Edinburg High, PSJA Memorial cross country teams regional bound
EDINBURG — The Edinburg High girls and PSJA Memorial boys cross country teams are headed the Region IV meet in two weeks in San Antonio after winning the District 31-5A meet Saturday morning at the Ebony golf course in Edinburg.
The Wolverines won their first district meet as a Class 5A school, while the Lady Bobcats successfully defended their district title by winning their ninth meet of the year.
With 36 points, Edinburg, Texasrunning.com’s No.1 team in the Rio Grande Valley, finished ahead of Edinburg North (54) and Economedes (84) in the girls’ 2-mile run.
After some stiff completion earlier in the year, Lady Bobcats coach Tencha Lancaster gave her team a one week’s rest from competition hoping that it would allow the Lady Bobcats to achieve their goal of placing at least five runners in the top-10 Saturday.
The strategy worked, as Yvonne Zerda, Katia Romero, Stephanie Vasquez, Laura Mendoza and Alex Cruz all finished in the top-10.
But Lancaster’s message to her girls before and after the race was to get out of regionals on Nov. 5 and reach state once more.
“It feels awesome, the girls knew they had to get it done,” Lancaster said. “Early on (in the race) they were running separated, but towards the end our girls began running with each other. After the Donna race (two weeks ago), they took some time off.
“The goal before the race was to get into the top 10. We did that, but now we don’t focus to just see what happens in district or regionals, we’re trying to get out of regionals and qualify for state.”
Zerda’s time of 12 minutes, 26 seconds was Edinburg’s fastest. The Bobcat sophomore finished fourth behind PSJA Memorial’s Gabriela Ortegon ( 11:46.17), PSJA North’s Victoria Villarreal (12:21.56) and Edinburth North’s Giselle Aguilar (12:24.00), respectively.
“This course is one of the easier ones that I’ve ran, I felt good,” Zerda said. “Winning district means we just worked hard all year.
“Last year we made it to state as a team and we want to win the whole thing.”
Confidence wasn’t lacking either from the PSJA Memorial boys, who won the team competition with 36 points, followed by PSJA High (43) and Economedes (92).
Luis Guerrero (15:58.67) and Juan Alvarez (16:24.16) placed second and fifth, respectively.
“These guys transferred over and they blended in well with our philosophy,” Wolverines coach Leroy Perez said about Guerrero and Alvarez, both of which transferred. “(Guerrero) is happy, but not satisfied because he thought he might be able to win it.
“Like everybody else, we want to place in the top-three (in regionals) and get to (state) and dance with the bigger schools.”
PSJA High’s Edgar Sosa finished first in the 3-mile run with a time of 15:59.46, followed by Guerrero and Harlingen High’s Isaac Romero (16:14.81) for third.
The Economedes Jaguars were the only school to qualify runners to regionals in both the boys and girls divisions.
