STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN – The Brownsville IDEA Frontier boys captured their third straight District 32-3A cross country championship Wednesday morning at the district meet, held at the Harlingen Sports Complex.
The Chargers were paced by Victor Leos, the top overall finisher in the 3.1-mile race with a time of 17 minutes, 53.90 seconds. Leos, a junior, was an All-Valley Sports Awards Banquet nominee as a sophomore and placed 27th at the University Interscholastic League Class 3A state meet in 2018.
“These kids have been working hard since the summer,” IDEA Frontier coach Albert Alanis said. “For it to come to fruition today is very special. … We talked about the three-peat this whole season, it had never been done before at our school. All credit goes to the boys and what they’ve done since the summer.”
Alanis said he was particularly impressed with his team’s showing with only one of his varsity runners at full strength, and the others recovering from various injuries.
The runner-up in the boys division was sophomore Derek Guerra (18:19.53), from host school Santa Rosa. Weslaco Pike freshman Alexander Gutierrez (18:32.91), IDEA Frontier freshman Jose Blanco (18:39.51) and Edinburg Vanguard Rembrandt senior Cosume Pena (18:53.90) rounded out the top five.
Santa Rosa coach Larissa Hernandez said she was proud of Guerra, who had a goal of finishing at an 18:30 clip and beat his mark by more than 10 seconds.
IDEA Frontier freshman Carlos Zavala (19:11.15) and senior Jose Mendieta (19:18.74) placed eighth and 10th respectively.
The Chargers scored 36 points to take the top spot in the team standings, followed by fellow 3A Region IV championship qualifiers Vanguard Rembrandt with 61 points and Weslaco Pike with 96 points.
The Santa Rosa Lady Warriors (44 points) took home the district championship in the girls varsity division. Second-place Brownsville IDEA Frontier (57 points) and third-place Lyford (82 points) also qualified for the regional meet.
Individually, Brownsville Jubilee freshman Mariana Espinosa (13:18.71) and junior Sandra Garza (13:20.31) finished first and second respectively in the two-mile race.
Following Espinosa and Garza were Santa Rosa freshman Alyssa Garza (13:22.85) and Desiree Guerra (13:27.74). While Guerra dropped two places from her 2018 finish at the district meet, she also improved upon her previous district time by nearly 29 seconds Wednesday.
Hernandez said Garza and Guerra have consistently been her two leaders.
“At this meet, Alyssa was able to beat (Guerra),” Hernandez. “So that is going to make us a stronger team and give us a strong foundation starting next year.”
The top ten individual qualifiers from the varsity boys and girls divisions advance to the Region IV championship meet on Monday, Oct. 28 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer & Track Stadium.
The 3A girls race is scheduled to start at 10:10 a.m., and the 3A boys race is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m.