LA FERIA — In the wild, most lions travel in groups called prides, hunting and roaming the lands together. During Monday’s District 32-4A cross country meet, the La Feria boys and girls team did the same.
Like a pride of Lions, La Feria’s boys and girls teams trampled to the finish line together, with each team capturing the top five finishes in their respective division, sweeping the District 32-4A team championships at La Feria High School.
“These girls started right when the pandemic hit but I was blessed with girls that wanted to come in and run. Normally you’re not that lucky,” La Feria girls head coach Graciela Campos said. “I remember coaches making comments when we started winning that we reloaded with all freshmen. I feel like I didn’t reload. They just happened to come in. I didn’t really have to do a whole lot. … We definitely have been pretty blessed in La Feria with these kids.”
The district titles mark the sixth straight for the girls, including back-to-back perfect scores. The boys made it three straight district titles and three consecutive years with perfect scores.
In cross country a perfect score is a 15, with a team needing their runners to finish first through fifth to achieve it.
The top three teams and top 10 individuals from each district meet qualify for the regional meet in two weeks. Zapata and Port Isabel claimed the other two spots in the girls division, while Hidalgo and Port Isabel finished second and third in the boys.
The Lionettes were led by junior Liana Navarro, who claimed the individual District 32-4A crown with a time of 11 minutes, 48.1 seconds. The individual district title is the third of her career in as many tries.
Mia Trevino (12:19.1), Cierra Garcia (12:48.5), Leandra Fernandez (13:01.7) and Lindsey Cantu rounded out the top five for La Feria. Mia Cerda (13:39.5) and Jasmine Villagomez (13:39.5) followed with sixth and seventh place.
“I think running those 5Ks against bigger schools were very crucial,” Campos said. “It was an important step the team needed to take to be able to keep adding and for the runner to get better. At the end of the day, I really believe running those 5Ks provided very crucial endurance that our runner needs when we get into this competitive championship environment.”
Freshman twins Anthony and Armando Morales led the way for the Lions, capturing first and second, respectively. Anthony finished in 16:43.7 to earn the district crown, with Armando following him in 17:12.2.
“Anthony and Armando are young bucks who have really bought into the program that we have here,” La Feria boys head coach Luis Zuvieta said. “Those guys came in and committed to the program. They understand it and are willing to train for it. It really has shown. Everything they’ve done has paid dividends in the results they’ve been able to do.”
Julian Dominguez (17:16.1), Nathan Salinas (17:20.4) and Christopher Velasquez (17:29.4) also earned top five finishes, with Evan Torres (18:00.5) and Benjamin Lara (19:03.7) coming in sixth and 13th, respectively.
The UIL Region IV Cross Country Championships are set for Oct. 24-25 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Dugan Track and Soccer Stadium in Corpus Christi.
