Your Lytle Pirate XC team traveled to Round Rock to participate in the 2026 HOKA McNeil Invitational, site of the State meet. It is the largest meet in the state with schools coming from all parts of Texas.
The varsity girls ran on Friday in the 1A-3A division. We struggled a bit as a team finishing 34th out of 59, but that was mainly due to not having our full team. We are not as deep on the girl's side as we are on the boys, so missing one, especially our #1, hurts us more. Our girls fought through it and found out what we still need to work on if we want to return to State. Elyse led the girls with her 44th place finish. Addison and Kaycee finished together at 204th and 205th, followed by Sophia 286th and Haleigh 336th out of 455 Runners.
Friday's day ended for us with Hailey Montes in the JV division. Unfortunately, they led the top 3 runners(which she was a part of) in the wrong direction and by the time they corrected it, she was way off the 2-mile course. She did finish but obviously was taken out of contention with that mishap.
The varsity boys got to participate on Saturday for the first time. Saturday is the day when teams get to run in either of the ELITE (Gold and Silver) Divisions if they can qualify, or they can run in the 6A or 5A divisions if they can't qualify for ELITE. They take the top 30 teams and top 15 individuals that register and put them in the Gold division. Then they take the next 30 teams and the next 15 individuals to run the Silver. We were fortunate enough to qualify for the Silver Division and were the only 3A or below school to be able to run in either of the ELITE divisions. The boys took advantage of the opportunity even though we are missing our #3 runner, Nathan Garza, and finished 4th out of 28 schools with Jacob Cantu setting another Personal Record and winning the Silver division avenging some losses he has had this year. It was by far his best race, and he is starting to learn to pace himself and set himself up to make moves as the race progresses. Adrian Reyna had a better
start this week finishing 23rd to help give us that 1-2 punch you need to be successful as a team. Following them were Sebastian Garcia(71st), Shawn Robinette(76th), Frank Cantu(93rd) and Jaden Castro(121st) out of 226 Runners.
The team now gets ready to run at Seguin on Saturday.
I would also like to mention the 8th grade boys for their 2nd place finish out of 32 schools. They showed programs around the state that the boy's program will still be in good hands in the future. It was cool that they got to be on that award stand and got to experience a bit of what the varsity boys have had the privilege of doing there. Hopefully one day they will get to be on that stand at the state meet and get to experience it for themselves.
Link to all results below:
1A-3A Girls 34th/59
44th Elyse Cortinas
204th Addison Wagner
205th Kaycee Galindo
286th Sophia Herrera
336th Haleigh Monreal
OUT OF 455 RUNNERS
Silver Division 4th/28
1st Jacob Cantu
23rd Adrian Reyna
71st Sebastian Garcia
76th Shawn Robinette
93rd Frank Cantu
121st Jaden Castro
OUT OF 226 RUNNERS