Even though the fair was canceled this year, the Mount Pleasant cross-country team still hosted their annual Titus County Fair Invitational at the high school this past weekend. The Tigers host the event each season with over 20 teams traveling to Mount Pleasant for the run that covers much of the northwest side of the campus and finishes in Sam Parker Stadium.

The Mount Pleasant varsity teams competed on Friday morning and performed well on their home turf. The boys team won their heat with four runners placing in the top ten. Daniel Robles finished second overall and bested his home course personal record by 18 seconds with a time of 16:03.6. Most of the other runners also set personal records with times dropping by an average of 30 seconds. Other finishers were Geovanni Calderon (4th – 16:17.4), Gill Landaverde (8th – 16:34.0), Gilberth Landaverde (9th – 16:34.9), Johnathan Sandate (12th – 17:04.5), Christopher Escobar (14th – 17:07.8), Juan Gonzalez (18th – 17:15.8), Juan Retana (24th – 17:36.4), Junior Martinez (27th – 17:42.1), and Sahir Ramirez (36th – 18:26.8).

The girls’ team, still trying to recover from early season injuries, only fielded five runners and yielded a fifth-place finish in their heat. Buendy Fraire was the Lady Tigers best finisher at 18th with a time of 21:21.21. Other finishers were Jennifer Soto (20th – 21:40.33), Brieanna Gonzales (24th – 22:05.73), Abigail Retana (41st – 24:14.16), and Isabella Gonzalez (42nd – 24:16.70).

The cross-country teams’ next meet will be Oct 17 in the Tyler Legacy XC Invite. The district meet will be October 26 at Mount Pleasant.

By Drew Barkley