Brownsville’s best showed up for the spring’s city-wide track showdown.
All six Brownsville ISD schools, Brownsville First Baptist and St. Joseph Academy competed in the Brownsville City Track & Field Championship on Saturday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial won the meet’s grand championship by ending the night with the highest point total in all six divisions, including a championship in the girls varsity division.
The Lady Chargers finished with a score of 191 to win the girls championship over second-place Hanna.
“We had a fantastic day today,” Brownsville Veterans coach Jaime Castaneda said. “I can’t complain. We had a great day, great weather, great competition, great environment,” The kids had a great time. I think overall, we did very, very well. I’m very, very pleased, very happy with all their efforts, all the coaches’ efforts and it was just a great day.”
Rivera won its third-straight City Meet championship in the boys division, earning 200 points to beat Brownsville Veterans for the title.
The Raiders were up to the task of defending its title against the team’s biggest rivals.
“The kids ran well. We had the pressure on us,” Rivera coach Omar Gonzalez said. “Veterans has an excellent program, Porter has a lot of sprinters and anything can happen in the City Meet. It’s bragging rights and we’ve been fortunate to win it. This is our third year in a row. The other guys said, ‘Coach (Gonzalez), we’re going to knock you off your pedestal this year. I know several of the coaches at (Brownsville) Veterans and we have a great rivalry. We compete. I said, ‘Hey, we’ll see. We’ve got to show up, run and take it from there.
“The kids did an excellent job and they got up to it. Anytime you get two Brownsville schools or the whole city going against each other, it’s for bragging rights. It goes on and on, and it’s awesome.”
St. Joseph Academy hurdler/sprinter Gaby Garza ran the second-fastest 300-meter hurdle time in Rio Grande Valley history (43.51) during a three gold-medal day for the sophomore.
In addition to the 300 hurdles, Garza won the 100-meter dash (12.47) and 100 hurdles (14.49).
It was Garza’s first meet of the season running in all three events.
“It was a little tough,” she said. “That was my first time running with all of the team. It was a lot more exciting (not) being all alone the whole meet.”
Also winning three events was Hanna’s Audren Pineda, who won gold in the 200 (26.43), long jump (15’ 6 1/2”) and triple jump (33’ 3 1/2”).
Brownsville Veterans’ Michael Caballero swept the boys varsity hurdles with wins in the 110 (16.08) and 300 hurdles (41.35).
“I was just thinking (that) I always tell my teammates, ‘We just got to focus. Do what we came here for,’” Caballero said. “It’s all about practice. Being lucky is when preparation meets opportunity and we prepared.”
Anthony Gonzalez of Porter won gold medals in the 100 (11.27) and the long jump (21’).
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.