By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Los Fresnos Falcons were boys and girls team champions at last year’s District 32-5A swimming & diving meet.
Now in District 32-6A along with most of the teams that were in 32-5A, the Falcons are feeling fairly confident about their chances at Friday’s inaugural 32-6A meet at Brownsville’s Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center.
They may receive a strong challenge from the boys and girls of Brownsville Veterans Memorial, though, along with the other schools at the meet.
“Veterans will probably give us the most competition,” Los Fresnos coach Albino Cisneros said.
Clark Aquatic Center director Monica Rosales put it this way: “There should be some serious arm wrestling between Veterans and Los Fresnos.”
The meet gets under way with diving warmups at 9 a.m. Diving competition starts at 10 a.m., with swimming competition to begin one hour after the diving is completed.
Other teams in the one-day meet are Brownsville schools Hanna, Rivera and Lopez along with Harlingen High and Harlingen South. San Benito will not be competing. The Greyhounds do not have a swimming team.
Porter and Pace have remained in 32-5A and had their district meet last week in Pharr.
Cisneros said Los Fresnos is bringing 15 boys and nine girls to the 32-6A event.
“What we lack in quantity (on our girls squad), we have in quality,” Cisneros said. “At first I was a little concerned about it, but then I realized that eight of those nine girls are past regional qualifiers and six of them helped us win a regional championship two years ago. And out of those six, two are past state qualifiers, so we’re bringing some experience and confidence to the meet.
“I feel good about our boys’ chances as well,” Cisneros added.
Los Fresnos swimmers with the best chance to do well appear to be Ivana Besteiro, Andrea Moreno, Kendall House, Kaylee Jones, Michaela Jones, Isabella Gomez, Tristan Wells, Danny Euresti, Mark Muñoz, Dominic Tovar, Ari Morales, Diego Culp and Will McKinney.
Other girls swimmers to watch at the meet include Hanna’s Maya Athena Imperial and Lezly Cardenas, Rivera’s Stephanie Castillo, Harlingen South’s Jessica Watson and Aransas Haley, and Brownsville Veterans’ Tonnih Ruiz and Nadeen Salhadar.
For the boys, other swimmers to watch include Brownsville Veterans’ Daniel Flores, Jonathan Ashford, Daniel De La Cruz, Phillip Taboada and Jaime Martinez, plus Rivera’s Adrian Flores, Jack Puckett and Ryan Shea along with Hanna’s Ashtyn Roush, Javier Espinoza and Hugo Arredondo.
Favored in the diving are Lopez’s Thadey Diaz and Rivera’s Manny Leal.
The top six finishers in each event advance to next weekend’s regional meet at the Clark Aquatic Center.
The 32-6A meet originally was scheduled to be held at the new aquatic facility in Harlingen, but it is still under construction.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.