By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — Los Fresnos hopes to have similar success this year as it did last season when it plays host to the annual Falcon Relays track & field meet today at 9 a.m. at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.
The Los Fresnos girls team has won the title the past two years while the boys team was second last season. The teams will be competing this year against Pace, St. Joseph, Port Isabel, Harlingen South, Rio Hondo, Mission Veterans Memorial and the Donna North girls team.
The 3200-meter race starts at 9 a.m. followed by the field events. The running events are slated to begin at 1 p.m.
It’s another meet to work on techniques ahead of the district meets that begin in April.
“We’re mixing up our relays right now to try to see what times we can get from them,” Los Fresnos girls coach Johvonne Howard said. “We want to see if the kids can score points individually and see if those relays are successful enough.”
The Lady Falcons have had a pretty taxing few weeks. Each meet they competed in featured several running heats with prelims and finals, and Los Fresnos has several athletes which also competed during the field events that were scheduled in between those events.
The Falcon Relays have a slightly easier schedule with the field events finishing earlier in the day before the running events start. Because of that, Los Fresnos hopes to work on its field events, trying to gain a few more points from those athletes as well as see faster runs.
“We’re watching to see if those times can continue to fall,” Howard said. “Hopefully everything works out in the end.”
It would be special to win for the third straight year.
“It would be nice to continue that tradition and defend the title on our home turf,” Howard said.
On the boys side, the Falcons are working with a new coach. Benny Ellison took over for Will Littleton, who left for PSJA North about a month ago.
Despite the transition, Los Fresnos has been in good shape. It is even fielding two complete boys teams this week. The Falcons are looking for depth in the weeks leading up to the district meet.
“We still have a decent core,” Ellison said. “Not nearly as deep, but I use these non-district meets as a chance to condition kids and find pieces of the puzzle.”
The Falcons’ new coach is focused on finding that depth sooner than later.
“We’re looking to have three kids in each event that can compete at the varsity level,” Ellison said. “The only meet that matters is the district meet. That’s what we work for and we turn our focus each week to prepare kids to run at the district meet.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.