The Sealy Tiger cross country teams both won their District 24-4A championships behind the individual race winner Monday morning at Sealy High School.

The Lady Tigers earned their second consecutive district crown while the Tigers earned their first district championship since the seniors’ freshmen year. Freshman Ria Torres and senior Xavier Olvera registered first-place finishes to pace the team and execute the game plan constructed by Head Coach Anthony Branch and the staff.

“It just goes back to all the training we’ve done this year,” Branch said. “I felt like the kids really had a good week last week. Working out, they were focused and very determined, there wasn’t excuse making, they were ready to go. They knew what was at hand and that it was coming down to this last week, and we had a good week of training.”

Although the Lady Tigers had routinely finished second at many meets to state-qualifying teams, the Tigers won nearly all of the meets they had a full team and Monday’s was no different.

“For the girls to go back to back and win a second district championship in a row is something a lot of people can’t say,” Branch said. “Then the boys just continued what they’ve been doing all season, they’ve been at full tilt.”

Senior Tigers Olvera and Daniel Medrano led the way and provided big performances to help the team.

“(Daniel’s) had a rough year but to come back, he ran really well. … He’s been under the weather a little bit so we’re getting him back and then for Xavier, I mean he just put on a masterful performance, I thought he was unreal,” Branch said. “Every split was negative … and it wasn’t easy because it rained a few hours before the meet. He just wasn’t gonna let Lawson (Meiers from Bellville) beat him. He lost to him last week, he didn’t run a great race, and I think he was determined to make sure that he would beat Lawson this time.”

They were supplemented by freshman Gavin Almaguer in fourth, sophomore Fernando Garza in fifth and junior Trevor Demei in ninth and a similar youth movement was seen from the Lady Tigers.

Freshman Ria Tor res maintained a streak of a female Sealy runner earning an individual district championship as last year’s first-place finisher at district, Annabelle Williams, finished second.

“Ria did a great job with the girls. I thought she ran really well and Annabelle was right behind her pushing her as well,” Branch said. “We got last year’s district champion and now we have a new district champion. Ria has put in a lot of work; she’s very well deserving and I was very proud of her and her future is very bright.”

The near future includes a date at the Region III Championship in Huntsville Oct. 25 and 26 where the Tiger runners competed last year but were unable to move on with fewer teams advancing due to the pandemic.

“The message is, ‘Here we are, back to where we were at last year,’” Branch said. “The boys finished fifth and the girls were fourth but we didn’t get to go because of COVID. So, the expectation is now we’ve been here before, pretty much all these kids have run it once or twice. This is what we talked about in May when we had our meeting, that we expect to get there (and beyond).”