BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
MORE: Complete results from the District 31-6A / 32-6A area meet
PHARR — The Weslaco High Lady Panthers spent Thursday doing as they have all season: collecting gold medals with an unquenchable appetite. At the end of the District 31-6A / 32-6A Track and Field Championships, Weslaco comfortably won the girls area title thanks to five first-place finishes.
But the Lady Panthers’ celebration atop the podium at PSJA Stadium came with a muted sense of joy. While the team took celebratory photos with each other and their trophy, teammate Sydney Salinas was away receiving some bad news.
Salinas, a junior, was due to compete in four events — including the pole vault — but was absent due to a right knee injury suffered during vault practice Tuesday wherein she landed awkwardly on the mat. An MRI performed Thursday confirmed Weslaco coach Pablo Almaguer’s worst fear. It is a torn ACL, resulting in the end of Salinas’ season.
“It’s tough,” Almaguer said. “This whole week has been a pretty down week for us. But the girls were resilient all week. They wanted to come out here and win this one for Sydney.”
Aside from the vault, Salinas was due to compete in the 100-meter dash and run in the 400 and 800 relays. Ava Perez replaced her in the 400 (Weslaco finished third) and Elida Hernandez raced in Salinas’ stead in the 800 to help the Lady Panthers win in 1 minute, 45.36 seconds. Weslaco also won the 1600 relay (4:01.27).
The top four in every event automatically qualify for the Region IV meet April 29 and 30 at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio.
Sophomore Eleanor Arndt was one of three Lady Panthers to win individual gold, doing so in the long jump with a distance of 17 feet, 8 inches. Though Arndt fell short of her 18-foot goal, her mark set a new personal record.
“This week I was trying a different approach,” Arndt said. “I’d been doing an approach where I did three pushes, and I’ve been really inconsistent. I haven’t been hitting the boards in practice. I’ve just been focusing on one push and accelerating through the board. That’s something I need to work on.”
MONEY MIKE
PSJA Memorial’s Mike Gonzalez won gold in the boys discus with a throw of 174-06, setting a new area meet record in the process. Despite achieving first, Gonzalez’s day was inconsistent and fraught with scratches — the senior completed a clean throw on just two of his six attempts.
“I was just trying too hard,” Gonzalez said. “I scratched on one big throw, and that really got to my head. I started to try and air one out there to 180 (feet). I just needed to relax and let my technique go back into play.”
FIRST OR BUST
Fresh off finishing first in the girls triple jump at the District 31-6A meet, Weslaco East’s Dani Burget became area champion with a new personal record of 35-05.75, besting second place Juliana Guerrero (Harlingen High) by less than one inch.
Burget’s podium-topping attempt came on her final try of the morning. Before bolting down the runway, she ranked third and was already guaranteed an appearance at the regional meet. But Burget isn’t one to settle.
“I didn’t come here to get third,” Burget said. “I’m going to get first. I just let loose and went for it. I wasn’t going to come away with a bronze. For me, that would have been embarrassing.”