Dogpound Invitational ushers in 2007 cross country season

SAN BENITO ? Welcome to the Valley, Michael Medrano. The Sharyland sophomore moved to Mission about three weeks ago when his father was promoted at work and took a job in the Valley. The former San Antonio Reagan runner immediately joined the Rattlers' cross country squad and almost as quickly made an impact. Medrano ? one of San Antonio's top-rated distance runners ? won the boys' race in San Benito's Dogpound Invitational here on Saturday to kick off the 2007 cross country season. "The climate is a little different," Medrano said. "The hills threw me off a little. We have hills in San Antonio, but I don?t know why these threw me off." Medrano finished in 17 minutes, 23 seconds and wasn't completely satisfied with his effort. But for the first meet of the year, Medrano said he'd rate it an eight of 10. Brownsville Hanna's Brandon Braden finished second (17:39) and Sharyland's Miguel Alaniz came in third (17:59) "It gives me confidence to start the year," he said. "I trained kind of hard this week so I was a little tired. And the course was a little harder and the mud added to it (difficulty). It was really thick in some areas. Hanna won the boys' team title with 38 points and the Rattlers were second with 43. Harlingen finished third with 66 points. Rattlers head coach Joe Gonzalez expects more big things from his new runner and the rest of the squad. "We have a lot of juniors on the team that can step up," Medrano said. "But he does make a big difference. He's going to be a big part of the team. He's getting better and headed in the right direction." On the girls' side, another sophomore took home the gold. Coming off a stellar freshman track and field season just a few months ago, PSJA Memorial's Gabriela Salazar got off to a rousing start winning the Dogpound in 12:50. Salazar was an All-Valley selection in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in the spring. She didn't run here last season and said the muddy conditions made it a bit more difficult. "Those hills were a killer," Salazar said. "We've practiced on hills, but those?ugh. Especially the second time around." But she toughed it out and finished ahead of Los Fresnos' Samantha Fish. Fish ? who splashed onto the scene last season as a freshman ? finished in 13:15. Teammate Elia Sanatamaria was third in 13:34. The Lady Falcons won the team crown with 38 points. Sharyland grabbed second with 43 and Hanna tallied 115 points for third place. "I thought she was going to catch up," Salazar said of Fish. "During track season she was always there. I kept looking to see if she was there."