Cross country: Permian's Hernandez takes shot at the top

A third-place district finish last week was good enough to keep the season alive for Odessa High School's boys cross country team.

But the Bronchos clearly were frustrated by the showing and hope for greater things today during the Region I-5A Championships at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock.

"They know they have been tighter as a group than any other group we've had as a whole," OHS head coach Randy Thompson said. "But not having that No. 1 or No. 2 runner in the district as we've always been fortunate to have here, they know we've got to get that pack up closer to the front or we're in trouble."

Eric Carrasco was the top OHS individual finisher in 14th, with Maurilio Pando closing out the team scoring in 26th.

By having those five runners in such a tight pack - Ryan Herrera was 16th, Edward Zubiate was 21st and Kaleb Neptune took 25th - the Bronchos were comfortably third ahead of Amarillo High for the final district qualifying spot for regionals.

With a little more speed involved, such a mentality could serve OHS well today with about 200 runners on the course.

"I've added a little bit more timing, and normally I don't time after the week of district," Thompson said. "I've changed that this week because we've got to get faster at the front. I'm just hoping mentally I can get them faster to the front of the pack to cut down the numbers in front of us."

Permian did not qualify as a team for regionals but will be represented individually by David Hernandez.

The sophomore finished second in the District 2-5A meet and went through a tough training session Monday to prepare for today's race.

A top-10 finish is required to qualify for the UIL State Championships.

"We talked about it and he told me when that gun fires, he's going to try to go get in the front 15 and run as hard as he can as long as he can," Permian head coach Jeep Shanks said. "Hopefully adrenaline or whatever will carry him through. We're not running just to run a faster time than last week. We're running to try to get in the top 10, and if we do, great. If not, it's not because we didn't give it everything we had."