By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Make it 17 years in a row!
Del Rio High School junior Emily Torres qualified for this year’s Class 6A State Cross-Country Meet after a strong finish at Monday’s Region IV Cross-Country Meet in Corpus Christi.
Torres, who was Del Rio’s lone state qualifier as a sophomore, repeated the feat when she finished among the top 10 runners whose teams did not qualify for the state meet. She finished 12th overall in a time of 19:22.99, but three of the runners ahead of her were on qualifying teams, moving Torres into ninth place among runners whose teams did not qualify.
Torres will now compete in the State Class 6A race Friday, Nov. 4, at 10 a.m. at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock.
As a team, Del Rio’s girls finished 14th out of 24 teams.
The only other Del Rio girl to finish in the top 25 was senior Kimberly Gloria. In her final high school cross-country race, Gloria was 23rd overall in a time of 20:03.99.
Also competing in the girls’ race were Del Rio’s Ryland Ross, who was 87th in 21:45.24; Nayeli Cordova, who was 150th in 23:31.44; Cassandra Martinez, who was 157th in 23:48.94; Skylar Urias, who was 159th in 23:55.24; and Cynthia Rubio, who was 175th in 25:31.97. Ross is a freshman and Rubio is a junior while the rest of the Del Rio team is seniors.
Despite finishing second at the district meet, Del Rio was the top finishing team from 30-6A at the regional meet. Laredo Alexander, which won the district title, finished 15th at regionals while Laredo United was 16th.
Austin Vandegrift was the regional girls champion. Round Rock was second followed by Dripping Springs and Cedar Park Vista Ridge. All four of those teams qualified for state.
Edinburg North junior San Juanita Leal was the regional champion, completing the course in 17:53.34, more than a minute faster than the next closest competitor, Micah Mizell, a junior from Round Rock Stony Point, who finished in 18:58.28.
CLASS 6A REGIONAL BOYS RACE
Del Rio High’s boys varsity cross-country team also competed at the regional meet, finishing 16th overall.
Austin Vandegrift won the boys’ 6A title followed by Round Rock, New Braunfels and Round Rock Westwood.
The Rams’ top finisher was junior Ely Losoya. Losoya was 65th overall in a time of 17:34.88. Also running for Del Rio was senior Jose Ramirez (86th, 17:58.45), junior Jonathan Mendoza (100th, 18:09.23), senior Damian Espinoza (117th, 18:25.43), senior Rolando Rios (118th, 18:25.52), senior Mikael Perez (133rd, 18:48.29) and senior Joseph Fuentes (163rd, 19:54.63).
Austin Vandegrift senior Kevin Sanchez was the top individual boys runner at the meet, finishing the course in 15:47.00.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
