Cotulla’s Carisia Rodriguez (Left) keeps pace with the pack in action at Floresville on Saturday, August 19. (Courtesy photo)
Cotulla’s young cross country squad was put to the test early in the season on Saturday as they competed at the Floresville Cross Country Invitational, an enormous meet with large and small school divisions and varying terrain that pushes runners to their limits.
“This was a great first meet as it presented runners with course challenges filled with different terrains including numerous hills,” CHS Head Coach Jose Olvera said. “The Cowgirls were led by Carisia Rodriguez, and our Cowboys by Paul Gonzales.
“Although we did not have complete teams, we had a good number of runners for our first meet. With four days of practice, our middle school teams did a great job, showed up and just ran. I was proud of the effort both from our high school and middle school runners.”
Carisia Rodriguez finished 81st in the varsity girls’ division, in a field of 173 runners with a time of 15:24.16. Angela Vargas was 111th with a time of 16:08.95. Also finishing for Cotulla were Alessandra Garcia, 121st, 16:34.05, and Isabella Gonzalez, 145th, 18:38.54.
Gonzalez was 93rd for the Cowboys with time of 22:13.34. Jesus Alcocer came in 110th at 23:45.11.
In sub-varsity action, Carina Rodriguez was 11th for the eighth grade girls while Leija Olvera was 13th.
Emmanuel Lopez was tenth for the eighth grade boys while Jarick Gonzalez finished 17th and Frank Martinez came in 27th. Pablo Garcia finished in the top ten at ninth place in the seventh grade boys’ division. Rayce Garcia was 35th and Royce Garcia was 44th while Aidin Martinez came in 53rd.
Chloe Garcia finished 20th for the seventh grade girls while Jazlyn Olivas was 23rd. Aleeah Maldonado was 30th overall and Bella Rodriguez finished 31st.
Cotulla will in action at the Border Olympics in Laredo this Saturday, August 26.
