8-31-2020 Lytle Cross Country at Medina Relay Meet

8-31-2020 Lytle Cross Country at Medina Relay Meet

Gilbert Ruiz

August 31, 2020

The Lytle Pirate Cross Country team finally got the opportunity to compete Saturday, August 29th, as they traveled to Medina, TX, for a relay-style Meet. We have been very fortunate to have had strength and conditioning since June, with only a few weeks of interruptions that occurred with the statewide closures. It has obviously been a different kind of year with all the safety protocols, but the student-athletes have taken it in stride. Though they have not completely grown accustomed to all of them, they are starting to learn that this is the way things are going to be for a while.  

This year our boys bring back 5 of the 7 runners that participated in last year's State Meet and they hope they can make a return trip. It will be a difficult task this year as the 2A two-time State Champion, San Antonio Great Hearts Monte Vista, moves up to 3A and the 4A State Bronze Medalist team Progresso moves down to 3A. Those 2, along with Cole and Luling make this one of the toughest Regions in the state in 3A. All the Region IV champions from last year's Regional Meet in 2A, 3A, and 4A will be in the same classification this year. And now with the COVID-19 protocols, the UIL is limiting it to 3 qualifying teams advancing to the State Meet from Regional's instead of 4. So, it will be a difficult task, not only against those schools competing but trying to stay safe at the same time.  

On the girl's side, we bring back most of our runners, including Sophomore sSate qualifier Eisabel Guerrero. Eisabel was the first Freshman, boy or girl, that I have had the privilege to coach to make it to the State as an individual. That was a special moment for me because she is the first athlete that I have coached, that I also coached one of their parents. And to be able to take a former athlete's child to that level made it that much more special. 

Results for the Medina Meet are included below. There were 8 Schools in attendance; Medina, Bandera, La Vernia, Lytle, Comfort, SA Home School, Rocksprings, Dhanis. 

We ran 2 teams of 3 in the Varsity group and 2 teams of 3 in the JV group for the girls. Only one group did not finish in the top 8. We had a Varsity group finish 7th and JV groups finishing 3rd and 7th. 

For the boys, we were fortunate enough to run 3 teams of 3 in the Varsity group by having 3 Freshmen anchor the relays for them. Rudy, Abel and Daniel gained valuable experience by getting that opportunity and it helped our Varsity learn to run in groups of 3 instead of 2. That will help us be more efficient later and we hope to start applying it this week. 

The JV boys had 1 full group and they finished 2nd behind La Vernia. Full team results are below.                         

JV Girls  

  1. Bandera-22:57 
  2. Bandera-23:27 
  3. Lytle-23:30 
  4. Medina-23:33 
  5. LaVernia/SAHS-23:59 
  6. LaVernia/D'Hanis- 24:08
  7. Lytle-25:20
  8. Bandera-25:22 

Varsity Girls  

  1. SAHS-San Antonio Home School-38:37 
  2. Bandera-40:08 
  3. Comfort-41:59 
  4. Bandera-43:25 
  5. LaVernia-43:57 
  6. Bandera-44:27 
  7. Lytle-44:28 
  8. Rocksprings-44:37 

JV Boys 

  1. LaVernia-18:59 
  2. SAHS-19:45 
  3. Bandera-19:52 
  4. Lytle-20:04 
  5. Utopia-21:12 
  6. LaVernia-22:30 
  7. Medina-23:15 
  8. Bandera-23:44 

Varsity Boys 

  1. LaVernia-33:30 
  2. Lytle-34:00 
  3. Lytle-35:11 
  4. Bandera-35:17 
  5. SAHS-35:22 
  6. Lytle-36:16 
  7. LaVernia-36:46 
  8. Bandera-38:31