Twelve straight district championships for the girls team and four consecutive titles for the boys may lead observers to believe there's little for Memorial cross country to celebrate at this stage.

Not so fast, coach Danny Jones cautioned after the Mustangs wrote the latest chapter of their dominant success story at Thursday's District 19-5A championships at North Harris College.

"The girls have had a great team the entire time I've been here (since 2000), but the boys are just now getting there," Jones said. "Our top three guys ran great races and so did our four and five; we're working on getting their times closer (to the top three). We feel pretty good about where we are if we do that."

The Mustangs girls took the top three spots and six of the top nine to score a scant 17 points, 34 ahead of second-place Stratford, and the boys scored 24 points to runner-up MacArthur's 78.

Memorial's Helene Delone (11:26.31) and Elizabeth Gilbert (11:34.57) finished first and second, with Sarah Houser following in third (12:09.1). Amanda Shook was fifth (12:29.25), Shelley Ostrofsky seventh (12:35.94) and Ariel Krause ninth (12:35.94).

The top three teams and top 10 individuals advanced to the regional meet Nov. 3 at the same course.

MacArthur was third in the girls race (98 points); Stratford was third in boys (83).

"We had a perfect score at the Spring Branch Invitational (in September) and that's something we were shooting for today," Delone said. "It's my fifth time running on the course so I know where to build speed around the curves and kick. It's just like a home course."

Eisenhower junior David Smith was the individual boys winner in 16:21.55, defeating Memorial's John Christie by almost eight seconds (16:29.44). Christie was closely followed by teammates Scott Hyde (fourth, 16:39.5), Will Groesbeck (sixth, 16:48.17), Reggie Buford (seventh, 16:50.16) and Ben Vonderhaar (17:17.76).

Smith was anxious to forget last year's district meet, in which he credits nerves with an injury that ended any chances of advancing. He finally overtook Christie with about 700 yards remaining.

"They (Memorial) are great competitors. I ran to the best ability and I went for it all," Smith said. "I got to regionals in track in both the mile and the two-mile last year, so that helped me prepare for this. I have outstanding coaches and teammates who support me."

Shannon Linderman's fourth-place finish led Stratford's girls (12:22.29). Jenny Devany was 10th (12:42.83).

Eisenhower advanced individuals Ashley Thompson (sixth, 12:31.98) and Tamara Davis (eighth, 12:39.89).

Nimitz's boys advanced two individuals, Derrick Joe (third, 16:32.15) and Genaro Garza (10th, 17:08.78). Spring Woods' Jose Castillo was fifth (16:47.16); Stratford's Ben Thomas was eighth (17:05.61) and Eisenhower's DeJuan Dixon was ninth (17:05.86).

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