Running the distance

Pershing Middle School eighth graders (pictured) display their first-place trophy from the HISD middle-school cross-country zone championship. The event took place at Herman Brown Park, and the Pershing Pandas had great success. In addition to the eighth-grade boys’ first-place win, the eighth-grade girls and seventh-grade boys teams each finished in third place, and the seventh-grade girls won second place. The zone-champion eighth graders are (top row, from left) Braden Burgan, Max Salmeron, Sergio Merlos, Diego Montesinos, coach Joaquin Ortiz, Roman Williams, Mark Cheek, Janak Abraham, Ben Grantham and Collin Crockett; (bottom row, from left) Joseph Capelli, Crockett Tucker and Elias Shehadeh.

Editor’s note: Send your best high-resolution photos and behind-the-scenes stories about young local athletes, in both team and individual sports, to SportzBuzz, Jr. at [email protected]. Include all contact info, names, ages, grades and schools. Featured athletes must live in Buzz-circulation neighborhoods. Items will be published on a space-available basis.