Cross country: Corral runs to 11th-place finish

ROUND ROCK Odessa High senior Hugo Corral contended for a top 10 spot Saturday before settling for an 11th-place finish at the UIL Boys Class 5A State Cross Country Championships.

Corral was competing as an individual for the second consecutive season and improved on a 20th-place finish from 2006.

“It was a very good effort,” OHS boys coach Randy Thompson said. “He ran an outstanding race and did everything he went out to do. He jumped out there with the front pack and was running in the top 15 the entire time.”

Corral finished in a time of 16 minutes, 12.35 seconds on the three-mile course at Old Settlers Park. He was just more than three seconds behind the 10th-place finisher.

Southlake Carroll’s Colby Lowe defended his individual title with a time of 15:11.15.

After finishing fourth at the regional meet last week, Corral made it goal to get into the top 10, though the 11th-place finish gave him all-state status. The top 15 runners earn all-state honors.

“He ran as good as he’s ever run,” Thompson said. “He was in there with the lead group and stayed anywhere from eighth to about No. 13 and then at the end came up 11th. He gave everything he had.”

Thompson praised a large group of supporters from Odessa on hand for the meet, including OHS principal Ron Leach and the Permian coaching staff.

Also from the Permian Basin, Kermit’s boys finished fourth in the Class 2A meet with 114 points, just five points behind Region I-2A rival Wall (109).

Trey Bale led Kermit with a sixth-place finish, while Raymundo Vasquez, Leeroy Garcia and Hector Diaz finished from 39th to 41st. Michael Orona in 61st also scored for Kermit, while Matthew Hernandez in 86th and Fabian Aranda was 88th to close out the team’s lineup of seven runners.

Crane’s Joey Escalante was 19th in the Class 2A race.

In the boys Class 3A race, Andrews junior Tomilee Loyd finished 3