Runners were forced to decide whether to attack the hill and pass others or slow down and conserve energy.
Temple chose to attack and reaped the benefits. The Wildcats got a third-place finish from Romeo Guajardo and a fourth-place result from Brooke McKinney in the Class 4A-5A races.
In the 3A and under races, Academy’s Connor McAtee and Brian Jurca placed in the top 10 to propel the Bumblebees to the boys team title. On the girls side, Emily Koenig and Meagan Bullis both finished in the top 10.
“Cross country is physical, but it’s also mental,” Temple coach Holly Lamberte said. “Half the people that do this, it kills them on that monster hill. But I keep saying, ‘If you pass all of them there, it’s flat the rest of the way.’”
McKinney was in the top five throughout but used a strong surge on the hill halfway through the race to preserve her fourth-place position.
“I pretty much just stayed the same pace all the way around and I really pushed it up the hill,” McKinney said. “I really tried to do my best up the hill.”
Finishing behind McKinney were Tem-Cat teammates Erika Allen (13th), Devon Kisley (18th), Codeisha Curtis (20th), Noemi Sauceda (23rd), Brooke Gonzalez (24th), Marissa Cervantez (31st) and Meghan Farrell (36th).
The Tem-Cats finished second with 78 points, behind champion Hays, which had 29 points.
In the 3A and under girls race, Koenig sat in fifth place after 1 mile but improved to third, in a time of 13:20. Teammate Bullis finished seventh in 13:55.
On the boys side, Guajardo had an early lead halfway through the race before falling to third as he approached the hill.
Like McKinney, Guajardo simply wanted to put himself in a position to pass others or hold his spot on the hill.
“That was the strategy,” he said, “just getting up that hill and working our way down.”
Finishing behind Guajardo were Wildcat teammates Kelley Cast (15th), Michael Massey (18th), Adam Lopez (29th), David Kraan (35th) and Eric Trevino (39th).
The Wildcats finished fourth.
In the 3A and under boys race, McAtee used that same philosophy to perfection. He sat in sixth place for most of the race, but used a push on the hill to vault into second.
“Coach (Lee Bender) told us to stay steady and we’d pass everybody,” McAtee said.
McAtee finished at 17:39, 10 seconds off his personal best. Teammate Jurca was 10th at 18:40.
The Bees topped second-place Crawford by four points.
With the District 12-5A meet approaching at the end of the month, Lamberte said her team’s continued improvement is a positive sign.
“I think, overall, both the boys and girls did really, really well,” she said. “The times seemed to drop, even with that hill. I’m hoping in the next few weeks that we’ll keep building and progressing on where we are right now.”
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
