Belton to host cross country meet

August 21, 2025

By Clay Whittington

The Belton Journal

For most teams in Texas, including Lake Belton, the cross country season began last week. Now, the Tigers and Lady Tigers are set to kickoff their campaigns on their home course. After choosing to remain idle for the opening events, Belton opens its schedule Friday at the annual Belton Invitational, where New Tech will also be in attendance. The event will be held at Belton Lake & Outdoor Recreation Area, beginning at 7:30 a.m. with the Class 5A-6A girls race. The Class 5A-6A boys, Class 1A-4A girls and Class 1A-4A boys races will follow. In case of extreme heat on race day, however, the two boys races and two girls races could be combined but still scored separately. All races will be three miles in length except for the Class 1A-4A girls, which is two miles long. The Lady Broncos are not participating but will be entering their next event with momentum after delivering an impressive outing in their debut. Temple’s Lions Park played host to last week’s Temple Invitational, and the Lady Broncos immediately captured a glimpse of their future as freshman Keira Dzenowski collected the bronze medal, completing the threemile trek in 20 minutes, 0.9 seconds.

Pflugerville Hendrickson’s junior Morgan Nelsen emerged with the individual championship, posting a time of 18:06.5, while Round Rock Stony Point junior Sophia Lopez was second (19:39.4). Dzenowski’s outing was complemented by sophomore teammate Lucy Loa and junior Sarah Gray, who placed 14th (21:26.1) and 18th (21:29.9), respectively. Rounding out the Lady Broncos’ top five were juniors Madelyn Rivas (26th, 21:49.5) and Jenna Benedick (28th, 21:58.5). Additionally, the sophomore trio of Alayna Fulton (33rd, 22:34.5), Claire Henn (34th, 22:35.5) and Elizabeth Sandlin (35th, 22:38.9) and seniors Clara Hill (37th, 22:44.4) and Isabela Romero (45th, 23:09.8) competed for Lake Belton, but their times did not count toward the team total. Final team scores were not available due to technical difficulties. In the boys division, Wyatt Potts, a junior, led the Broncos with a 20th-place time of 17:57.5. Teammates following Potts across the finish line included junior Josiah Briggs (30th, 18:28.1), junior Joshua Clark (32nd, 18:29.2), junior Jack McCullagh (34th, 18:30.5), sophomore Cooper Schels (38th, 18:36.3), junior Austin Adams (52nd, 19:03.4), freshman Drew Houston (68th, 19:38.3), sophomore Efren Romero-Meza (73rd, 19:45.0) and senior Robert Thomas (94th, 20:42.0). Temple senior Xavier Tools (1st, 16:02.2) and Killeen Harker Heights teammates Blake Zimmerman (2nd, 16:18.0) and Christion Meiners (3rd, 16:28.5) occupied the top three spots in the final standings. Lake Belton returns to action Friday at the Cedar Park Vista Ridge Invitational. The event will be held at the high school, starting at 7 a.m. Next week, all three Belton ISD programs will converge on the same course at the Temple Pro-Fit Invitational on Aug. 29.For most teams in Texas, including Lake Belton, the cross country season began last week. Now, the Tigers and Lady Tigers are set to kickoff their campaigns on their home course. After choosing to remain idle for the opening events, Belton opens its schedule Friday at the annual Belton Invitational, where New Tech will also be in attendance. The event will be held at Belton Lake & Outdoor Recreation Area, beginning at 7:30 a.m. with the Class 5A-6A girls race. The Class 5A-6A boys, Class 1A-4A girls and Class 1A-4A boys races will follow. In case of extreme heat on race day, however, the two boys races and two girls races could be combined but still scored separately. All races will be three miles in length except for the Class 1A-4A girls, which is two miles long. The Lady Broncos are not participating but will be entering their next event with momentum after delivering an impressive outing in their debut. Temple’s Lions Park played host to last week’s Temple Invitational, and the Lady Broncos immediately captured a glimpse of their future as freshman Keira Dzenowski collected the bronze medal, completing the threemile trek in 20 minutes, 0.9 seconds