The Mount Pleasant High School cross country teams competed in the District 15-5A district championship meet last week in Hallsville. The boys’ varsity finished second overall vaulting the team to the regional meet in a couple of weeks while the girls’ varsity finished in fourth, just missing the qualification needed. The top three teams in each division along with the top ten individual runners punched their ticket as the Tigers had three runners qualify individually.
Geovanni Calderon was the top Mount Pleasant performer coming in 2nd overall with a time of 16:52.8. Lee Davis and Gilberth Landaverde also ran strong posting 4th and 5th place finishes respectively with times of 17:01.2 and 17:07.7. Aidyn Botello came in 21st at 18:15.1 while Alex Rivera finished 29th at 18:44. Antonio De la Torre rounded out the team in 31st with a time of 18:59.5 to give the Tigers 61 points. Longview won the overall district title with 41 points while Hallsville came in third with 68 points.
The varsity girls were merely four points back of third place Texas High with Briana Gonzales doing everything she could to carry the Lady Tigers to the next round. Gonzales finished 14th overall with a time of 22:17.4 but it wasn’t enough as Mount Pleasant posted 88 points behind district champ Hallsville (16 pts), Pine Tree (72 pts), and Texas High (84 pts). Dominique Gil came in 17th in her rookie debut posting a time of 22:43 followed by a quartet of Lady Tigers. Abigail Retana (21st - 23:23.4), Karen Hernandez (22nd - 23:25.4), Marlyne Mendez (23rd - 23:43.1), and Lizbeth Alvarez (23:43.7) all crossed the line in succession and Jasmine Landaverde (37th - 25:02) rounded out Mount Pleasant’s competitors.
The JV boys took 6th overall as David Buendia led the way, coming in 15th with a time of 19:45.6. Skylar Guereca finished 35th at 21:38.6 and Oscar Otero came in 41st at 21:51.3. Other finishers were Michael Carrero (44th - 22:03.9), Riley Guereca (52nd - 22:31.7), Axel Contreras (54th - 22:33.4), Saul Alvarado (55th 22:39.5), and Gabriel Garza (62nd - 24:37.2).
The JV girls took 3rd overall with Jennifer Luna posting a top ten 6th place finish at 15:40.8. Kaira Leija also finished in the top ten with a 10th place finish at 16:04.2. Other finishers were Audrie Mendoza (24th 17:41.6), Atalee Gonzalez (29th - 18:27.2), and Serenity Goss (30th - 18:49.9).
The varsity boys will travel to Lynn Creek Park at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie on Tuesday, October 25th to compete in the UIL Region II meet with the start scheduled for 11:10 AM.