Lion harriers 4th at Austin Invitational

LISD

AUSTIN — The Lockhart Boys Cross Country team traveled to Decker Lake in Austin Friday. The Lions competed at the Austin Invitational for the first time since 2017.

Lockhart finished fourth out of 21 schools competing. Bowie High School won with a score of 47 points. Lake Travis finished second with a score of 64 points, LASA finished third with 113 points, followed by Lockhart with 142 points. Round Rock Stoney Point finished fifth with 144, followed by Austin Anderson in sixth with 181. Austin Akins was seventh with 186, Austin High School was eighth with 206, Corpus Christi Carroll was ninth with 209, and Bastrop High School rounded out the top 10 teams with a score of 274 points.

Sophomores Ethan Herrera and Ivan Gonzales led the way for Lockhart, placing 5th and 9th out of 159 runners in the Varsity race. Herrera finished with a time of 16 minutes and 52 seconds for the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) course. Gonzales completed the course in 17:06.

“I thought both of these guys did an outstanding job,” Lockhart Head Coach Scott Hippensteel said. “I liked the way Ivan set the tone early as he went straight to the front of the race. When you combine the runners in the JV and Varsity races, these guys were two of the top 10 out of 387 runners. That’s pretty impressive when you consider they are both just sophomores in high school.”

Freshman Irving Ferretiz finished as the third Lockhart runner, placing 24th with a time of 17:53. “That’s really impressive for a freshman in high school,” said Hippensteel. “I also liked the fact that Irving stayed within one minute of Ethan, our number one man.”

Juniors Paul Munoz and Connor Zea placed 43rd and 61st with times of 19:13 and 19:51.

Sophomore Keaton Archer finished as the number six runner for Lockhart, placing 64th with a time of 20:06. Rounding out the top seven was Junior Hayden Brast in 89th with a time of 21:09.

Other Lockhart competitors on Varsity included sophomore Jaiden Slussler, who placed 90th with a time of 21:13, senior Andrew Coneche, who placed 102nd in 21:42, and freshman Antonio Rico, running his first-ever Varsity race, who placed 92nd in 21:49.

Four Lockhart runners competed in the Junior Varsity race. Junior Ramsey led the way, placing 84th out of 228 runners with a time of 22:46, followed by freshman James Peterson, who placed 112th with a time of 23:37. Ethan Gamez placed 131st with a time of 24:19, and Maxwell Adams finished 149th with a time of 24:48.

The Lion harriers will travel to Texas A&M in College Station to run in the Texas A&M Invitational on Friday, Sept. 13. Originally, the Lions were scheduled to run at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi on Saturday, Sept. 14, but the meet was rescheduled due to concerns over Tropical Storm Francine’s impact along the South Texas coast.