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.”
>> TAYLOR QUALIFIES: On the boys side, Odessa High senior Dru Taylor took ninth in 16:59.72 to punch his ticket to the regional race in Lubbock.
All top 10 runners in each race advanced to the region meet, as did each of the top three squads in each of the team standings.
Taylor crossed the line just behind Midland Lee’s Chance Ziemann (16:54.91) and just ahead of Permian’s Carrasco to make it to regionals.
“It was good,” Taylor said after the race, with his top-10 medal around his neck. “That’s what I was trying to do — I was thinking about it all week and focusing on it, and I knew what I had to do to advance.”
Taylor said he had targets on runners he knew he needed to keep pace with to finish in the top 10, and he pushed his way there.
“I had to get a good start, and run with people, because I knew who to run with,” Taylor said.
“Just trying to stay and not give up on myself,” he added, on his thoughts through the run. “Just keep pushing and try my best to keep my pace and not lose my spot and let anyone pass me — and start cutting people down.”
Taylor has qualified for his second straight regional race.
>> LADY BRONCHOS ADVANCING: The Odessa High girls team didn’t have the race it was expecting going into this weekend, but two Lady Bronchos moved on to Lubbock.
Odessa High freshman Daena Brito took sixth in 20:45.72 to qualify, while fellow freshman Nathalia Escontrias crossed the finish line eighth in 21:05.12 to do the same.
“It feels great, and now I’ve just got to go for state,” Brito said.
The Odessa High girls had a young group making their way through the course Thursday.
The Lady Bronchos’ only senior, Cameron Rodriguez, missed the race after getting hurt in Tuesday’s volleyball game. Odessa High’s junior Marexyi Luna pulled out early in Thursday’s race.
“We have some good freshmen out here, but they’re just now learning the ropes,” Odessa High head girls cross country coach Tracey Borchardt said with a shrug, after an unfortunate series of events for her team. “And the freshmen held their own. They did a good job.”
Now, the Lady Bronchos will take two freshmen to regional meet — and they’re excited to see what happens, with nothing to lose.
“Let’s just go out and see what we can do,” Borchardt said. “We’re going to work on the times that we ran last time. We’re going to get better.
“Whatever goes (to state), let’s shoot for that.”
