Two Eastwood Troopers won individual championships at the Canutillo Invitational.
Junior Aidan Torres won his varsity crown while junior Adelynn Rodriguez won her fourth career varsity race at the flat 3.4-mile course at Canutillo Middle School.
“I felt really good; it’s a good way to start the season,” Rodriguez said. “We did a lot of work in the summer and I’m finally injury free. My main focus this summer was to take care of my body. I think you guys are in for a treat this year.”
Rodriguez easily won the race in 20:56.28, well ahead of the field.
Pebble Hills won the team event with 40 points followed by Americas with 46 and Eastwood with 52 points.
Rodriguez, who has made two state appearances, said she hopes to set a personal best this season and make it back to state. She ran a 17:20.1 three mile at Woodbridge her freshman year.
Despite her team’s third place finish, Rodriguez is confident in her team.
“We have a lot of new girls this season, but a lot of them ran with us last year and were very close to varsity,” he said. “We’re barely getting out of base phase and these girls are looking good so you guys should definitely be expecting something from us this year.”
What hardly anyone was expecting was a victory for Torres.
In a field loaded with some of the city’s top runners such as El Paso High’s Miles Westbrook, Americas’ Diego Romero and Coronado’s Edgar Valles, it was Torres who outlasted the field winning in 17:30.01, 12 seconds faster than Westbrook.
“We were really excited about starting the season,” said Torres who picked up cross country only two years ago. “We’ve been working hard morning and night during the summer, so for us to come out and do as well as we did, we’re really happy.”
A large smile emerged on his face when asked if he was surprised to pick up his first championship.
“We all knew there was going to be some great competition, but we’ve been working really hard and we believed in ourselves; we knew we could get it done,” he said.
The Troopers won the team title as well with 37 points, El Paso was second with 71 points and Coronado was third with 96.
“We were a little down last year but we’re getting better and practicing harder,” he said. We know we could have done a lot better last year so that’s what’s motivating us this season. We’re going to do better.”
El Paso Running 