A.D.Ibarra
-Round Rock, Texas
Eagle Pass High School senior Hector Alvarez and his Eagle Cross Country teammates who have excelled at every level of competition and scored high for Juan Gonzalez' Eagle XC Program placed 9th as a team, at the 2014 UIL State 6A Cross Country Championships held Saturday, November 8th at Settler's Park in Round Rock.
Alvarez averaged a 5:11 mile and placed 22nd out of 150 of the state's best runners with a 16:09.57, defeating racers from state champion Lewisville Hebron, Southlake Carroll, Katy Seven Lakes, Katy Cinco Ranch, Weslaco East, Comal Canyon, Houston Strake Jesuit, College Park, The Woodlands and even Comal Smithson Valley while Del Rio's Paul Delgado ran the race of his life placing eighth with a 15:52.46.
The winner of this very challenging state race was none other than Colleyville Heritage's very own David Strome who turned in a 15:23.81 an average of 4:56 per mile and he is an 11th grader.
"It was a very challenging course which has one of the fastest starts we've ever seen with a 300 meter decline," said avid runner Dr. Hector Alvarez who was there to witness this race, "Right after that, after your muscles are crunched up from the decline, you have a 400 meter incline before it tapers off followed by another 200 meter incline and a snake like part of the course followed by a 100 meter hill, then at the end yet another brutal 300 meter incline."
He feels that most runners will drop anywhere from 20-25 seconds off their best time due to the rigors of the course itself.
Coach Juan Gonzalez' strategy in this race was for his runners to all turn in sub 16:30's in order to have a chance, but according to Alvarez, "The race was crazy and then it was over."
Congratulations are in order for the never-say-die Eagles who bucked the odds, trained even harder and made it to the state meet as a team.
Eagle Pass' Victor Garcia came in 55th, Javier Guevara placed 72nd, Martin Lopez came in right behind in 75th, Bennie Rodriguez came in 79th, Ryan Rodriguez was 129th and Nathan Kowalski was 136th.
Southlake Carroll came in first with 94 places followed by The Woodlands with 105, College Park with 117, katy Seven Lakes with 147, El Paso Eastwood with 158, Keller Timber Creek with 168, Comal Canyon with 176, Lewisville Marcus with 193, Eagle Pass placed ninth in the state with 224 and Houston Strake Jesuit rounded off the top ten teams in the state with 280 places.