Lucky No. 13: Nederland extends district cross country reign to 13 years; PNG girls repeat
Published 1:45 pm Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Nederland’s cross country runners pose after winning the District 22-5A championship for the 13th consecutve season Tuesday morning. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
PNG’s cross country runners celebrate their District 22-5A team championship Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Blake Mortera of Nederland talks with supporters following his second-place finish in the 22-5A boys run Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Rachel Morrison of Nederland runs toward the finish chute as she wins the District 22-5A girls championship Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Nederland cross country runners take off from the start line in Tuesday’s District 22-5A boys race in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Runners from PNG, Memorial, Lumberton and Nederland (from left) line up for the start of a District 22-5A cross country race in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Ny’Reonna Smith of Memorial races to second place in the District 22-5A girls cross country meet Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Grace Richard of PNG sprints toward the finish chute and earns third place in the District 22-5A meet Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Memorial coach Sandra Bradford celebrates with her team over their second-place team finish in girls standings in the District 22-5A cross country meet Tuesday in Lumberton. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
NOTE: Complete official results not yet available
LUMBERTON — Thirteen is lucky number in Nederland.
That’s how many years the Bulldogs’ boys cross country team has won what is now the District 22-5A championship.
Nederland maintained its reign with the help of sophomore Blake Mortera, who came in second during the boys’ 5,000-meter race at Lumberton City Park. Trent Stoute of Lumberton won the race.
“It’s a big deal to win it 13 years in a row,” Mortera said. “You gotta keep wanting it.”
Some of the Bulldogs got their friends to come out and add to the program’s rich tradition, according to ninth-year coach Tommy Oleksy.
“I teach at one of the middle schools in Nederland, so I keep my eye on the younger athletes,” he said. “We’ve got a great athletic staff all the way up to the athletic director, Monte Barrow. We share our athletes for different sports. My fifth-place runner, Dakota Emerson, plays football at Nederland.”
Stoute said he could hear Mortera coming rather than feel him for about three-fourths of the course before using long strides to secure the win. Both young men fell to the ground after the finish, mainly in exhaustion.
Mortera finished despite tweaking an ankle late in the race.
“I had a little over 800 meters left, and I didn’t see a pothole coming,” Mortera said.
Port Neches-Groves won the girls team title for the second year in a row. Nederland senior Rachel Morrison won the individual title for the first time.
“I just wanted to go hard, lead the pack or about a mile or two, then go,” Morrison said. “I never thought I’d be as good coming into high school. I didn’t think I could push myself to run this fast.”
PNG coach Josh Tanner said defending the title was “huge.”
“It looked different from last year because we blew everybody away last year. This year, Port Arthur Memorial came in strong and pushed us.”
District 22-5A will be represented by all of Mid- and South County because Memorial came in second in girls standings, led by runner-up Ny’Reonna Smith. Nederland was third as a team.
Smith said she turned in her best time.
“It’s very great,” Smith said. “This is one of my big goals, even if I don’t get first. I always want to improve.”
Morrison and Smith ran out in front most of the race, with Morrison staying a few strides ahead.
“She’s a strong competitor,” Smith said. “I tried my best to keep up, but she stuck to it. The closer I got, the harder she pushed. I like that about her.”
Freshman Grace Richard was PNG’s highest finisher.
Memorial, which had competed in 6A until the start of last school year, made the regional meet as a girls team for the first time, coach Sandra Bradford said. And she let her excitement show along with her team.
“It was great day for us,” she said. “We had three weeks to prep for this. All the athletes said, ‘Coach, we want a season. We want to run.’ You see how great we did in three weeks?”
Collin Dietrich of PNG took third in the boys race, one spot higher than last year. Nederland teammates Carlos Rodriguez, the defending champion, and Carlos Barboza, came in fifth and sixth, respectively.
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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