The Quitman boy’s varsity and junior varsity cross country teams brought home first place honors at the District 12-3A meet Saturday in Mineola. The junior high boys team also made a good showing coming in second place. Quitman had five runners in the top 13 entries and had six runners run under 20 minutes in the grueling three-mile race.

The team will advance to the regional meet at Lynn Park in Grand Prairie on Monday, Oct. 22. Quitman took home first place followed by Rains, Mineola, Edgewood, Alba-Golden and Grand Saline.

Dalton Brannon led the Quitman team finishing second with a time of 18:01.55. Other Quitman runners in the top ten were Brandon Jiminez in seventh place with a time of 18:47.48 and Ben Burroughs in eighth place timed at 18:51.34. After playing in Quitman’s football game Friday night, Riley Flanagan showed his versatile athletic abilities coming in 12th with a 19:16.94 time followed by Diego Osornio in 13th at 19:19.06. Aiden Corrior was not far behind finishing 18th with a 19:39 time. Quitman’s Matthew Smith finished in 27th place with a time of 20:43.35.

Head Coach Jim Reid was pleased with his team. “I can’t say enough about these kids. We had our best times of the year. It was just one of those things when everybody came to work every single day and got better throughout the year,” Reid said. “Last year we came in fifth out of six teams and this year we really pushed through. These young men worked really hard and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Mineola had three runners in the top ten. They were David Amador in fifth place, Royer Marquez sixth and Omar Galaz 10th. Cameron Butler came in 31st and Alex Castillo 32nd. The Yellowjackets came in third place just behind second place Rains.

Alba-Golden finished fifth in the meet. Running for the Panthers were Michael Kumm, Brandon Bacon, Jack Tannenbaum, Cameron Butler and Andy Castillo.