Top Moments of the Meet (2)
The El Paso Eastwood boys do a little celebrating with the meet hardware.
The pre-meet speculation around these parts was that local favorites Desert Vista and Brophy College Prep would be tough to beat. Desert Vista had twice proven their mettle on the season at highly competitive meets in California. Brophy had made their case with convincing performances close to home.
The heavy hitters from Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico were staying home for the weekend, so the path seemed paved for a big triumph by a local team.
Only El Paso Eastwood never got that message.
Daniel Bernal's reputation extends a bit beyond his isolated west Texas hometown of El Paso but, until last night, Eastwood's reputation had not followed him around. Call this one a debut party for Troopers, who were all their mascot entails, and more, on the Desert Twilight course.
Bernal dropped a meet record of 14:45.6 on the event. After making a break just past the mile, the only contested places involved integers greater than one. Bernal made it look easy.
But, the magic followed Bernal.
After Brophy picked up a pair of top-ten finishes and seemed on their way to a win, Eastwood responded with Anthony Molina in 17th and then, in quick succession, Noah Ward, James McLain, and Gabriel Armjio in 32, 34, and 37.
Brophy had no answers. They were still waiting for their 4 and 5. Desert Vista never really engaged in the hunt.