Cross country takes center stage as district meets abound

HARLINGEN — Three of the Valley’s top distance runners duked it out foot-to-foot at the District 31-5A Cross Country Meet on Saturday at the Harlingen Sports Complex.

In the end, it was PSJA Memorial sophomore Gab-riela Salazar finishing first to win the individual district title with a time of 11 minutes, 39 seconds.

Salazar beat out PSJA North’s Starla Garcia and Edinburg’s Hilda Galloso for the top spot.

Garcia finished in second with a time of 12:06 and Galloso was third in 12:33.

PSJA North’s Ashley Mutchler (12:36) and Elvia Vega (12:37) were fifth and sixth, respectively, to give the Lady Raiders the team championship.

North tallied 36 points to beat out Edinburg with 59 points.

The PSJA Lady Bears were third with 96 points.

The top three teams and top 10 individuals qualify for the regional meet in San Antonio.

On the boys’ side, Edinburg North’s Luis Serrano paced his way to a first-place finish in a time of 15:47 and led the Cougars to the team title.

EN finished with 49 points to best PSJA (56) and PSJA North (58).

PSJA Memorial’s Colten Bosler was second with a time of 15:59 and PSJA’s Martin Sosa came in third in 16:02.

Harlingen’s Ryan McNutt was fourth finishing the race in 16:08.

Aside from Serrano, the Coogs placed Jose Morales (fifth, 16:10) and Joe Farias (seventh, 16:17) in the top 10.

De La Garza repeats as champ

MISSION — Mercedes senior Alex de la Garza defended his first place district crown at the 32-4A cross-country meet on Saturday at Anzalduas Park finishing in a time of 14:56.

“It was a tough little course but we did really well,” de la Garza said. “We performed with a lot of pride and overall I like the way we came out and performed, especially our third guy Rene (de la Rosa) who came through for us there at the end.”

Although de la Garza finished first in the race, his team did not repeat as district champions. The title went to Weslaco East.

In the girls’ race, Mission High won its third straight district title. Leading the way for the Lady Eagles was Esmer Torres, who finished first with a time of 12:52.

Mission‘s Dina Oriendo finished second (13:00), and fellow Lady Eagles Nicole Taylor (13:02) and Amalia Mora (13:05) finished third and fourth, respectively.

Terry three-peats at district

DONNA—- If there‘s one word that describes McAllen Memorial junior Tricia Terry, it’s confident.

Terry took home first-place for the third straight year at the District 30-5A Cross Country Meet.

“It was cold, that‘s all I can say,” Terry said. “We‘re not used to running in the cold weather and this is our first time. It probably put a little damper on my time but you know what, it‘s a good change. I was just trying to finish. The faster you go, the faster you can get to the finish line and put on your warm-ups. “

Terry finished the two-mile race with a time of 11:49. Winning the last two district meets by times of 11:35 and 11:50, Terry says that she knew she would perform well and instead, was looking forward more toward regionals next week.

Even with the standout performance by Terry, McAllen Memorial finished tied for fourth with 104 points. Sharyland successfully defended their title for the girls with 51 points.

On the boys’ side, La Joya took home first place with 43 points. They finished the three-mile course 1 and 2 with sophomore Ivan Villanueva (15:49) and Oscar Garza (15:56) leading the way.