Lady Lions’ Cross-Country kick off season at Yoakum

LISD

The Lockhart Lady Lions started off the cross country season Saturday, Aug. 17, with a meet at the Yoakum Bulldog XC Invitational.

In the Varsity Division, Lockhart entered only two varsity runners, while in the JV Division, the Lady Lions placed third as a team.
In the Varsity Division, sophomore Addison Harrod led the Lady Lions and placed 2nd overall out of nearly 80 runners. Harrod used a strong start to put herself in 9th place early but worked her way up throughout the race. It came down to a fight for first with Harrod finishing less than two seconds off overall winner Elizabeth Felcman from Hallettsville.

Harrod ran the 1.5-mile course in 9 minutes and 37 seconds. Senior Beth Key also competed in the Varsity Division and placed 34th overall with a time of 11:21. Both runners improved their time vs last year’s time on the same course.

“I was very pleased overall,” said LHS Head Girls Coach Reuben Ortiz. “This isn’t our normal 3.1-mile race, but being so early in the season we used this as a workout.”
In the Junior Varsity Division, freshman Alicia Sanchez used a late push to jump into Top 5 honors and lead her team to a third place team finish. Sanchez finished the 1.5-mile course fifth overall in 11 minutes and 18 seconds out of approximately 50 runners entered. Not too far behind was fellow freshman Aliya Parra (7th/11:34) who finished in the Top 10. Freshman Pyper Bornemann (13th/12:01) and sophomore Zoie Ledesma (16th/12:18) also had strong showings and battled the top group.

The next wave of Lions were the Freshman duo of Sofia Rodriguez (12:52/26th), Marlie Stephens (12:54/28th) and the sophomore duo of Katherine Silva Garcia (13:02/30th) and Dayana Delgado (13:05/31st), as well as junior Clarissa Martinez-Olvera (13:07/32nd). The last wave of Lions roared in with Freshman Allie Forester (14:26/41st), freshman Abigayle Stewart (14:46/42nd) and sophomore Alahni Herrera (16:44/44th) rounding out the team.

“We have good numbers this year but a very young team this year,” Ortiz said. “I would have to say the youngest team since I have been here with many first-time runners. This race helped the girls today and is going to be needed throughout the season. They are learning and I saw some good excitement today which was great. The ones here today went after it.”
The Lady Lions travel to Beeville on Saturday, Aug. 24.  Race time is about 8:15 a.m. and they will be moving up to a 2-mile course.