By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons entered the final event of the District 32-6A track & field meet trailing Harlingen South by eight points.
So it was up to the 4 x 400-meter relay team to get them to gold.
Los Fresnos edged Harlingen South 138-134 for the 32-6A girls track title Thursday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
The Lady Falcons 4 x 400 team of Rosie Gutierrez, Alyssa Salazar, Vannessa Cisneros and Nori Casteneda finished the race in second place compared to Harlingen South’s fifth-place finish, which pushed their team to a third-straight district championship.
Los Fresnos coach Johvonne Howard was left impressed with the way her team performed in the district meet.
“This team has been through a lot of adversity,” Howard said. “For the kids that stayed with the vision that we set out, I’m just so in awe.”
The team led heading into Day 2 after field events and the 3200-meter run, and were able to close out with the championship.
“(The mind set was to) pretty much just to run your race and to compete out there,” Howard said. “Know that the championships on the line but at the end of the day, it’s about them individually being successful and to understand that if they don’t place what they wanted to but they continue and move on to next week, it’s another opportunity to run.
“The outlook is to keep running another week.”
Salazar, just a sophomore, finished her spectacular performance in the meet with gold medals in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, in addition to her silver and bronze medals won Wednesday in the triple jump and high jump, respectively.
She was making up for not meeting her expectations in last year’s 32-6A meet.
“Last year, I fell short and came in third for the 100 meter hurdles and two seniors beat me, and in the 300 hurdles I had that, but a senior beat me,” Salazar said. “Last year, I fell short in all my events, so I really wanted to come back and show the athlete that I really am.”
Harlingen High took the boys district title with a score of 158 points. Harlingen South came in second place with 131 points and Rivera finished third with 123.
“I’m really happy (with the win),” Harlingen High coach Efrain Ambriz said. “Certain seniors are graduating. For some of them it’s there fourth district title in a row. I’m really happy for them to go out on top.”
It was Harlingen High’s fourth-district title in a row.
“I think it says we’re a consistent program,” Ambriz said. “We love our kids. They’re hard workers and as you can see, they gave it their all today.”
Rivera freshman Andrea De la Rosa earned her second gold medal of the meet with a win in the 1600-meter run on Thursday. De la Rosa won the 3200 on Wednesday.
Nicole Gonzales led Harlingen South to three gold medals during the meet’s second day, winning the 100 and 200 dash, and 400 run.
Christopher Rosales of Harlingen High won the 100 and 200 to finish as the only double gold-medal winner in the boys competition.
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.