Arabians cruise to cross country championship

Click here for Devine cross country photos!

The Devine Arabians dominated the Cross Country District Meet in Crystal City last Wednesday. Clarissa Dominguez of Hondo won the individual championship but Arabians Brooke Runyan, Espi Mendoza, Mari Murillo, Kelli Geyer, and Bri Bernal took the next five spots in order.
“I cannot say enough about this group of girls,” Head Coach Khera Vay stated. “I’ve never been around a group of young ladies who understand the sacrifices that must be made to be successful. At the beginning of the season when they turned in their summer running logs, I knew this was going to be a great year.
Every day at practice and before each meet, I continued to set the bar higher and higher. It was almost as if they just laughed at the expectations, but they went out and exceeded them each time.
Since becoming the head Cross Country coach, I have preached ‘pack running’ and ‘pack running’ is just what they did. Although we missed achieving a perfect score, I am extremely pleased with the finishing order 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, and 16.
The ladies hit some huge PRs at district and with the new realignment for our region we will have to run the best races we have ever run and compete better as a whole than we have all season in order to earn a trip to State. The girls have that end goal in mind as they push through some of the toughest workouts of the season this week.
All I can say is they aren’t satisfied and they aren’t done yet.”
That’s what she said
The course today was a push we needed to set ourselves up for what we have been working for this whole season. Our really fast district times set up the team to an advantage for regional placements, and now we have set higher standards for ourselves and other teams who we will be competing against at Corpus in a week and a half.—Brooke Runyan
Our district meet turned out successful. We have all been working so hard to be where we need to be but it isn’t over yet. Without my amazing team and Coach Vay, I would not have accomplished the goals that I did which was running 12’s and placing in the top 5. I cannot wait to see what is in store for us next! We are going to continue training hard and work toward accomplishing our team goal which is…STATE!—Espi Mendoza
I was really amazed by all the personal records we each achieved as an individuals! It was amazing that we were so close to each other towards the finish. I couldn’t be more proud to finish my senior year with the accomplishments of a personal record, being District Champions, and closing the gap between our team!!—Maria Murillo
My first high school district meet was amazing. Everything went just how we had planned. Running on varsity this year really has changed me in a way that I know I am capable of much more than I thought. I am so proud of all that we accomplished at district and am ready to run at regionals!—Kelli Geyer
Stepping foot onto the starting line, I was determined to make my coach and team proud. Breaking my personal goal was exciting but I was very happy to say I got to run and win district with my team.—Lil Bri Bowyer
Like, I was pumped for today. I knew we had it in the bag and look at us; we are district champs!! I feel like we did great. I know we all did amazing and I hit my personal record—Audrey
Top 10 overall/Regional Qualifiers: 1st-Clarissa Dominguez-Hondo-11:41, 2nd-Runyan-Devine-11:44, 3rd-Mendoza-Devine-12:02, 4th-Murillo-Devine-12:04, 5th-Geyer-12:10, 6th-Bernal-Devine-12:11, 7th-Nayeli Garcia-Crystal City-12:11, 8th-Hunter Gest-Carrizo Springs-12:15, 9th-Destiny Medina-Carrizo Springs-12:19, 10th-Esmer Gonzales-Pearsall-12:20.
Team rankings: 1st-Devine-20, 2nd-Carrizo Springs-69, 3rd-Pearsall-85, 4th-Hondo-91, 5th-Crystal City-94.
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer