The annual Islander Splash Invitational came riding in on a heat wave this year for the varsity boys and girls of Cross Country.The varsity boys team overall placed 30th out of 38th. The girls placed overall as a team 8th out of 37th.

“The race was really warm and a very hilly course because it was Corpus Christi,” Kami Taylor said. “The heat index was 1.4. It was a very slow course. That’s okay though, I tried my best.”

The girls varsity roster consisted of Sydney Brinkman, Kami Taylor, Nicole Schwalbach, Caroline Crone, Kimberly Parada, Allison Villareal, Richelle Vossler, Georgiana Ceka, Aimee Ramos, Victoria Kozak and Emily Mowatt. Running on the boys teams was Leonardo Zamora, Cole Robinson, Landon Bucccelli, Taylor Stephenson, Josiah Sparks, Carson Diamond, Jared Buoloy, Andrew Alger, Stephan Zaparolli and Angel Jaimes.

“Cross Country in general is far more competitive for the boys,” Taylor Stephenson said. “Almost all of our varsity team is composed out of freshman, and almost all of the varsity girls team is made out of seniors. I definitely think that is a big difference. As seniors we are more experienced and our bodies are more developed for running. Also our best runner is injured right now, Victor.”

Zamora placed highest for the varsity boys team with a time of 19:10.6. His personal best is lower though at 17:35. He is a sophomore on the varsity team and felt like the running conditions of this invitational were not optimal for him to do as well as he could have.

“The meet was pretty bad for me,” Zamora said. “Someone said it felt like it was 102 degrees out. We checked the weather and it was pretty bad. There were so many people there, more than I’m used too. I don’t know how many but there were at least a hundred people there racing at the beginning. It was pretty difficult at the beginning to try and get a good start. I just kept getting pushed around. It was just more then I thought it would be.”

After the Islander Splash competition the runners, tired and sweaty, made their way back home to the homecoming dance.

“After the meet we got back as fast as we could because it was homecoming and we had to get ready,” Zamora said. “Going to homecoming I was tired. I think everyone was tired but we still all had a good time.”

The next meet will be the Giddings Tejas Invitational for the JV team on September 23rd. The meet is marked by the Cross Country schedule though as tentative.