Nederland sophomore Blake Mortera followed up his second-place run in districts with a top-40 finish out of 183 runners in the 5,000-meter 5A Region III cross country meet Monday at Huntsville’s Kate Barr-Ross Park.

Mortera ran 17 minutes, 38.1 seconds for 36th place, but he earned the Bulldogs 32 points. Nederland, the 13-time defending District 22-5A champion, came in 19th for the highest finish among Jefferson County boys teams with 477 points.

Carlos Rodriguez (85th), Carlos Barboza (96th), Jacob Moore (155th) and Ethan Vincent (161st) also scored for the Bulldogs.

Collin Dietrich led the Port Neches-Groves contingent with 66th place (18:05.6). Also scoring for the Indians were Caleb Dominguez (126th), Keaton Richard (137th), Sebastian Wagner (138th) and Kaden Flores (144th).

PNG was 22nd with 544 points. Cedar Park (57) won the team title, with Kingwood Park (103) and Georgetown (106) rounding out the top three.
Danny Madrid of Leander Rouse won the individual title.

Rachel Morrison was the highest-finishing Jefferson County runner in the 5,000-meter 5A girls race. The 22-5A champion from Nederland came in 52nd at 21:44.3.

Ny’Reonna Smith, the district runner-up from Port Arthur Memorial, was 67th in 22:20.

The team race among Jeff County teams was a little more competitive on the girls side. District team champion PNG was 14th (427), with the help of three top-100 finishers in the field of 176. Memorial (510), making its first regional team appearance ever, came in 16th, with Nederland (536) taking 18th.

Macie Saleme (107th), Giovanna Hernandez (145th), Litzy Vazquez (153rd) and Asia Terro (158th) scored for Nederland. Memorial’s top five included Smith, Bryanna Stevenson (109th), Milicent Neveu (119th), and Darlene Nguyen (129th).

Anna Licatino and Grace Richard took 75th and 76th for PNG. Alexus Allen (99th), Jaysa Miller (110th) and Kaylee Landry (130th) added to the Indians’ total.
— I.C. Murrell