Cross Country Notebook: Mercedes enjoying historic day

One day after his team’s historic feat, Mercedes coach Pedro Martinez was still savoring the victory. And given the accomplishment, there wasn’t any reason not to.

In almost the program’s 40 years of establishment, never had both the boys and girls teams won the district championship and advance to the regional meet at the same time. And, never in the school’s history had the Lady Tigers ever claim a league crown. During the District 32-4A meet this past weekend, Mercedes did both.

Saturday’s blissful events will go a long way for an entire program comprised without any veteran leadership.

“It’s still kind of hard to believe that the kids were able to step it up,” Martinez said. “Both the boys and the girls were able to go ahead and perform on the same day.”

The boys team, who lost Alex De La Garza just last season, captured the District 32-4A championship with a group consisting of sophomores and one freshman. De La Garza led the Tigers to the regional and state meet last season, which some thought may not be attainable again without his presence. Though the young Tigers showed they didn’t need their star runner to win in arguably the Valley’s and region’s toughest district.

On the girls side, the Lady Tigers went from a struggling program to district champions in one year. Martinez says the girls program had trouble putting together both JV and varsity teams last season but with the help of his wife, who serves as an assistant, the Lady Tigers quickly turned the table for a group consisting of four freshmen.

“She made a real big impact,” he said. “Last year we couldn’t even fill up a JV, freshman or even varsity team, and this year we had a JV team that placed third and of course the varsity team placed first.”

TWO OF A KIND

For the second consecutive year, Zapata High School swept the District 32-3A meet last week. Zapata will advance to the regional meet this weekend in San Antonio, making the Hawks program one of eight schools to send both of their teams to the next round.

In District 30-5A, the Sharyland Rattlers will advance after both teams finished in second place. District 31-5A, along with 32-4A, were the only districts which had two programs send both teams to regionals. In 31-5A, Edinburg North swept its district meet, while PSJA North finished second (girls) and third (boys). Mercedes sends its teams for the first time in school history and so too does La Joya Juarez-Lincoln after each team finished in third.

The Los Fresnos Falcons were the only team in 32-5A to reach that feat with both teams placing third. It is the fourth consecutive year the Falcons’ program advances to the regional meet. Finally in 32-1A, San Perlita moves on after the boys placed second, while the girls finished in third. 

TOP OF THE CLASS

It was predicted that Zapata and La Feria would duke it out for the girls district championship during the District 32-3A meet. But the two teams didn’t just compete, they completely dominated. Both teams each had five runners place in the top 10 before the Lady Hawks’ final two runners finished 11th and 12th, which made the difference in the end.

Zapata edged La Feria by just three points (26-29). The Lady Hawks were led by first-place finisher Marlena Garcia and also took third, sixth, seventh and ninth places.

QUICK GLANCE

The Valley will have 34 local teams, along with several individual qualifiers, competing at the Region IV meet in San Antonio Saturday with the first race scheduled at noon. The 2A girls will kick things off and will conclude with the 1A boys.

Ramiro Paez covers high school cross country for Valley Freedom Newspapers. His notebook runs every Tuesday. You can reach him at (956) 683-4470 or via e-mial at rpaez@themonitor.com.