Lady Lions Cross Country wins in Luling

By Reuben Ortiz

Lady Lions Cross Country Coach

     The Lady Lions traveled to nearby Luling for the first time ever to compete in their 3rd annual Sandia City Invitational.  The Varsity team placed 7th overall, while the Junior Varsity team came home with the team title.

     In the Varsity division, Sophomore Alicia Sanchez once again took home top honors and placed 30th overall over the 2.0-mile course with a time of 14:24.  Trailing Sanchez was fellow Sophomore Aliya Parra, who perhaps had her best race of the season.  Parra came in 34th place overall and finished the 2.0-mile course in 14:24.  The next two Lady Lions were tight to the finish as Senior Clarissa Martinez-Olvera(38th/14:42) and Sophomore Alicia Rodriguez(40th/14:49) finished just 7 seconds apart.  An even closer finish had Junior Melanie Garica(45th/15:21) and Dayana Delgado(47th/15:24) finishing just 3 seconds apart.  Rounding out the Varsity Squad for the Lady Lions were Sophomore Sophia Rodriguez (16:00/56th) and Junior Katherine Silva Garcia (16:31/62nd).   “This was an important race today,” says Head Girls Coach Reuben Ortiz.  This was the last race before district, and we needed that last race to prepare.  Racing today was like a speed workout, since we mainly run the 5k race at District.”

     In the JV division, Junior Addison Harrod competed in her first race of the season and won the Gold.  Harrod, recently cleared from injury, came back onto the field in strong fashion.  Harrod posted a 2-mile time of 14:11, beating the nearest competitor by over 30 seconds to take home 1st place honors.  Sophomore newcomer Allison Trevino (15:53/7th) stepped up big as well, along with fellow Junior Newcomer Kendra Mendoza(15:57/8th) and Sophomore Brianna Chavez Vasquez(16:09/9th).  All three ladies ran season bests and even received top 10 medal honors.  Junior’s Sariah Johnson & Zoie Ledesma also had season bests but came up just short of top 10 medal honors.  Johnson & Ledesma’s, push at the finish was strong but not enough as they finished 11th (Johnson/16:47) and 12th (Ledesma/16:49) overall.  Junior’s Nora Gerke(15th/17:26) and Alahni Herrera(17th/17:58) continue to show improvement.  While Sophomore Abigayle Stewart(21st/20:24) and Senior Yadira Ferretiz-Ollervides(22nd/22:08) rounded out the squat.  “This was a great race for our JV team.  They all stepped up and hit some great times,” says Ortiz.  “Addison is a Varsity runner but was only cleared a few days ago after being out since early summer so we didn’t know what to expect from her.  The most important thing from her was, she ran injury and pain free.”

     The Lady Lions will not compete this week but next week on October 9th they will travel to Round Rock to compete at the 25-5A District Meet.  The top 3 teams as well as the Top 10 individuals will then move on from District to the Region IV-5A me