Volume 41, Issue 3 - Moody High School

SPORTSTrojan RunnerDecember 2009 13Varsity cross country runners gather before a meet.STRONG START, SHORT FINISH FOR RUNNERSBy Valerie GonzalezEditorThe Cross Countryboys had an astonishingtake back when the finalrunner, Sophomore, StephenGonzalez collapsedin mid day.The regional qualifyingcross country boystraveled to San Antonio,Saturday November 7thto take on runners alongSouth Texas and, to comeout on top.The team tookseven athletes and onlythe top ten runners in the5K run advance to state.Freshman Steve Morales,took the place of Senior,Alex Trevino. Sophomore,Ryan Hinojosatook the place of Senior,Adrian Gallegos. And seniorAnthony Rodela tookthe place of Senior Jesus(Chewy) Lopez. Also takingFreshman ChristianSaenz, Sophomore StephenGonzalez, JuniorIsmael Sosa, and JuniorRuben Martinez.The boys werescheduled to run at 2 p.m.at UTSA landing base.300 hundred boys take offfor those three miles andonly the top ten continueon to state.Fortunately theTrojans had one of theirtop runners in fifth place,Stephen Gonzalez. Gonzalezmentioned before therace, that “they expect towin all the time and withno sacrifice there is no victory”so being so close tothe finish line was nothinghe wasnʼt prepared for.Finishing his twomiles in 10:10, Gonzalezwas coming up on his lastmile. As he made it threemore times around thetrack, he was less then 200meters away from stateand his body just gave out.“At first I felt dizzy, but Ithought I was just tired, soI didnʼt say anything, andkept running. When I fell,all I remember is someonehelping me on the trackand again waking up inthe ambulance.” Gonzalezstated.Finally he did notadvance to the State finals,but said “Iʼm not too worried,all my competitionwere seniors and they willbe gone, so Iʼll be backnext year, and the year after.”The season is overfor the boys, but there isno doubt about it that theywill continue their four tosix a.m. practices and 40minutes long run, to getexactly where they wantto be next year and accomplishevery goal they haveset for them as a team.