Lions place fourth in state’s top race

By Alonzo Garza
POST-REGISTER

The fourth-ranked Lockhart Lions Boys Cross Country team lived up to it”s ranking on Saturday, Nov. 10. The team finished fourth at the 2007 UIL State Championships at Old Settler”s Park in Round Rock.
The Lions, who had placed in the top three teams the last nine times they competed in the state meet, missed earning third pla

ce medals by the slimmest of margins. They scored just three points more than the third place team and nine points more than the second place team.
Katy”s Seven Lakes High School won the State Championship with 76 points. Mesquite Poteet won second place with 119 points. Big Spring, last year”s State Championship winner, finished third with 125 points. Lockhart, last year”s state runner-up, finished in fourth place with 128 points.
Boerne also finished with 128 points. Lockhart won the tiebreaker since their sixth runner placed 50th while the sixth Boerne runner placed 52nd. In a bizarre coincidence, Friendswood also finished with 128 points.
In all, 103 runners ran in the State meet. Lockhart senior Rory Tunningley led the way for the Lion harriers, scoring one point and winning the individual State Championship. Tunningley finished the difficult course of 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) in just 15:19.3.
Junior James Bonn started his race out in the front. He was in fifth place at the one-mile mark and fell to a respectable 14th overall, which was 10th place in the team standings. Bonn ran a personal best time of 16:05.
Junior Marcos Gonzales was the third Lion harrier across the finish line. Gonzalez also ran a personal best time. He posted a time of 16:45 to place him at 24th in the team standings.
Sophomore Roy Garcia finished fourth man for the Lions for the first time ever on Saturday. Garcia scored 46 points and finished in 17:15.
Sophomore Ryan Gonzales placed 47th in 17:16.
The sixth man for Lockhart turned out to be the difference between the Lions placing fourth and sixth place. Senior Scotty Castanon placed 50th with a time of 17:19. Castanon finished two seconds ahead of the sixth man from Boerne.
The seventh man for Lockhart was junior Xavier Thomas who placed 57th in 17:30.
Overall, the Lions had another outstanding year of Cross Country. They won District for the 20th consecutive year. They won Regional for the 10th time in 15 years and qualified for the State Championship for the 16th time in the past 18 seasons.
The Lions Cross Country team and Coach Hippensteel would like to thank the many friends, family members and people in general who traveled to Round Rock last Saturday to cheer on and support the team.
See you next season.
agarza@post-register.com