A second-place finish in the Class 5A-4A race at Saturday's Temple Invitational at Lions Park only reaffirmed those beliefs.
In his second race of the season against Copperas Cove's Derwin Graham, Guajardo continued to tighten the gap between himself and the guy who's considered among the favorites for the 12-5A individual title.
"I was just trying to stay with (Graham)," said Guajardo, who covered the three-mile course in 16 minutes, 47 seconds. "I was just trying to keep him in sight, close down that gap between me and him."
In his only previous race against Graham, who won Saturday in 15:53, Guajardo finished 1:23 behind, earning fifth at the Baylor Invitational in mid-September.
On Saturday, Guajardo cut that deficit to 54 seconds.
"It's encouraging (to get closer to Graham)," said Guajardo, who finished three spots behind Graham at district last season. "To know that he was here, that helped me a lot."
Guajardo's finish helped propel the Wildcats to a third-place finish. Temple, which had all five runners in the top 25, was 26 points behind winner Buda Hays. Behind Guajardo, teammate Adam Lopez was eighth in 17:47, Michael Massey finished 11th in 18:11, John McSpedon placed 18th in 18:52 and David Kraan was 22nd in 19:15.
For the Tem-Cats, Brooke McKinney and Codeisha Curtis paced a fifth-place finish in the 5A-4A team standings. Temple finished 65 points behind winner Austin Lake Travis. Killeen Shoemaker's Shaniece Braithweights won the individual title in 12:58.
McKinney, who's placed in the top 10 in all but two of Temple's six meets, was third and covered the two-mile course in 13:07.
"She's probably one of the best, most dedicated runners that I've ever had through my program," Tem-Cats coach Holly Lamberte said. "She's all about running and improving."
Curtis was 17th in 14:02, Loryn Goodwin placed 27th in 14:35, Marissa Cervantez finished 31st in 14:51 and Lilly Kim was 34th in 15:13 to complete the Tem-Cats' scoring. Also for Temple, Latisha Butler was 39th in 15:33, Emily Brown finished 41st in 15:59, Emily Winkler was 44th in 16:59 and Brooke Gonzales placed 46th in 17:21.
The Wildcats and the Tem-Cats travel to the Georgetown Invitational next Saturday.
NOTES: In the Class 3A-and-under girls race, Bruceville-Eddy's Dakota Holly finished fourth in 13:33, Granger's Brianna Billingsly was fifth in 14:02, Troy's Bethany Marsh was 11th in 14:29 and Gatesville's Cassie Morphet was 12th in 14:30 and teammate Hayley Sugg was 13th, also in 14:30. In the team standings, the Lady Hornets were third with 108 points, the Lady Eagles were fourth with 117 and the Trojanettes were sixth with 187. . . . Top area finishers in the 3A-and-under boys were Gatesville's Ricardo Romero (eighth, 18:00), Hunter Dean (13th, 18:17) and Jordan James (14th, 18:17) and Granger's Pedro Juarez (18:14). In the team standings, Gatesville was third with 68 points and Granger was fifth with 191.
