De La Garza wins silver, but wishes for better finish at state

ROUND ROCK - The sound of his voice said it all.

Mercedes cross country runner Alex De La Garza was disappointed with his second-place finish at the state meet. For the second year in a row the Tigers' standout runner finished with a Class 4A silver medal at Old Settlers Park in Saturday afternoon in Round Rock.

"I was running for the gold, and I came up short," De La Garza said.

De La Garza finished with a time of 15 minutes, 21.46 seconds, 6 seconds behind gold medalist Jordan Valle (15:15.50) of Big Spring.

"I guess it wasn't our day," De La Garza said.

Although he did not walk away with the top prize, Mercedes coach Pete Martinez said there is a lot to be proud of from his senior runner, who finished with a stellar cross country career at Mercedes.

"He ran very well," Martinez said. "He left it all out there. As a coach, that is all you can ask for."

After De La Garza, the closest the Rio Grande Valley come to a medal was a fourth-place finish in the team standings by Progreso. The Red Ants finished with a team average of 17:26.24. Finishing ahead of Progreso was first place Argyle (16:37.19), second place La Vernia (16:52.46) and third place Lufkin Hudson (16:56.73).

McAllen Memorial's Tricia Terry (11:15.23) was the only other Valley individual hopeful to place in the top 10, finishing eighth in the girls Class 5A run. She recorded her personal best time and improved one place from last season.

"I don't know how it happened but the girls this year got a lot faster," Terry said. "Just to let you know how fast they were, my time would have been the winning time last year.

"I was happy with how I ran, just not happy about where I placed."

Sarah Andrews (10:44.49) of Conroe The Woodlands placed first in the Class 5A meet.

Other notable individual finishes from the Valley at this year's meet were Port Isabel's Armando Fierro (23rd), the top Class 3A finisher with a time of 16:51.43.

La Joya Juarez-Lincoln's Emily Perez (12:19.03) came in 39th but was the school's first-ever state qualifier in any sport.

Besides the Progreso boys, other Valley teams running at state included McAllen Memorial girls (10th), Mercedes boys (eighth), Edcouch-Elsa boys (12th), La Feria girls (11th) and PSJA North boys (12th).

"We ran really well, but we got beat by some really good teams," Raiders coach Hernan Figueroa said. "This was the fastest I have ever seen. I was impressed by the top 10 teams and the top 20 runners."

Peter Rasmussen covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via e-mail at prasmussen@themonitor.com.