Fort Bend Sun -
By COREY ROEPKEN Published: By the time Fort Bend ISD’s best cross country teams got to the starting line at Friday’s district championship meet they knew for the most part how things would shake out.
Or so they thought.
When Austin and Clements finished the both varsity races they each had one championship plaque and one runner-up plaque. None of them had the awards they expected.
The Austin boys and the Clements girls reversed trends from the regular season en route to winning 23-5A titles at Missouri City’s Community Park.
The Austin boys had not defeated the Clements boys. The Clements girls had not defeated the Austin girls. Both counterparts finished as runners-up to claim the district’s final regional qualifying berth.
The other highlight was Garrison Stribling becoming the first Elkins athlete to win an individual cross country title. Nikki Barrow made it two years in a row for a Clements runner to take the girls individual title.
GIRLS
All season long when Clements and Austin met at the same invitational Austin edged the Lady Rangers. Clements often had its fourth runner finish ahead of Austin’s, but Austin’s fifth runner always had a healthy lead on Clements’ final scorer.
In a smaller field on Friday, though, that didn’t make as big a difference. As a result, Clements’ 1-2 finish with Barrow and Erin Megna played a significant role in the Lady Rangers winning their third straight championship. They scored 51 points to Austin’s 60.
“We planned to look after them and make sure we followed them,” Megna said. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t our last race together as a team.”
Austin answered Clements’ 1-2 finish with a 3-4 finish from Kaitlyn Cain and Anita Vinjamuri. Clements got even more cushion with its third runner Kendall Yates (ninth place) finishing seven places ahead of Austin’s third runner – Kara Byrne.
Kempner finished third with 77 points and would have finished second had the race scored only four runners. The Lady Cougars’ fourth runner finished 14th – ahead of Austin’s and Clements’.
Kempner will not advance to the regional championships, but three individuals who finished in the top 10 will. They were Leighanne Rivera, Anna Koistinen and Melissa Moreno.
The other two individivual regional qualifers were Dulles track standout Ashle Caldwell (fifth) and Bush’s Rebecca Stillwagon (6th). Stillwagon was the 2008 district cross country champ and 2009 runner-up.
BOYS
Clements got the best of Austin all season, but Austin coach Todd Laney said he knew he had an ace up his sleeve.
Due to prior engagements throughout the regular season, the Bulldogs competed without at least one of its fastest kids. One week one kid missed a meet. The next week another kid missed a meet.
Finally running together on Friday, the triumverate of Clay Howell, Mehran Namazkar and Emmanuel Akindele showed what they could do by finishing third, fourth and fifth. That was too much for Clements to overcome as Austin won the meet, 40-51.
“We’d look at the places and they were beating us by about 20 points each time,” Laney said. “But we knew we didn’t have one of our top three runners each time. Because of that we knew we had a pretty good shot today.”
Clements got a second-place finish from Alexis Ramirez and led by Jordan Sterns had three finishers within four seconds of one another in 10th, 11th and 12th. It wasn’t enough to overcome Austin’s blitzkreig of the top five.
Kempner finished third with 72 points. Two individuals will advance to the regional meet. They are Justin McDowell (sixth) and Luis Pirela (eighth). Dulles’ Jason Palfreyman (seventh) and Bush’s D’Andre Lewis (ninth) also advance to the regional meet.
Elkins’ Stribling, however, will lead the way. A track and field distance specialist, Stribling emerged as the individual favorite midway through the regular season. He posted several times nobody else in the district matched.
On Friday he led early and ultimately beat Clements’ Ramirez by four seconds. Stribling said it has been his goal to win the title since the first day of school this year.
“It’s a measure of the hard work I put in daily,” he said. “It’s a reflection of how hard I’ve been working all season.”
BOYS TEAM SCORES: 1 – Austin 40, 2 – Clements 51, 3 – Kempner 72, 4 – Elkins 123, 5 – Dulles 129, 6 – Bush 153, 7 – Hightower 154, 8 – Marshall 197, 9 – Travis 223.
AUSTIN: 3 – Clay Howell 16:58.7, 4 – Mehran Namazkar 17:02.55, 5 – Emmanuel Akindele 17:18.49, 13 – Abhi Kallur 17:58.4, 15 – Josh Edwards 18:08.09
CLEMENTS: 2 – Alexis Ramirez 16:39.27, 10 – Jordan Sterns 17:47.52, 11 – Michael Erickson 17:48.62, 12 – Brandt Wronski 17:51.54, 16 – Santiago Campos 18:08.5
KEMPNER: 6 – Justin McDowell 17:25.55, 8 – Luis Pirela 17:37.98, 17 – Kris Shumake 18:15.78, 19 – Ian Galloway 18:39.44, 22 – Daniel Cortez 19:04.57
ELKINS: 1 – Garrison Stribling 16:35.21, 18 – Dylan Zambrano 18:21.46, 30 – Alexander August 19:46.18, 33 – Aaron Guidry 20:24.55, 41 – Evan Rodriguez 21:15.3.
DULLES: 7 – Jason Palfreyman 17:28.53, 14 – Michael Thane 18:05.22, 27 – Eric DeVelasco 19:34.83, 29 – Gelvin Masalta 19:45.89, 52 – Daniel Readeaux 22:20.59
BUSH: 9 – D’Andre Lewis 17:42.09, 25 – Jordan Pena 19:27.22, 31 – Jesus Morales 20:02.58, 42 – Bishop Buenano 21:16.15, 46 – Coty Davis 21:53.48
HIGHTOWER: 20 – Jeremiah Stafford 18:40.05, 24 – Rondell Simmons 19:18.98, 28 – Don Lee 19:39.94, 35 – Ryan Crampton 21:00.1, 47 – Antoine Jolivette 21:59.33
MARSHALL: 32 – Enrique Pemberton 20:23.36, 34 – Brandon Richardson 20:28.6, 38 – Jesse Guerrero 21:10.18, 43 – Onyeka Onyekwelu 21:27.73, 50 – Ted Rivera 22:10.03
TRAVIS: 26 – Syde Jalajal 19:34.31, 39 – Kenechukwu Ochibili 21:12.67, 45 – Justin Goodwin 21:36.86, Achille Hic 23:27.5, 57 – Chris Baker 26:01.49
WILLOWRIDGE: 37 – Pharon Beever 21:08.91
GIRLS TEAM SCORES: 1 – Clements 51, 2 – Austin 60, 3 – Kempner 77, 4 – Hightower 125, 5 – Bush 150, 6 – Elkins 159, 7 – Travis 168
CLEMENTS: 1 – Nikki Barrow 12:26.3, 2 – Erin Megna 12:46.74, 9 – Kendall Yates 13:32.22, 17 – Molly Singleton 14:19.72, 22 – Francesca Hattan 14:56.29
AUSTIN: 3 – Kaitlyn Cain 12:52.24, 4 – Anita Vinjamuri 12:54.54, 16 – Kara Byrne 14:14.79, 18 – Taylor Derr 14:34.02, 19 – Emily Dorrance 14:39.78
KEMPNER: 7 – Leighanne Rivera 13:21.6, 8 – Anna Koistinen 13:29.8, 10 – Melissa Moreno 13:34.81, 14 – Frances Avila 14:01.63, 38 – Maria Briceno-Rojas 16:23.89
HIGHTOWER: 13 – Sheray Reese 13:56.02, 15 – Gabrielle Ware 14:09.08, 29 – Grace Galicia 15:51.86, 33 – Ashlei Brooks 15:59.1, 35 – Emma Biba 16:10.52
BUSH: 6 – Rebecca Stillwagon 13:01.84, 31 – Chastity Chov 15:54.64, 32 – Modupe Adamolekun 15:57.07, 34 – Breanna Chov 15:59.87, 47 – Yosemite Rojas 17:09.12
ELKINS: 24 – Ruby Page 15:22.27, 27 – Leslie McGuigan 15:30.95, 30 – Raven Alston 15:52.77, 36 – Karly Brightwell 16:14.06, 42 – Margaret Hyde 16:54.1
TRAVIS: 11 – Courtney Lomax 13:38.83, 28 – Katie Bernard 15:46.36, 40 – Tyler Meserole 16:41.3, 43 – Ashley Sampson 16:54.72, 46 – Kayla Clawson 17:04.73
DULLES: 5 – Ashley Caldwell 12:56.86, 12 – Stephanie Talbott 13:53.3
MARSHALL: 39 – Jasmine Miller 16:40.79, 49 – Ravon Lewis 18:51.75, 50 – DeZhia Foster 19:19.23, 51 – Mylana Hearn 19:22.35
WILLOWRIDGE: 26 – Kyana Wiggins 15:27.73
Copyright © 2010 - Houston Community Newspapers Online
http://bit.ly/csBvgv
By COREY ROEPKEN Published: By the time Fort Bend ISD’s best cross country teams got to the starting line at Friday’s district championship meet they knew for the most part how things would shake out.
Or so they thought.
When Austin and Clements finished the both varsity races they each had one championship plaque and one runner-up plaque. None of them had the awards they expected.
The Austin boys and the Clements girls reversed trends from the regular season en route to winning 23-5A titles at Missouri City’s Community Park.
The Austin boys had not defeated the Clements boys. The Clements girls had not defeated the Austin girls. Both counterparts finished as runners-up to claim the district’s final regional qualifying berth.
The other highlight was Garrison Stribling becoming the first Elkins athlete to win an individual cross country title. Nikki Barrow made it two years in a row for a Clements runner to take the girls individual title.
GIRLS
All season long when Clements and Austin met at the same invitational Austin edged the Lady Rangers. Clements often had its fourth runner finish ahead of Austin’s, but Austin’s fifth runner always had a healthy lead on Clements’ final scorer.
In a smaller field on Friday, though, that didn’t make as big a difference. As a result, Clements’ 1-2 finish with Barrow and Erin Megna played a significant role in the Lady Rangers winning their third straight championship. They scored 51 points to Austin’s 60.
“We planned to look after them and make sure we followed them,” Megna said. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t our last race together as a team.”
Austin answered Clements’ 1-2 finish with a 3-4 finish from Kaitlyn Cain and Anita Vinjamuri. Clements got even more cushion with its third runner Kendall Yates (ninth place) finishing seven places ahead of Austin’s third runner – Kara Byrne.
Kempner finished third with 77 points and would have finished second had the race scored only four runners. The Lady Cougars’ fourth runner finished 14th – ahead of Austin’s and Clements’.
Kempner will not advance to the regional championships, but three individuals who finished in the top 10 will. They were Leighanne Rivera, Anna Koistinen and Melissa Moreno.
The other two individivual regional qualifers were Dulles track standout Ashle Caldwell (fifth) and Bush’s Rebecca Stillwagon (6th). Stillwagon was the 2008 district cross country champ and 2009 runner-up.
BOYS
Clements got the best of Austin all season, but Austin coach Todd Laney said he knew he had an ace up his sleeve.
Due to prior engagements throughout the regular season, the Bulldogs competed without at least one of its fastest kids. One week one kid missed a meet. The next week another kid missed a meet.
Finally running together on Friday, the triumverate of Clay Howell, Mehran Namazkar and Emmanuel Akindele showed what they could do by finishing third, fourth and fifth. That was too much for Clements to overcome as Austin won the meet, 40-51.
“We’d look at the places and they were beating us by about 20 points each time,” Laney said. “But we knew we didn’t have one of our top three runners each time. Because of that we knew we had a pretty good shot today.”
Clements got a second-place finish from Alexis Ramirez and led by Jordan Sterns had three finishers within four seconds of one another in 10th, 11th and 12th. It wasn’t enough to overcome Austin’s blitzkreig of the top five.
Kempner finished third with 72 points. Two individuals will advance to the regional meet. They are Justin McDowell (sixth) and Luis Pirela (eighth). Dulles’ Jason Palfreyman (seventh) and Bush’s D’Andre Lewis (ninth) also advance to the regional meet.
Elkins’ Stribling, however, will lead the way. A track and field distance specialist, Stribling emerged as the individual favorite midway through the regular season. He posted several times nobody else in the district matched.
On Friday he led early and ultimately beat Clements’ Ramirez by four seconds. Stribling said it has been his goal to win the title since the first day of school this year.
“It’s a measure of the hard work I put in daily,” he said. “It’s a reflection of how hard I’ve been working all season.”
BOYS TEAM SCORES: 1 – Austin 40, 2 – Clements 51, 3 – Kempner 72, 4 – Elkins 123, 5 – Dulles 129, 6 – Bush 153, 7 – Hightower 154, 8 – Marshall 197, 9 – Travis 223.
AUSTIN: 3 – Clay Howell 16:58.7, 4 – Mehran Namazkar 17:02.55, 5 – Emmanuel Akindele 17:18.49, 13 – Abhi Kallur 17:58.4, 15 – Josh Edwards 18:08.09
CLEMENTS: 2 – Alexis Ramirez 16:39.27, 10 – Jordan Sterns 17:47.52, 11 – Michael Erickson 17:48.62, 12 – Brandt Wronski 17:51.54, 16 – Santiago Campos 18:08.5
KEMPNER: 6 – Justin McDowell 17:25.55, 8 – Luis Pirela 17:37.98, 17 – Kris Shumake 18:15.78, 19 – Ian Galloway 18:39.44, 22 – Daniel Cortez 19:04.57
ELKINS: 1 – Garrison Stribling 16:35.21, 18 – Dylan Zambrano 18:21.46, 30 – Alexander August 19:46.18, 33 – Aaron Guidry 20:24.55, 41 – Evan Rodriguez 21:15.3.
DULLES: 7 – Jason Palfreyman 17:28.53, 14 – Michael Thane 18:05.22, 27 – Eric DeVelasco 19:34.83, 29 – Gelvin Masalta 19:45.89, 52 – Daniel Readeaux 22:20.59
BUSH: 9 – D’Andre Lewis 17:42.09, 25 – Jordan Pena 19:27.22, 31 – Jesus Morales 20:02.58, 42 – Bishop Buenano 21:16.15, 46 – Coty Davis 21:53.48
HIGHTOWER: 20 – Jeremiah Stafford 18:40.05, 24 – Rondell Simmons 19:18.98, 28 – Don Lee 19:39.94, 35 – Ryan Crampton 21:00.1, 47 – Antoine Jolivette 21:59.33
MARSHALL: 32 – Enrique Pemberton 20:23.36, 34 – Brandon Richardson 20:28.6, 38 – Jesse Guerrero 21:10.18, 43 – Onyeka Onyekwelu 21:27.73, 50 – Ted Rivera 22:10.03
TRAVIS: 26 – Syde Jalajal 19:34.31, 39 – Kenechukwu Ochibili 21:12.67, 45 – Justin Goodwin 21:36.86, Achille Hic 23:27.5, 57 – Chris Baker 26:01.49
WILLOWRIDGE: 37 – Pharon Beever 21:08.91
GIRLS TEAM SCORES: 1 – Clements 51, 2 – Austin 60, 3 – Kempner 77, 4 – Hightower 125, 5 – Bush 150, 6 – Elkins 159, 7 – Travis 168
CLEMENTS: 1 – Nikki Barrow 12:26.3, 2 – Erin Megna 12:46.74, 9 – Kendall Yates 13:32.22, 17 – Molly Singleton 14:19.72, 22 – Francesca Hattan 14:56.29
AUSTIN: 3 – Kaitlyn Cain 12:52.24, 4 – Anita Vinjamuri 12:54.54, 16 – Kara Byrne 14:14.79, 18 – Taylor Derr 14:34.02, 19 – Emily Dorrance 14:39.78
KEMPNER: 7 – Leighanne Rivera 13:21.6, 8 – Anna Koistinen 13:29.8, 10 – Melissa Moreno 13:34.81, 14 – Frances Avila 14:01.63, 38 – Maria Briceno-Rojas 16:23.89
HIGHTOWER: 13 – Sheray Reese 13:56.02, 15 – Gabrielle Ware 14:09.08, 29 – Grace Galicia 15:51.86, 33 – Ashlei Brooks 15:59.1, 35 – Emma Biba 16:10.52
BUSH: 6 – Rebecca Stillwagon 13:01.84, 31 – Chastity Chov 15:54.64, 32 – Modupe Adamolekun 15:57.07, 34 – Breanna Chov 15:59.87, 47 – Yosemite Rojas 17:09.12
ELKINS: 24 – Ruby Page 15:22.27, 27 – Leslie McGuigan 15:30.95, 30 – Raven Alston 15:52.77, 36 – Karly Brightwell 16:14.06, 42 – Margaret Hyde 16:54.1
TRAVIS: 11 – Courtney Lomax 13:38.83, 28 – Katie Bernard 15:46.36, 40 – Tyler Meserole 16:41.3, 43 – Ashley Sampson 16:54.72, 46 – Kayla Clawson 17:04.73
DULLES: 5 – Ashley Caldwell 12:56.86, 12 – Stephanie Talbott 13:53.3
MARSHALL: 39 – Jasmine Miller 16:40.79, 49 – Ravon Lewis 18:51.75, 50 – DeZhia Foster 19:19.23, 51 – Mylana Hearn 19:22.35
WILLOWRIDGE: 26 – Kyana Wiggins 15:27.73
Copyright © 2010 - Houston Community Newspapers Online
http://bit.ly/csBvgv