"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor." - Vince Lombardi
This week we ran some of the Cross Country runners in New Braunfels. Many of these had trained all summer and were ready for the competition. No teams’ scores were recorded, however when 4 boys and 3 girls medal in the top twenty, I know we would have finished high as a team. The ladies began the season for the Junior High. The 7th and 8th grade ran together which was a reason I only ran two 7th grade ladies. The 8th graders began defense of their District Championship in grand fashion. With at least 100 ladies at the start the race would give them challenge to get out. We have been running at New Braunfels since 2009 and the three medalists finished in the top ten list of runners who have competed for Lytle. Coach Ruiz and I desire to have a girls' team to be on the same level as the boys’ and we believe that in the next couple of years these girls along with the 5 Freshmen can lead us to the State Meet as a team. All the girls ran faster this year, but Mila was the star dropping 2:28 from last year.
8th Grade - 2 KTtime
Isabel Arce - 14th - M - 9:36 (12:12 Isa's time last year)
Samantha Mujica - 19th - M - 9:43 (11:28 Sam's time last year)
Celeste Martinez - 20th - M - 9:50 (13:05 Celeste's time last year)
Fatima Montes - 11:46 (12:28 Fatima's time last year)
Anabella Lopez - 12:01
Mila Salinas - 12:16 (14:44 Mila's time last year)
7th Grade
Addison Criado - 10:46
Celeste Guerrero - 16:41
As the lads lined up at the start it was fun to see the excitement and pre-race jitters of a quality group of young men. I told them we always save the best for last. Many of the boys had trained hard all summer. This is a special group of athletes. The did not disappoint. Rudy Cepeda placed 3rd and Abel Sanchez finished 4th. Brandon Obando finished 13th. The highlight for me was the 7th grade boys. Luke Estrada was able to medal in his first race. He trained his entire 6th grade year as a manager for this day. He finished 11th and now is the fastest 7th grader to run the New Braunfels course for Lytle. He ran 10 seconds faster than Rudy did last year. Yandel Esquivez did not medal but finished his course at 9:48.
8th Grade - 2 K Time
Rudy Cepeda - 3rd - M - 7:53
Abel Sanchez - 4th - M - 7:51
Brandon Obando - 13th - M - 8:16
Adriel Ayala - 8:44
Stefan Grigsby - 9:14
Gabriel Alcorta - 9:40
Aiden Martinez - 9:43
Daniel Mercado - 10:28
7th Grade
Luke Estrada - 11th - M - 8:08
Yandel Esquivez - 9:48
Tristan Lopez - 10:10
Nest week we unleash the entire power of the Junior High Cross Country teams as all the runners will compete on the Hondo 2 Mile course.
"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say that you cannot do," - Walter Bagehot