Cross country scoring is based on adding together the finishing place of a team’s top five runners; the better the finish, the lower the score. The lowest scoring team wins the meet.
Many teams struggle to find a group of runners capable of staying packed together over the course of a three mile race. If they can’t, all is not lost. A team with a couple of strong runners can often win even with other members of the team spread out behind them.
The 2019 Lady Rattlers of Sharyland High School are one of the teams fortunate enough to have a group of runners capable of staying together and the results have been what you would expect. The team recorded six meet wins over the course of their eight meet non-district season.
They won their seventh at last week’s UIL 31-5A District Meet, held on the campus of La Joya Palmview High School.
From a field of over 50 runners the Lady Rattlers recorded finishes of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th and 13th to win the meet with 20 points, claiming their second straight district title.
Next up for Sharyland is the UIL Regional Meet this coming Monday, October 28 at the Texas A & M- Corpus Christi’s Dugan track and soccer stadium. It is a meet and an opportunity the team has been waiting a year for after their 5th place finish there in 2018. Only the top four teams qualify for the state meet and the girls are determined to be one of those four qualifiers this year.
It certainly seems like they are ready. Besides all the wins, the team is starting to peak. That means running fast at the right time. According to coach Melissa Dearth several of the girls ran personal bests at the district meet and the top five all completed the race in under 20 minutes. The gap, or time, between when those five girls crossed the finish line was impressive too, less than 45 seconds.
The team is a mixture of experience and youth. Sophomore Danielle Salinas led the team with her 2nd place finish at the district meet, followed by senior Ana Hernandez (3rd), freshmen Carolyn Tudor(4th). Seniors Delilah Vega (5th), and Andrea Gallardo (6th) were the final two of the top five Sharyland runners who factored into the team score. Two more seniors, Arianna Gomez (9th) and Jerilyn Peralez (13th) also ran for the Lady Rattlers. Sydney Bravo, a junior, was one of the team’s top runners throughout the season and may still be a factor going forward.
The Lady Rattlers will not be the only Big 7 school running at regionals. The Lady Lobos of La Joya Palmview finished second to Sharyland at the district meet and the Sharyland Pioneer girls finished third. Palmview’s Destiny Quintanilla was the individual district champ, winning the race in 18:59.8. In addition, Pioneer’s Krystal Cantu was 7t... Click here to read full article
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