by JASON GORDON
Hays High School hosted its second-annual Cross-Country Meet Saturday.
Both the Rebel and Lobo boys and girls teams competed.
The Hays boys finished second overall, with the Leh-man boys coming in third, behind first-place Lockhart.
The Hays girls came in second, and the Lady Lobos were fourth. San Marcos won the girls team title.
“We had a great meet this weekend,” said Hays head coach Cliff Buckley. “It was a good small-sized meet with some fairly competitive teams. I really was thankful to all the parents of our athletes who gave up their time Friday and Saturday to help make sure that everything was set up and ready to go for the race. It takes a lot of people to pull off a well-run meet and they helped it go off without a hitch.”
The Hays boys were led by Ryan McSpadden, who finished fifth individually over the 3-mile course. Esteban Villalpando was seventh, Nathaniel Alvarado was 10th, Heath Agnew was 11th and Jason Peed finished 17th.
“I thought our boys ran very well but knowing how deep our district is we are going to have to keep working hard to drop our times down,” Buckley said. “Lockhart looked really great this race and we need to figure out how to get some runners in between theirs. We are improving and that is all I can ask of any of my athletes.”
Maegan Shoffner led the Lady Rebels with a fourth-place overall individual finish. Carly Hogue was sixth, Rose Hyak was seventh, Marissa Sigala was 13th and Jennifer Colonnetta was 14th.
“Our girls did a good job of finishing very close to each other over the 3-mile course,” Buckley said. “San Marcos was very dominant though. I feel the same way about our girls team. I like the way we’re running but we’re going to have to lower our times if we want to advance past district.”
Nick Wittkopp led the Lehman boys with a fourth-place individual finish. Patrick Villarreal was 12th, Victor Bravo was 14th, Brian Velasquez was 16th and Jaysen Gonzales was 19th.
“We got to see two of the better teams in district, Lockhart and Hays,” Lehman head coach Jay Sansom said. “We know what we have to do if we want to have a chance to make it out of this district. We just have to keep working and hope we’re at our best when the district and regional meets roll around.”
Ashley Morgan finished fifth overall for the Lady Lobos. Ofelia Negrete was 15th, Beatriz Peleda finished 23rd, Andrea Delgado was 26th and Ashley Martinez was 27th for the Lehman girls.
