Lockhart XC Lions, Lady Lions finish strong at home

Lions use home course advantage to dominate Lockhart Invitational

The Lockhart Boys’ Cross Country team ran to their second consecutive Invitational win on Saturday at the Lockhart City Park.
The Lions, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, defeated 12 other schools convincingly, with a score of just 37 points. Luling, ranked No. 5 in Class 3A, finished a very strong seco

nd with 67 points and Cedar Park Vista Ridge came home in third place with 83 points.
Senior Rory Tunningly once again dominated the field, grabbing an early lead and never facing any serious challenge from the field during the race. Tunningly cruised the 1.9 miles on terrain in just 9:10.
Junior James Bonn ran strong race, placing third overall in 10:02. A pair of unrelated Gonzales’s Ryan and Marcos finished third and fourth for Lockhart and 11th and 12th overall in the race with times of 10:31 and 10:33 respectively. Completing the top five and the scoring for Lockhart was junior Cameron Peters, who had the best race of his career finishing 13th with a time of 10:35.
Also running strong races for the Lion harriers were senior Scotty Castenon who placed 16th in 10:38, sophomore Roy Garcia was 21st in 10:47, junior Alfredo Maderal, who finished one second behind Garcia in 22nd, and junior Xavier Thomas who once again performed well, finishing 24th in 10:51.
Junior AJ Maderal placed 45th in 11:25 and sophomore Zach Batson made his Cross Country debut placing 67th.
This week, the Lockhart Boys’ Varsity Cross Country teams will travel with the Junior High to Moulton. They will leave the LHS parking lot at 7 a.m. Meanwhile, Tunningly continues to pour on the miles, logging nearly 410 miles run between Aug. 1 – Sept. 9.
(Courtesy of Scott Hippensteel)

Lady Lions take second in Lockhart Invitational
The Lockhart Lady Lions made a strong showing on their home course on Saturday, chalking up a second-place team score while hosting the Lockhart Invitational at Lockhart City Park.
The girls’ runner-up finish was second only to the No. 2 state-ranked Vista Ridge High school, who finished with a low 41 points. Lockhart’s team score of 73 points just edged the 5A team from Victoria Memorial.
The Lockhart’s first finisher for the second consecutive week was junior Alyson Gonzales with a time of 12:37. Gonzales covered the 1.9-mile (3060 meters) course with a ninth-place overall finish. Sophomore Jordyn Platt placed 11th overall in 12:49, the Lady Lions’ No. 2 runner this week.
Senior Aly Daily was the third Lockhart runner, finishing in 13th place with a time of 12:52, and junior Mary Woody was 16th in 13:02.
“All four of these girls used a very fast early start to enable a very competitive race,” said Coach Lee Datesman.
Junior Jannah Platt finished out the top five scoring with her 24th place finish in 13:19.
Rounding out the Varsity squad were senior Livi Massey, who ran in spite of having both illness and injury and finished 26th place overall in 13:21, sophomore Alex Maderal, who finished 32nd in 13:34, freshman Karsyn Stark, placing 34th in 13:36, and junior Shelby Ohlendorf who closed the Lady Lions’ finishes in 65th place in 14:59.
The Junior Varsity squad missed a second-place finish by one point as they settled for third in their division, just behind Vista Ridge and Victoria Memorial.
Sophomore Bianca Juarez ran her finest race of the young season with her second-place finish in 13:41 in JV race. For the second consecutive week, freshman Alissa Casteel was the JV Lady Lions’ No. 2 runner, finishing in 10th place, followed by Jade Ramirez in 16th, Kelsey Daily in 22nd, Alysia Peralez in 32nd, Tera Alford in 44th, Victoria Espinoza in 45th and Rebecca Woody in 63rd.
The Lady Lions will travel to Cedar Park this weekend for the Sixth Annual Cedar Park Invitational.
(Courtesy of Lee Datesman)