Cross Country: ECISD looking to future after rough regional outings

LUBBOCK There was a silver lining for just about every ECISD runner Saturday upon completion of the Region I-5A Cross Country Championships.

Most of them will get another chance to conquer Mae Simmons Park next year and beyond, though it won’t erase what was pretty much a tough outing across the board.

Permian’s girls, hoping to earn a second consecutive trip to the UIL State Championships, instead finished eighth in the 24-team field despite having four runners back from the 2008 group that made history.

Odessa High’s boys also qualified as a team and settled for an 18th-place showing after getting caught up in traffic, while Permian junior David Hernandez — running as an individual for the second consecutive season — simply ran out of gas while finishing 67th.

Collectively, it meant the ECISD fell short of qualifying any entry for the Class 5A state meet for the first time since 2002.

While the boys runners for both OHS and Permian maintained an optimistic spin, Permian’s girls felt like an opportunity slipped away.

“I’m very glad that we finished as the top district team, but the girls are very dissatisfied with their performance, as well as me,” Permian girls head coach Carl Chancellor said. “Our expectations were a lot higher than the performance. We’re young and we have a chance to come back next year and do much better. I think they learned a lot about what it takes to run with the big dogs.

“Every one of them has told me they know they could’ve done better.”

Permian’s girls scored 251 points for their eighth-place showing, which was the best effort for a District 2-5A team after a runner-up performance at the district meet. Lubbock Monterey was 10th and Lubbock Coronado, which was the district team champ, finished 15th on its home course.

Individually for the Lady Panthers, three returners from the state team — sophomore Jamia Graham (38th), junior Bianka Cortez (43rd) and sophomore Monick Garcia (49th) had the top finishes. Eliana Leyba, a freshman, was 74th while junior Marisha Dominguez closed out the team scoring in 90th.

Coronado’s Maddie Kauffman was 19th individually for the best 2-5A finish, meaning the district won’t be represented at the state meet in the Class 5A girls race.

In the boys race, 2-5A had Lubbock Coronado’s Donovan Torres qualify for the second consecutive season after a fifth-place finish. He will be joined by Lubbock High’s Isaac Placencia after he was ninth.

Permian’s Hernandez had a respectable showing in the top third of the 187-runner field despite a time of 17 minutes, 3.03 seconds that was well off what he had hoped to run. Hernandez hoped to get into the top group off the bat before getting caught in a large pack and attempts to push into a higher spot just didn’t work out.

“It was kind of an experiment to just get out and go and see how we could roll with it,” Hernandez said. “Once you hit the first 300 meters, everyone’s trying to get into the top 10. It’s dirty at the first because it’s just throwing elbows until it finally separates, but that’s the sport.”

Permian head coach Jeep Shanks was happy Hernandez took the initiative to change up his race strategy for such an important event, which helped him produce the best ECISD boys finish.

Odessa High’s Maurilio Pando was 90th, Kaleb Neptune was 95th and Raymond Paredes was 100th, with A.J. Martinez (111th) and Manuel Cruz (119th) closing out the team scoring.

It meant the Bronchos scored 442 points for their 18th-place team showing, though District 2-5A champion Amarillo Tascosa also had a tough day — finishing 10th — and Lubbock Coronado was 19th.

With all five of his scoring runners coming back, OHS boys head coach Randy Thompson wants Saturday’s regional race to be a springboard.

“We got out like we wanted, but a lot of it was we used up a lot of energy and there were a lot of nerves,” Thompson said. “They ran the same times they ran at district (on the same course) and we wanted to get at least 20 seconds faster. I think what we’re going to take from this is all experience. This is the largest group of top runners returning that we’ve ever had, so we’re going to use that as a learning experience and go with it.”

The first lesson was clear — Region I-5A is no joke in cross country.

Craig Lutz of Flower Mound Marcus won the boys individual title by covering the three-mile course in a blistering time of 14:37.01. In the girls two-mile race, Plano High’s Rachel Johnson won in 11:04.19.

Both Lutz and Johnson are juniors.

The season may be over, but it’s time to get to work.