Local Sports
Archives
| Arts & Entertainment
| Audio/Video
| Business
| Classifieds
| Columns
| Food
| Forums
| Health & Fitness
| News
| Obits
| Opinions
| People
| Politics
| Science/Technology
| Search
| Sports
| Subscribe
| Travel
| Weather
Published
by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Sunday, November 4, 2001
Warriors run past regionals
T-M boys, girls advance to state cross country meet after excelling in S.A.
By Andrea Wall
Caller-Times
SAN ANTONIO - Tuloso-Midway High School twins Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez were side-by-side as they battled each other during the regional cross-country meet Saturday.
They were in the top four during the entire race, and broke ahead of the pack during the last 400-meter stretch.
Identical in looks and in stride, the senior sisters took first and second place in the Class 4A girls heat and paced their team to making a second straight state appearance.
"We workout together, but we don't ever talk about strategy or anything like that," Yvonne said. "But, my sister started to lead too early, and I told her to just hang back and let the other girls lead until the last mile. And when it came, we broke off together and won it."
There was almost a unified double take when hundreds of fans gathered near the finish line saw the twins barreling down the final stretch of the race, leaving no chance for anyone else to place in the top two. Yvonne edged out her sister at the last second, taking first place with a time of 11:55
Despite the finishes from the Rodriguez twins, the T-M girls team still had worries that they might not make it as a team to state. Only the top three schools in each class advance to the state meet and weeks earlier, the team found out that their third runner had a hairline stress fracture in her ankle.
"I was concerned," said Zeke Hernandez, T-M coach. "She felt like she needed to step up this weekend, but I told her to just do what she could."
The injured runner was sophomore Morgan Wyatt. Feeling like she was going to let her team down, Wyatt decided to run at the regional meet regardless of the extreme pain she felt in her ankle, she said.
"I just had to forget about the pain," Wyatt said after the meet, with tears streaming down her face. "My teammates were very supportive, but I felt like I would disappoint them if I didn't run, because it would hurt our chances of making it to state as a team."
Wyatt ran Saturday, but only made it one mile and a half into the race before pulling out from pain.
Tuloso-Midway finished third anyway and will make their second-straight state appearance. T-M girls finished ninth at state last year.
"I was really scared that we weren't going to make it and it was going to be my fault," Wyatt said. "I felt so relieved when they announced our name as the third-place team. So, now I am going to get on the bike and try to get ready to run next week at the state meet."
The T-M boys team will also be running in the state meet after winning the regional meet Saturday and Calallen finished one place away and Gregory-Portland two spots away from making it out of regionals.
Carroll's boys team finished third and will head to state, along with Kingsville Academy and both Premont squads, with the Premont boys hoping to win their fourth consecutive state title.
"We are excited to be back at state," Hernandez said. "We are hoping that we will do better than last year, and I think everyone is expecting us to. We have strong runners, girls and boys, and hope to make a good showing."
REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY MEET
At University of Texas at San Antonio
Results
Boys
1A - 1, Julian Acuna, Agua Dulce 16:16; 2A - 5, Tommy Guajardo, Freer 17:12; 4A - 3, Robert Ramos, Tuloso-Midway 16:07
Girls
2A - 3, Anica Alacron, Kenedy 13:03; 4A- 1, Yvonne Rodriguez, Tuloso Midway 11:55; 2, Yvette Rodriguez, T-M 11:55
| Talk
about this story | Next Story | Home
|
© 2001,
a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
|
