It was long, hot Saturday for Coach Foster and I in Bandera. We are still in Cross Country Meet shape where we are used to going till noon, not past 2:30 pm, like it did this weekend. But it was well worth it, the Varsity boys captured 1st, the JV boys lost on a tiebreaker, the sophomore girls had a good Meet and our Junior High finally got to compete.
The day started early with the Varsity Girls who had 2 medalist, Eisabel Guerrero in 12th and Marissa Lopez taking 14th. Sophomore Natalie Williams also performed well as she continues to improve week to week. The girls finished 5th out of 7 as a team.
The Varsity Boys had all 5 runners finish in the top 15 taking the top 3 spots along with 10th and 12th. JoseCarlos (JC) Hernandez placed 1st and Robert Wagner took 3rd, both had personal bests to help their team to a 1st place victory out of 5 complete schools. JC's performance put him as one of the top, 5 times in the State in 3A this early season.
The JV Girls did not have enough to compete as a team this week but had 2 girls finish in the top 15, Sophomores Dezmarie Ortega placed 5th and Yadhira Mendez placed 11th.
The JV Boys lost a tie breaker with Boerne High School and had to settle for Runner-Up team honors. Though they lost on a tiebreaker, 5 of the 6 finished in the top 15 and had some of the best performances of the day like Freshman Rodolfo Cepeda. He battled against a Junior from Boerne that beat him at the end, but posted a time that would have placed him 11th on the Varsity. He, along with a good personal performance by Donovan Cortez, helped force a tie, but Boerne's 6th man posted a better overall time.
The team takes a week off from competition but will get ready for the stretch run.
See full results here:2020 Bandera Bulldog Cross Country Invitational