Josh Garcia couldn’t see his teammates.

He had to keep his focus forward, as he pushed his way down the final stretch.

But he felt them close by.

“I knew they were there,” he said with a smile.

Garcia crossed the finish line second, then, sure enough, he turned to see his Permian teammates Oscar Sotelo and Antonio Herrera, making their way across in fourth place and fifth place.

Then they found Jose Carrasco, filing in at 10th, making it four Panthers in while no other team had yet to finish any more than two.

That’s when Sebastian Mancha pulled in and sealed it in 12th.

Just as Garcia knew his teammates weren’t far behind, the Panthers knew right then they had captured a District 2-6A championship.

The Permian boys cross country team took home a team title at the District 2-6A meet Thursday at UTPB, while the Permian girls took second place in their leg of the competition and several Odessa High runners punched their tickets to the Region I meet along with them.

Garcia paced the Panthers’ boys, finishing in 16 minutes, 19.69 seconds, before Sotelo and Herrera made it over in 16:36.72 and 16:37.31.

Then Castro and Mancha sealed it up for Permian in the team competition.

“We just went out there and hit it hard,” Garcia said after the race, and after the Panthers’ celebration together. “We’re as strong as our fifth runner, and that’s the way that it is.”

Amarillo Tascosa’s Wesley McPhail won the boys race in 15:54.81, but Garcia wasn’t far behind, then Permian’s Sotelo and Herrera finished before any other Rebels.

One more Tascosa runner finished in seventh to boost the Rebels’ chances in the team standings, which counts each team’s top five finishers, but Carrasco (17:05.06) and Mencha (17:24.94) made the championship a reality for the Panthers.

“I saw Josh early in the second mile, and I just had to be with him,” Sotelo said of his drive to push further up the pack midway through the race. “I couldn’t let him down. The Tascosa kids were up there — and that was the team we had to beat.

“The last mile, I just gave it all I had.”

All they had is all the Panthers needed, as they broke Tascosa’s record of 11 straight district championships to capture their own in Hilberto Ochoa’s first season as head coach of the Permian boys and girls cross country teams.

“When I first met them, they had a hunger,” Ochoa said. “They had a passion. They were like, ‘Coach, we want to win. We’re willing to do whatever.’ And they did. From the get-go, they listened to everything I told them, they were disciplined, and it became a family really quick.

“It’s just great that it came together.”

Tascosa finished second in the boys teams standings with 56 points, compared to Permian’s 33.

For the Panthers, Thursday’s win marked the fulfillment of a season-long goal — that started in the offseason, in the months when the Panthers were still working hard before Ochoa was hired from Midland High, and before they were sure about the future of the program.

“We worked hard for this,” Garcia said. “We didn’t have to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning before we got our coach, and when we got our coach, our mindset just got even bigger. We said we were champions before; we thought we could be.

“Now it’s happening, and it’s real.”

“I thought they might have thought I was crazy when they first met me, but I think now they realize, I told them, ‘If you win this, it’s going to be all worth it,’” Ochoa said. “And every one of them so far is like, ‘Coach, it’s been worth it.’

“It’s great for kids to do this and to be champions.”

>> LADY PANTHERS TAKE SILVER: Sara Castro finished in fifth place in 19:58.72 and Brianna Harris took 11th in 21:28.50 to pace the Lady Panthers, who finished second in the girls team competition.

The second-place finish qualifies the Permian girls to join the boys at the Region I championships in Lubbock.

“All the coaches really help motivate us and show us we can reach our potential and even more,” said Castro, a sophomore on the young Lady Panthers squad alongside Harris.

Ochoa said the Permian girls have battled injury all season, and that Thursday’s race might have marked the first race the Lady Panthers’ top seven ran completely together.

But at the district meet, one good race is all the Lady Panthers needed.

“They all believed in everything that I said, and it’s kind of just all come together like a nice puzzle,” Ochoa said.
Kaitlyn Hernandez took 15th in 21:42.50, as Permian tallied 67 points in the team standings behind first place San Angelo Central’s 44.

“To come out in district, to push myself, it felt really good,” Harris said. “Last year we weren’t that good, but we’ve improved so much from last year to this year.

“It’s crazy that we got second place.”
