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Juarez-Lincoln's Perez takes second in 4A state cross country
Probably not many of the runners from the UIL state country state meet Saturday at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock knew exactly where La Joya was. Juarez-Lincoln runner Emily Perez made sure to put the South Texas city on the map after winning the silver medal on Saturday morning at Round Rock.
Perez’s time of 11 minutes, 18 seconds was second only to Cali Roper (11:07.22) of Willis who won the gold medal.
In the Class 3A boys meet, Port Isabel’s Armando Fiero finished second to Jeff Weisheit of Venus.
Back to the 4A girls race, although Perez was confident about winning a gold medal, ultimately her goal was to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish at state.
“It felt really good, not a lot of kids get to make it to state (competition), so for me to come up here and win the silver, it’s amazing,” said Perez, who is a four-time state qualifier.”Not a lot of kids (at Round Rock) knew where La Joya was. They (do) now.”
The windy conditions of the girls’ 2-mile course proved difficult, but Perez kept a close eye on Roper.
In the last 800 meters of the race, Perez saw an opportunity open up for her.
“I tried to stay within range of (Roper). I could see her getting tired and I saw her strides get slower. Then I made (a push) in my strides, but it was a little late,” Perez said. “The wind was a big disadvantage for me and everyone else. We weren’t expecting it, but I just continued to run.”
Though it was Perez’s last UIL-sanctioned cross country meet, she will still be competing for the Huskies’ track & field team starting in January. She’ll also be at the Nike Cross Regional next week in the Woodlands to try and win a spot at nationals.
Cheering Perez on at Round Rock were the Juarez-Lincoln boys team, which tied for fifth place in the 5K run with Keller Timber Creek with 152 points. Joel Garcia, Jesus Macias, Enrique Palomarez, Mitchel Lara, Andres Rodriguez, Jose Aguilar and Luis Leon formed the team that was ranked eighth out of 12 by Txrunning.com heading into the race.
“They were very excited, they ran very well,” Huskies coach Gilberto Carreon said. “Talk about representing the Valley, they feel honored to represent the Valley and the school.”
The three schools from the Huskies’ Region IV all placed in the top five, including Boerne Champion and Cedar Park, which won gold and silver, respectively.
“We were trying to finish in the top-5,” said Carreon, whose team returns five runners next year,” but make no mistake about it, our region is one of the toughest regions in the state. That says a lot about us.”
In the Class 4A boys meet, Valley View’s Jose Delagado finished seventh in a time of 16:11.85, the top Valley finisher in the race. Juarez-Lincoln’s Garcia was 16th (16:29.05) and Weslaco East’s Jose Martinez was 17th (16:30.96).
In the 5A girls meet, PSJA Memorial’s Gabriela Ortegon finished 51st to pace Valley runners. She clocked a time of 12:20.50. The Edinburg High Lady Bobcats competed as a team and finished 12th with a score of 312. Yvonne Zerda led Edinburg with a time of 12:35.26.
Todd Orodenker of The Brownsville Herald contributed to this report.
