campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The top four teams and top 10 individuals not on a qualifying team advance to the UIL state meet, which is set for Nov. 7 in Round Rock.
Joining Guerra and Hernandez at regionals today is Harlingen South’s Mya Price, who finished fourth at the district meet with a time of 20:59.17.
The Lady Hawks missed out on qualifying as a team by just one point as Los Fresnos finished in third place with 97 points while South came in fourth with 98.
In the Class 3A level, the Lyford and Santa Rosa girls teams will also be present at today’s meet in Corpus. The Lady Bulldogs and Lady Warriors qualified by finishing second and third, respectively, at the District 32-3A meet.
Santa Rosa was led by Kamryn Lara, who finished fourth at district with a time of 14:37.06. Meanwhile, Lyford was led by Dulce Rodriguez, who came in sixth at district with a time of 15:10.62.
The Class 3A girls race is the first race of the day and begins at 8:30 a.m.