Eastwood junior Lauren Portillo-Walls has run faster in the 5K with every meet
El Paso Eastwood is now a household name in Texas when it comes to distance running. The boys have won two consecutive UIL 5A state titles and have qualified for Team Nationals as well.
Last week, they won the Desert Twilight in impressive fashion and they had several big individual performances.
However, the boys aren't the only Troopers who are having a good season. It's actually their teammate Lauren Portillo-Walls who is striking gold week after week.
At Desert Twilight, she also dropped a gem of a race under the Arizona night sky. She ran a 18:14 for a top 10 finish at a national event. However, this weekend, things got even better for Walls as she ran even faster and snagged a win in a race that included Eva Jess, a cross town rival, UIL 6A runner-up, and established national level star.
That makes Walls a certified individual to watch for heading into the latter part of the 2020 season. This year, the Eastwood junior has a good shot at qualifying for the state meet, but it won't be easy. Eastwood is back in Region 1-6A that is stacked with quality individuals and teams. Also, this season only the top 10 individual finishers are guaranteed to be a state meet qualifier.
Walls is moving from obscurity, to underdog, and now to a top competitor and she has done all of this in one season. Her 5K PR entering the season was 19:41.92; this year, she has out performed that with each of her three 5K races. She started off with a 18:27 at Del Valle, then the 18:14 at Desert Twilight, and this weekend's 18:04 continues her season trending progression arrow of down and to the right.
With a progression arrow heading down, Walls' confidence has got to be shooting through the roof as she is becoming another big time runner from the El Paso area.
