Riviera-Kaufer High School’s cross country team had numerous male and female runners place high enough at the District 32-2A meet - hosted by the Seahawks last weekend - to reach the Region IV meet which was to be held on Saturday (November 7) at Brooks City Base in San Antonio.

The Lady Seahawks varsity team won the overall district title by scoring 55 points. San Diego and Santa Rosa each scored 56 points and the Lady Vaqueros eventually won a tie-breaker and took second.

For Kaufer, Savannah Stroman placed second, Sarah Langbecker came in seventh, Medeli Sandoval claimed twelfth, Brianna McKee finished fifteenth, Rachel Davis placed nineteenth, Rochelle Cumberland came in twentysecond and Tracie Mendietta finished twenty-ninth.

“They really pulled it off, I feared for a while there that they weren’t going to capture the district title because San Diego was running very well,” Head Coach Joey Rendon said. “But we had some of our own girls start to pull away at the mile mark, started running their race and we came up with the victory at the end. All of them ran their best times of the year and I am very proud of them.”

Kaufer’s varsity boys runners qualified for region by placing third at district. Ronnie Peralez finished fifth, Chris Foster took sixth, Cody Salinas came in seventeenth, Niko Huerta took thirtieth, Zachary McCollough finished thirty-first, Tyler Vela claimed thirty-third and Ryan Leeson placed thirtyeighth.

“The guys have struggled this year, most of them - with the exception of one or two - are football players,” Rendon said.

“They play on Friday night, get banged up and it affects their running a little. However, I know it can be done and these runners have the talent for both sports.”

Finishing near the top of the district junior varsity girls race were Clarissa Arguijo (second) and Jodi Suarez (third). Jimmy Ulrich placed thirteenth in the j.v. boys event.

De la Paz Middle School’s eighth grade boys and girls teams each won their respective district team titles. The girls scored 43 points and comfortably won over San Diego (72) and Santa Rosa (73). Hannah Muery finished third, Dala Quackenbush came in sixth, Morgan Moore placed tenth, Lacey Yaws claimed eleventh and Caroline Alsop finished thirteenth.

“These girls have so much talent coming up for the high school cross country team,” Rendon said. “They work hard and a couple of them are naturally talented runners who finish with times that rival the varsity girls.”

De la Paz’s eight grade boys scored 38 point and finished ahead of San Diego (47) and Santa Rosa (67). Luis Serna finished fourth, Braden Irby claimed sixth, Tres Longoria placed eighth, John Spandle took ninth and Dillard Bull finished eleventh.

“We only had five boys run for us in the eighth grade division, most teams have seven,” Rendon said. “

Running for De la Pas in the seventh grade girls race were Cheyenne Unterbrink (third), Bianca Serna (ninth), Gabby Jimenez (fifteenth) and Teresa Mendietta (twenty-sixth).

The seventh grade boys placed third as a team. Andrew Edlin led by finishing second, Clancy McFall took ninth, Bobby Callahan came in fourteenth, Steveon Moreno claimed seventeenth, Jimmy Garcia took eighteenth and Jerry Vasquez finished twentieth.

Coach Rendon wished to thank all of the parents and coaches who attended, supported and volunteered at the district meet.