BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
WESLACO — What was perhaps the most riveting moment during Friday’s Meet of Champions track and field relays at Bobby Lackey Stadium began with a mistake.
During the girls 4×200 meter relay, a fumbled baton handoff between Brittney Cardenas, the third leg for Weslaco High, and anchor Angela Villarreal caused the team to fall several lengths behind La Joya Palmview’s Mirna Tamez during the final 200-meter stretch.
“I thought that was it,” Weslaco girls coach Pablo Almaguer said. “When I saw they messed up, I thought there was no way we could come back.”
While Almaguer resigned his team to a second-place finish, Villarreal turned the corner at full speed and began closing the gap for what would be a photo-finish. Though the clock timed both teams at 1 minute, 46.31 seconds, video replay showed Villarreal edge Tamez by a slim margin.
“I just tried to stay loose and relax,” Villarreal said. “Coach said you can’t catch her if you’re too tight… I could feel myself start to catch her, so I just stayed lose.”
Tamez, focused on her own team’s effort, did not know of Weslaco’s flubbed handoff, but could sense the drama of the moment in the stadium.
“I could hear the crowd start cheering and making noise,” Tamez said. “I saw (Villarreal) come up beside me, and I just put the burners on.”
Weslaco’s relay team would win gold again in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 4:01.06 without a repeat incident with the baton. Strong winds out of the south prevented the team from setting a new meet record, their intended goal, but Almaguer was satisfied nonetheless.
“Our goal is to win the district championship and to continue doing what we’ve been doing,” he said. “We’ve won district three years in a row. It’s about peaking at the right time. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
100-Meter Flash
Though Sharyland High’s James Cole holds the Valley’s Best mark in the boys 100-meter dash with a time of 10.86, a poor start relegated the senior to a silver-medal finish, losing by .05 seconds to Los Fresno’s Christian Parales (10.74).
“Everybody has great athletes this year,” Sharyland coach Marcelino de la Fuente said. “After the race, James came up to me and said, ‘Let’s go, next race.’ He knows what it takes to compete.”
Upon crossing the finish line, Parales kept running in celebration while the rest of the competitors caught their breath.
“I was happy,” Parales said. “You have James Cole in that race, he’s a state competitor. It’s a tough race.”
RECORD-SETTING THROW
Port Isabel senior Daniella Murchison set a new meet, and all-time Valley record in the girls shot put with a distance of 46 feet, 1.5 inches.
“She’s really focused,” Port Isabel throwing coach Johnny Galvan said. “One thing she talked about coming here was setting the meet record. She gave up going to the Texas Relays for this reason. She’s been trying to hit that 46 mark for a while now.”
ANOTHER GOLD
Zoe Alaniz of Mission Veterans won gold in the Wheelchair Shot put with a distance of 13-10. Alaniz won gold in the same event earlier this month at the Patriot Relays. Along with Weslaco High’s Joe Solis, Alaniz is the first Valley wheelchair athlete to participate in newly created UIL wheelchair events.