Meet of Champs on slate

One of the highlights of the spring for Rio Grande Valley sports is the Meet of Champions, which brings together the Valley's best track-and-field athletes to compete in the same location.

Valley cross-country coaches wanted to do something similar , Hanna boys' coach Jaime Vasquez said.

"We wanted to have something special for the kids who run cross country," he said. "They don't have the Friday Night Lights like football and lots of times they are running on Saturday morning when everybody else is asleep."

So earlier this year, Vasquez and a number of other area cross country coaches met and formed the Rio Grande Valley Cross-Country Association. Most of the other sports in the Valley have coaches organizations which sponsor events like all-star games and in the case of track-and-field coaches the annual Meet of Champs.

"We wanted to have a Meet of Champs," said Vasquez, who is the secretary of the organization.

The first cross-country Meet of Champions will be held Oct. 11 at the Telemundo Soccer Fields at Sharyland Plantation in Mission. The event will be divided into classifications (1A through elite) with the elite girls running at 6 p.m., and the elite boys at 6:20 with an awards ceremony to follow.

For runners to compete in the meet, their coaches must be a member of the RGVCCA. The membership fee is $10 and for more information contact Vasquez at (956) 466-3999.

REGIONAL PRACTICE

Speaking of elite runners, a number of Valley runners took part in the University of Texas-San Antonio Richard Romo Invitational last week. It's held at Brooks City Base on the same course as the Region IV meet in November.

Three RGV girls' runners finished in the top 10 of the gold division (McAllen Memorial's Trica Terry was first; Samantha Fish of Los Fresnos was fifth and Gabriela Salazar of PSJA Memorial was ninth. Among the gold teams, PSJA North was fourth and McAllen Memorial finished ninth. Among the boys, Mercedes' Alex De La Garza finished third and Sharyland's Michael Medrano finished ninth. Among the boys' gold teams, PSJA North was first and Sharyland was eighth.

TOP 10

Here's this week's RGVCCA top 10 teams -- Boys: 1. PSJA North; 2. Edinburg North; 3. Brownsville Hanna; 4. Sharyland. 5. Edinburg High; 6. San Benito; 7. Mission; 8. Weslaco East 9. Progreso. 10. Edcouch-Elsa. Progreso is currently ranked 10^th in the state in Class 3A by the Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas.

Girls: 1. Zapata; 2. PSJA North; 3. McAllen Memorial; 4. Edinburg High. 5. Sharyland. 6. Ediburg North; 7. Mission; 8. Los Fresnos; 9. PSJA Memorial; 10. Donna. Goliad is ranked third by the state's coaches in Class 3A.

Paul Conatzer covers cross country for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4442 or via e-mail at pconatzer@themonitor.com.