By Jay Neal
sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com
ARLINGTON — One hundred and eighty young men competed in the Region II Cross Country Meet Saturday morning at Vandergriff Park in Arlington, including a team representing Jacksonville High School.
The Indians found the going tough, finishing 22nd (24 teams entered), but no doubt gained valuable experience that can only serve to make them better in the future.
Frisco Liberty took the team title with 86 points followed by Highland Park (92) and Cleburne with 123 points.
Cleburne’s Tyler Chappell crossed the finish line first in a time of 15:22.8. with Jonathan Frausto being the highest placing Indian runner (102th place, 18:14.5).
Others running for the Indians and their finish were, Thomas Alberts (120), Liandro Tavera (122), Luis Botello (123), Edgar Huerta (137), Ben Casey (138) and Kevin Quiroz (163).
In girl’s action, JHS’s Maria Ramirez finished in 99th place out of 170 contestants.
Ramirez’s final time was 14:07.8 with Highland Park’s Sara Sutherland crossing the wire first (11:29.6).
Highland Park took the team title with 31 points with Frisco coming in second (87) and McKinney (117) third.
Long distance runners from Bullard High School ran in the Class 3A, Region III Regional Meet in Humble, also held Saturday morning.
The Lady Panthers finished 9th out of 20 teams, wrapping up with 252 points.
Palestine came in first with 104 points, with Lufkin Hudson (110) and Connally (125) rounding out the top three.
Amber Moore (Longview Spring Hill) won the race in a time of 11:38.0 with Bullard’s Bailee Callens leading the Lady Panther contingent. Callens stopped the timer at 12:38.5, which put her in 19th place.
Also running for Bullard were, Kylee Nichols (39th), Samantha Phillips (45th), Sarah-Grace French (74), Rachael Horton (81) and Katy Shumate (111).
There were 134 runners in the event.
The Bullard boys came in 18th in team standings — 20 schools competed in the race — with the team from Lufkin Hudson capturing first place with 72 points.
Bridge City (90) finished second and Huffman-Hargraves placed third with 99 points.
Top finisher in the varsity boy’s division went to Singh Harvinder (Huffman-Hargraves) who broke the tape in a time of 15:57.0.
Donald Sulsar led the Panthers, logging a 18:01.4, good enough for 34th place.
Other Panther runners were, Keaton Boyd (88), David Heithoff (121), Christopher Braaten (124), Blayne Noble (125) and Cullen Hippler (135).
A total of 147 boys traveled the course Saturday.
