Mustangs cross country splits team to raise confidence

The Mustangs gear for the start of the 6A/5A race.
Faith Academy senior Will Lewis turns up the pace Saturday. Photos by Mark Goodson/The Highlander
Sophomore Ezekiel Atkinson closes strong in Saturday’s meet at Marble Falls.
Blake Cockrell won the 4A division for the Mustangs. He continues to lower his time in cross country.
The Mustangs big meet Saturday had a cannon as the starting gun. The cannon was provided by the Sons of the Republic of Texas. Photos by Mark Goodson/The Highlander

On Saturday Oct. 1, Marble Falls hosted the Leo Manzano Cross Country Invitational and the Mustangs showed well. “We split the team to give the younger runners a chance to shine and increase racing confidence,’’ Marble Falls coach Chris Schrader said. The first race of the day was the varsity boys 5A/6A race where Hudson Bennett of Burnet blazed to a new meet record of 15.27.4.

Junior Nick Dahl and sophomore Tyler Hamblin of the Mustangs rose to the occasion running into the top 12 times ever run on the course – 28 seconds faster than any Marble Falls runners in the history of the meet. Dahl finished fifth with a time of 16.12.3 and Hamblin finished ninth with 16.14.8. “These times are the eighth and 12th fastest times recorded on the course,’’ Schrader said. “Tyler and Nick continue to improve with each workout and each race.’’

The rest of the team ran in the 4A division where Blake Cockrell seized the moment and won the race with a blazing fast last 500m in 17.18. Taking down the runners ahead of him when he came onto the soccer fields. Sophomore Marco Almazan was fifth in 17.35.

Sophomore Ezekiel Atkinson was 18th with

18.10.9. Freshman Hunter Holder was 53rd with

21.49. Newcomer freshman Derek Hillman finished 54th with a credible

22.01.9.

Tori Thompson and Carmella Lozano handled themselves amazingly well. Thompson was 14th in the Varsity 4A race with a massive 63 second PR of 13.10.1.

Carmella Lozano knocked it out of the park with a huge 102 second PR for 14.45.3. Schrader said, “These two young ladies are training extremely hard and the results become more focused as the season progresses.’’

Coach Abigail Blunt has had her soccer girls training with the cross country team for the last month.

The Marble Falls girls won the 1-4A JV division with 38 points.

“These young ladies show up at 6.30 a.m. and they are a committed and tough group of athletes,’’ Schrader said. “Our soccer team is looking great and we plan on running some of these girls on the varsity at the district meet.’’

Varsity Girls

14 Tori Thompson

13.10.1

48 Carmella Lozano

14.45.3 Marble Falls JV Girls

9 Lynette Sital 15.39.1

13 Ashley Ferreira

15.58.4

20 Citaly Gonzales

16.22.2

21 Briseah Rivera 16.44.4

22 Angelee Shaw 17.08.8