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Traveling to Shiner High School to compete in the Shiner Meet on Saturday, Sept. 30, the Rice Raiders took advantage of the opportunity to run before going to their district meet.
The girls’ and boys’ cross-country teams both ran in Shiner and the boys came away with 2nd place as a team at the meet.
The Raiders started the meet off strong, with three runners finishing in the top 5 of the 5000M race and had six runners finish in the top 15. Hayes Dingler would be the first Raider across the finish line with a time of 17 minutes and 57 seconds to earn 2nd place.
Right behind Dingler in 4th and 5th place were teammates Jael Valles-Serrano and Payton Engelbrecht with times of 18 minutes and 16 seconds and 18 minutes and 20 seconds. These three set the tone for the rest of their teammates with another trio of Raiders finding the finish line shortly after them.
Noah Lujan, Jose Briones and Jake Morales would come in 11th , 13th and 14th place in the 5000M race for the Raiders. Lujan would post a time of 19 minutes and 43 seconds and would have the fastest time of the trio.
Briones and Morales were only five seconds apart in the race, though posting time of 19 minutes and 52 seconds and 19 minutes and 57 seconds. This was the tip of the iceberg for the Raiders as another trio of boys would finish the race to cap off their strong performance.
Luke Engelbrecht, Victor Flores and Joe Luke Morales would round out the rest of the Raiders coming in 17th , 19th and 25th place. This put an exclamation point on the Raiders’ performance in the boys’ race, setting up the girls to deliver a strong performance.
The girls would have four runners in the 3200M race in Shiner and would have two runners finish in the top-20 of the race. Lexi Rangel and Taylor Eichelberger came in 10th and 17th place with times of 13 minutes and 44 seconds and 14 minutes and 51 seconds for the Lady Raiders.
Their teammates Melanie Gutierrez and Adela Suarez secured 26th and 27th place with times of 19 minutes and 36 seconds and 20 minutes and 39 seconds.
The Raiders are now preparing for their district meet in Yoakum where they will look to build on this strong performance.
