By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
This Monday, October 9, the Port Isabel Cross Country teams traveled to La Feria to compete in the 32-4A Cross Country District Meet. The following district schools competed in the event: Port Isabel, Zapata, La Feria, Hidalgo, RGC La Grulla, Raymondville and Brownsville Jubilee.
The top 10 runners and the top three teams will qualify for the Regionals meet. Team scoring is based on points awarded to individual runners according to their order of finish. The points of the top five runners for each team were accumulated for a final team score.
In the Varsity Boys 5000 Meter Run division, the La Feria Lions finished as District Champs, earning 22 points. The Port Isabel CC team came in second, with 57 accumulated points. The Hidalgo Pirates finished in third place with 81 points. All three teams will advance to the Regional IV CC Meet held in Texas A&M Corpus Christi on October 23/24. The PI CC team will run at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 23.
Leading the charge for the Tarpons was Cleveland Smith, who finished in 5th place individually out of 45 runners with a time of 17:21.80. The other four PI team members with place/time were: Jesus Gaitan (10th, 18:09.10), Oscar Arona (11th, 18:15.80), Christian Smith (13th, 18:24.80) and Jorge Garcia (18th, 18:39.50). Other PI runners competing were: Joaquin Rodriguez (20th, 18:59.30) and Julio Cortez (21st, 19:05.50).
On a side note, the team has been working hard on reducing last year’s 20-minute average team runtime. This year, the team finished with an improved average time of 18 minutes and 10 seconds.
Meanwhile, in the Varsity Girls 2-Mile Run division the PI CC team just missed the cutoff as they finished in 4th place behind La Feria, Zapata and RGC La Grulla. PI’s Julieta Ruiz finished in 21st place with a time of 14:38.70. She was followed by Daniela (24th, 14:47.10), Lizbeth Perez (25th, 14:51.10), Laura Mosqueda (26th, 15:02.10), Emily Ramos (27th, 15:05.60), Madilynn Zamarron (32nd, 15:32.70) and Evelyn Gonzalez (45th, 19:02.40).
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