High school cross country: Sinton's Martinez, Freer's Campos claim regional titles

Zerah Martinez only knows one speed: all out.

The accomplished Sinton senior, known for her competitive streak, was in second place when the Class 4A girls race hit the home stretch at the Region IV cross country championships at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Dugan Stadium.

Seeing the finish line so close, Martinez decided to push for it.

With less than 25 meters to go, Martinez (11 minutes, 26.89 seconds) caught and passed Fredericksburg's Taylor Grona to win the regional championship and help propel Sinton to what is believed to be its first berth in the state cross country meet as a team.

"I'm not going to lie, the wind killed me, but I pushed through it," Martinez said. "That last stretch was crazy. I didn't know I had it in me, but I'm very competitive so, I want to win.

"I told myself that it was only going to hurt for a little bit and I was almost there. You have to keep on pushing even if you're tired."

A season ago, a hamstring injury couldn't stop Martinez from pushing it and qualifying for the regional meet in the stacked Class 4A field, ultimately finishing ninth in Round Rock.

It was that same competitiveness that drove her to push it beyond the limits on the home stretch, even with a podium finish already in her back pocket.

Now with a regional gold medal draped around her neck, Martinez is aiming even higher at state.

"I'm ecstatic right now," Martinez said. "It is crazy, winning. I've wanted this since my freshman year and I've finally got the chance to my senior year. I really want to come in the top two this year. I was ninth at state last year."

The Pirates finished third as a team with 136 total points. Junior Izabella Ohler was 26th overall and Marisol Mendieta was 28th to follow Martinez's finish and propel Sinton to Round Rock.

Sinton cross country coach Victor Hernandez said the Pirates had been talking about qualifying for state as a team since last season and had to battle a flu bug the last week.

"We were disappointed last year at regionals and kept saying 'Next year, we're going to do it. We're going to get to state,'" Hernandez said. "We felt like it was always a possibility. The flu was going around the team this week, so who knows what was going to happen, but it worked out in our favor.

"Everyone looks at Zerah and knows how she is going to do, and they want to be just as competitive and they are excited about it. They encourage her and she encourages them."

Moving up the podium

A third-place finish at the Region IV-2A meet last season only served as motivation this time around for Freer senior Eleana Campos.

Campos came into the 2022 season with eyes on improving her eighth-place finish at UIL State.

She bettered her regional mark, moving to the top of the podium with a win in the Class 2A girls race, clocking 12:28.52 to cruise to a nearly 20-second win in the event. Now all that's left is improving her state placement in the last cross country race of her high school career.

"This means a lot," Campos said. "I really wanted to win today and knew I had to want it more than the others. The wind was a hard factor today, but I had to push through."

Campos said she is hopeful her prior experience will pay off at state in two weeks.

"I feel good and definitely want to try to take it all this year, since it is my senior year," Campos said. "I have big plans."

Alice sends duo to state

Kenli Atwood wanted to follow in her father's footsteps as a state meet qualifier as a freshman.

She only had to look to last season to see another Coyote accomplish the feat, in teammate Victoria Diaz.

On Monday both punched their tickets to Round Rock with Top 10 finishes. Atwood was fourth overall (11:47.13) and Diaz was three spots behind her in seventh (12:11.18).

"Last year I watched Vicky compete and it made me want it that much more," Atwood said. "You know it is possible when your teammate did it last year. My dad (Alice athletic director Kyle Atwood) did the same thing. I've always wanted this, so to be able to do it means a lot."

Atwood was the top freshman finisher and Diaz was the first sophomore to cross the finish line. The duo credited training with each other, plus the strength of Class 4A in the Coastal Bend for preparing them for the regional meet.

"I knew I had to stay up with the upper pack and slowly start closing in," Diaz said. "I had to really push. Competition is getting stronger and that pushes us. It means a lot for me to go to state freshman and sophomore year. Now it is about trying to do better."

Garrett leads strong 4A boys contingent

South Texas schools went into Monday's regional meet with high hopes in Class 4A and delivered, not just in the girls division, but in the boys race as well.

Tuloso-Midway's Anthony Garrett paced five individual qualifiers from the Coastal Bend for the UIL state meet.

Garrett claimed his return with a fourth-place overall finish (16:50.87) and Alice's Isaac Wright (sixth, 17:03.00) and Sinton's Justin Ramirez (10th, 17:14.78) also snagged Top 10 finishes.

Rockport-Fulton freshman Royce Havens (17th, 17:27.55) and Tuloso-Midway's Rene Mungia (18th, 17:29.37) snared the final two individual state berths, capping a banner day.

A long time coming

The push for placement among the top four teams in Class 2A was about streaks.

Premont, which finished second overall (106 points) to qualify for state as a team, accomplished the feat for the first time since 2002 — before any of the current athletes were even born.

Conversely, Port Aransas, which was fourth as a team (131 points), qualified for the 14th consecutive season, a streak nearing the age of Marlins runners.

Cowboys first-year coach Michael Villarreal was blunt when he said that he didn't expect the team to have this potential when he arrived in the late summer, but as the season wore on and the runners packed together well, it became a possibility.

"In all honesty, I didn't think (they could qualify)," Villarreal said. "We started out with a small group and didn't have a lot of depth. It is a small school and kids do a lot of things. We got a late start, because I didn't get here until late summer, but each and every week, we started seeing it in them, as far as running together. We are pack runners and that is what helped us."

A third-place finish in the small-school division at the Islanders Splash, held on the same course, gave the team confidence that it could excel when they returned on Monday.

"We only had a 38-second gap between 1 through 4 at the Islanders Splash and that helped us," Villarreal said. "We weren't quite there today.

"The Islander Splash is what really drove the confidence. We had done well in some earlier meets but they were all small. That was the first really big meet we went to and it helped. In a big race like this, packing together really matters."

The UIL State Meet is scheduled for Nov. 4-5 at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Sinton's Martinez, Freer's Campos claim regional cross country crowns