Burnet cross country has no issues at Tenroc
The Burnet High School cross country program competed at the Tenroc Invitational hosted by Salado Sept. 11.
The Bulldogs won the varsity division, while the Lady Dawgs finished fifth.
Burnet continues to demonstrate what head coach Simon Hairston has been saying for weeks.
The Bulldogs have depth and can score points.
“Different guys showcasing their abilities throughout the course of this early portion of the season,” the coach said. “We still have guys, who are stepping up and performing at a high level.”
The Bulldogs were led by sophomore Clark Yanez, who took bronze in the individual standings thanks to finishing the 5K course in 16 minutes and 55.75 seconds. Adan Carreon was fourth in 17:00.97, Isaac Vega came in 11th in 17:10.69, and Jose Flores was 20th in 17:47.07. Other runners include Christopher Hernandez, who was 28th in 18:08.06, Russell Ramirez, who was 34th in 18:13.36, Austin Moore finished 55th in 19:06.91, Andrew Resendez came in 83rd in 20:16.79, and Hector Vega was 86th in 20:26.27.
The race had 144 runners.
Senior Asah Roy led the Lady Dawgs by finishing fifth overall in 11:51.26 in the two-mile race. She was followed by Josie McDavid, who was 37th in 13:41.37, Kamila Palacios, who was 40th in 13:50.31, Abby Bennight, who was 52nd in 14:05.96, Brekyn Langley, who was 56th in 14:16.20, and Brooklynn Flores, who was 84th in 15:00.69. The race had 125 athletes.
Hairston said his goal is to continue to get more of his runners to finish in the top 15, which will put them in strong contention to repeat as District 24-4A champions.
In the junior varsity division, the Bulldogs were fifth and the Lady Dawgs finished seventh out of nine teams. Those races had 106 and 155 runners, respectively.
Hairston pointed out that freshman Gabe Castillo, who took gold at Tenroc, has been having great meets for awhile.
“I feel like he showcased with us,” the coach said, adding that Castillo splits his time between cross country and football. “And improving every week he’s come out has just been really nice to see.”
Hairston noted continuity is a big part of the success.
“As long as we can keep that, that will serve us well,” he said. “(It’s) just been good for our kids to see a really, really high level of competition, and it levels up to the schools we’re going to be seeing. I don’t think we’re going to have that beyond Salado, that high level of competition week in and week out. I feel like it’s an opportunity for us to still so early in the season gain some continuity as a team across the boys and and the girls side to be able to develop our running abilities and our skills across the board.”
Burnet will compete at the Hoka McNeil Invitational at 7:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19, Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock. This meet serves as a preview of the state meet.
