Well, that was a long time coming. The Devine Arabians won the team championship of its own meet, the school’s first such meet in 25 years, by scoring 35 points outdistancing themselves from runner up Pleasanton who had 56 points.
“All groups competed at a very high level and showed vast improvements over last week’s times,” stated Head Coach Khera Vay. “More than an improvement in times there was an obvious desire to compete well in front of the home crowd which was just tremendous. They Devine varsity and JV Arabians both took home the championship plaques. The Varsity Warhorses finished 2nd to a strong Dilly Wolves team. The middle school teams all placed third behind strong Kerrville-Peterson and Pleasanton squads. I’m very pleased with the progress all athletes are making at this time, we have some lofty goals set out to achieve, but we are definitely on the right track to get there!”
Coach Vay extended a huge thank you to all the volunteers that helped make Saturday such a huge success saying that “we have some of the best volunteers in the state!” She also gave a special thanks to the tech crew for running off a flawless timing system, to Devin Rotramel for his assistance in creating and maintaining the course, to the County department for their contributions to course maintenance, and to the Devine Athletic Booster Club for an amazing concession stand.
The high school will have an open weekend while all middle school teams will run in Comfort. The schedule is as follows 7th girls-9:00am, 7th boys at 9:30am, 8th girls at 10:00am, then 8th boys 10:30am.
Varsity girls place/town/points: 1st-Devine-35; 2nd-Pleasanton-56; 3rd-Comfort-99; 4th-Rocksprings-114; 5th-Dilley-143; 6th-Nueces Canyon-159; 7th-San Antonio Stacey-162; 8th-Marion-168.
Varsity girls top 5 of 68 runners: 1st-Camille Harris-Rocksprings-12:20; 2nd-Skylar Harris-Rocksprings-12:39; 3rd-Cameron Kendrick-Ingram-12:44; Espi Mendoza-Devine-12:50; 5th-Abby Isaguirre-Pleasanton-12:56.
Arabians: 6th-Brooke Runyan-13:01; 9th-Brianna Bernal-13:16; 10th-Mari Murillo-13:30; 14th-Abbigail Whitaker-13:53; 23rd-Victoria Whitaker-14:05; 24th-Brianna Bowyer-14:08.
JV girls team: 1st-Devine-25; 2nd-Jourdanton-68; 3rd-Pleasanton-72; 4th-Ingram-90; 5th-Comfort-112; 6th-Knippa-123.
JV Arabians place out of 47 runners: 2nd-Alexis Shook-15:03; 5th-Lorena Chavera-15:32; 6th-Jasmine Stricker-15:38; 7th-Victoria Gonzales-15:40; 9th-Grace Singleton-15:46; 21-Ana Valerio-16:33;
Varsity boys place/town/points: 1st-Dilley-49; 2nd-Devine-77; 3rd-Ingram-81; 4th-Comfort-109; 5th-Natalia-114; 6th-Pleasanton-129; 7th-Marion-162; 8th-Hondo-185; 9th-Nueces Canyon-197.
Varsity boys top 5 of 78 runners: 1st-Chris Flores-Rocksprings-17:21; 2nd-Rodrigo Marquez-Comfort-17:44; 3rd-Corey Rudacille-Marion-17:47; 4th-Jared Aguilar-Dilley-17:58; 5th-Colin Rogers-Devine-18:02.
Warhorses: 16th-Deme Santana-19:08; 17th-Christian Osorio-19:15; 25th-Xavier Garza-19:49; 33rd-Ismael Vera-20:23; 37th-Damian Martinez-20:54.
JV Warhorses out of 30 runners: 10th-Zachary Alvarez-21:13; 12th-Andy Cordova-22:08; 16th-Matthew Madrid-22:32; 19th-Michael Reichel-23:26.
That’s what she said…
All the way from the opening National Anthem performed by 3rd grader Layton Martinez down to the final click to close out the scoring on the final runner in the final race, and through the butchering of names during the awards ceremony presentation, Devine’s first meet in two and a half decades went fantastically well.
There will be more Cross Country meets in Devine’s future, but for one Arabian, this was her only shot to run on her home turf during her high school career. Senior Abigail Whitaker has competed in Cross Country since her 8th grade year and has been on numerous medal-winning teams.
Ms. Whitaker had this to say when reflecting on this past weekend’s festivities, “I was so privileged to be able to run on a home course my senior year. I know it was a lot of work for our coaches, but it was an overall success. Even though we came in first as a team that was not the best part. The best part was being introduced to the only Devine Cross Country team to make it to state and seeing that all of the teams were actually enjoying themselves and cheering each other on. My wish for my team is to know once you learn to love the run, the success will follow.”
1996 State Team
Abigail alluded to the state team coached by Mary (Calame) Long. The state qualifiers from that team were Bianca Pittman, Monica Ybanez, Kayci Waters, Tanya Boyd, Erin Bendele, Connie Hernandez, Cecilia Zapata Ramirez, and Elizabeth Yeats. Some last names may have changed along the way, but their 4th place accomplishment from that 1996 season is THE REASON that Abigail and her fellow teammates are trying to push themselves to a new level by the end of this 2017 season.
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
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Arabians win Devine Cross Country Invitational; Warhorses take 2nd place
