The district championship is yet another achievement for the program which has experienced a lot of success in the past decade but never a district title for both the boys and girls.
“I’ve been here 11 years and I remember my first year in 2006 the girls team barely got beat by Alexander by four points. I thought, ‘This is going to be easy to get a competitive team going for the girls,’ and 11 years later it hadn’t happened until Saturday,” said Head Coach Juan Gonzalez. “It was pretty special. It means a lot for both programs to be successful. I’ve always thought, ‘We have to do it, let’s have both teams be district champions.’”
The EPHS Varsity Girls took home first place, with Del Rio in second, United in third, United South in fourth, Alexander in fifth, and LBJ in sixth.
Girls District Champion Monica Rivera led the group of Eagle runners, including Shanya Luna (3) , Sarah Monsivais (7), Andrea Garcia (11), Nicole Oca-Lopez (19), Briana Vasquez (23), and Ana Cristina Alvarez (24).
The boys were able to beat a strong Del Rio team for the district title, United came in third place, followed by United South, Alexander and LBJ.
Nathan Kowalski finished in second place overall and he was followed by Sergio Hernandez (3), Miguel Huitron (5), Ryan Rodriguez (6), Arturo Valdez (11), Homar Perez (23), and Jacob Smith (30).
The program continues to grow and Coach Gonzalez is hopeful about the future with this young team.
“We have a very young girls team, we have four freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and one senior. For the boys team we have two sophomores , two junior and three seniors,” said Gonzalez. ”Its a good mix. The JV team is up to the challenge for next year, so we’re looking forward to it.”
The Eagles now prepare to finish off cross country season with an appearance at the Region IV Championships meet this weekend. The top four teams and top ten non-team individuals will qualify for the state meet in Round Rock.
“We are ready to go,” said Gonzalez. “Our kids are going in there with positive attitudes and fresh legs, and we’ll see what happens.”
This marks the first district title for the girls since 1994 and the the fourth time that they have claimed the title including in 1982 and 1983.
This is the ninth district title for the boys team including those from 1989, 1995-97, 2001, 2010, 2012 and 2014.
The Eagle coaching staff includes Assistant Coach Frank Vielma, Jacob Knapp, Hugo Garcia and Breanna Barrera.