Grapevine teams headed to regional meet after sweeping district

By John English

Special to the Star-Telegram

Grapevine swept the District 6-5A cross country meet on Thursday, and coach Rick Miller said his boys and girls teams executed strategy to near perfection.

"I thought that the kids embraced the opportunity to be in the moment and make a difference, and they all did," Miller said. "Everybody stepped up, and it was a great day for the Mustangs."

Miller said he was still amazed when his teams pulled it off.

"The boys team was young this year, and we had some injuries early in the season," Miller said. "But we got some guys healthy, and they ran a great race, and we got it done."

On the girls side, the Mustangs have competed in difficult meets all season long, from Marcus I and II, to Oklahoma State to the Ken Garland Invitational, and Miller said he wanted his girls team to have those experiences to help prepare for a run at the district title.

"You look at our schedule -- we didn't shy away from tough competition," Miller said. "We felt like we challenged our athletes to race in the best events we could find, and I think that paid off at the district meet."

Miller said there was a definite game plan going in and said his team did an outstanding job of carrying that plan out.

"I thought that we executed our strategy quite well," Miller said. "I think the race was won from the two mile mark in. We closed really well, and maintained contact with the people we were racing with that we felt like we needed to beat, and I felt like we had great strength over the last 1.1 mile."

The Grapevine girls finished with 27 points, 29 points ahead of second place Colleyville Heritage, and the boys team won with 60 points, six points ahead of second place Heritage.

Miller said his teams have a couple of goals heading into the regional meet Saturday at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock.

"I feel like our girls have a chance to place in the top 10, and that would be great," Miller said. "Certainly Daphney Stanford and Skyler Simon have a goal to place in the top 10 and get to the state meet, and I think they are capable of that.

"With our boys, I am not sure how high we are going to place, but I can guarantee that they are going to run well on Saturday."

Saginaw Boswell sweeps

The Saginaw Boswell boys and girls teams won the District 6-4A cross country meet this past weekend to advance to the regional meet.

The girls team finished with a total of 18 points, 32 points ahead of second place Birdville, with four top five runners, including Penny Taylor, Katie Hess, Morgan Rhines and Ashlyn Grantham.

On the boys side, the Pioneers finished with at total of 24 points, 25 ahead of second place Birdville, and Nathan Garcia and Austin Piccolo claimed the top two spots.

Centennial girls win 8-4A

The Burleson Centennial girls cross country program brought home an 8-4A team championship this past weekend, with three runners finishing in the top 10.

Delaney Vance was second at the meet with a time of 20:40.11, Andie Sharpe was eighth with a time of 22:09.59 and Patricia Lerma finished ninth at the meet with a time of 22:10.41.

Southlake eyes state titles

With their eye on another run at a state championship, the Southlake Carroll cross country program won the boys and girls District 4-5A meets this past weekend, with all top five runners on both teams finishing in the top 10 at the meet.

The Keller boys finished with a score of 17 points, 43 points ahead of second place Timber Creek, and the girls finished with a score of 25 points, 22 ahead of second place Northwest.

Martin runners win titles

The Arlington Martin cross country team produced the boys and girls District 3-5A champions this year with Cameron Villareal and Olivia Olguin.

Villareal won with a time of 15:39 at the meet, while Olguin finished with a time of 19:05 to take first place at the competition.

The Martin boys and girls teams are headed to region, as well, as the boys won and the girls finished third at the District 3-5A meet.

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