The Lytle Pirate Cross Country team traveled to Poth last Saturday for its annual meet. The Pirates easily captured the team championship 21 to 61 over runner-up Great Hearts Monte Vista.
JoseCarlos Hernandez again led the team with a 2nd place finish to help the team capture 1st. Robert Wagner (5th), Kyle Mueller (6th), Abel Sanchez (8th), and Israel Aguinaga (9th) all finished in the top 10 as well.
As the season progresses, health and desire to continue to improve are a must in order to advance to the level Ruiz is expecting of his troops.
“If we can stay healthy, we have a good opportunity for our boys getting out of district. But that is a long time from now and there are a lot of things that can happen until then,” Ruiz said.
Not able to field a complete squad due to some nagging injuries, Ruiz was still pleased with what he saw on Saturday.
“We had a couple of runners out with injuries and that gave our five junior varsity runners a chance to compete with the remaining four runners. Five of the nine runners finished in the top 10 with all nine finishing in the top 20 in the field of 45 runners.”
Team ranking
1st Lytle 21, 2nd Great Hearts Monte Vista 61, 3rd Natalia 70, 4th Karnes City 87, 5th Skidmore-Tynan 126.
Pirates
2nd JoseCarlos Hernandez 17:27, 5th Robert Wagner 17:55, 6th Kyle Mueller 18:21, 8th Abel Sanchez 18:59, 9th Israel Aguinaga 19:18, 14th Rudy Cepeda 20:15, 15th Donovan Cortez 20:34, 17th Daniel Mercado 20:33.
Up next
All Lytle teams travel to Bandera Saturday.
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
