By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Several Metro-area track & field athletes have punched their tickets to the regional meet and will being competing today and Friday.
Athletes from Class 6A and 5A schools will see action at the Region IV-6A and Region IV-5A meets starting Friday through Saturday at the Alamo Stadium in San Antonio.
Athletes from Port Isabel will compete at the Region IV-4A meet also on Friday and Saturday at Javelina Stadium at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Competitors from St. Joseph Academy will compete at the TAPPS regional meet starting today through Friday at Bob Benson Stadium in San Antonio.
The top two finishers in 6A, 5A and 4A will advance to the UIL state meet May 12 through 14 at Mike A. Meyers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The top four finishers at the TAPPS meet will advance to the TAPPS state meet May 6-7 at the Baylor Track & Field Stadium in Waco.
In 6A, the Los Fresnos girls had several qualifiers led by Alyssa Salazar in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. She’ll be joined by teammates Luisa Cruz (100 dash), Alondra Escobar (200 and long jump), Brianna Alex (100 hurdles), Valeria Granados (discus) and the 400, 800 and 1,600 relay teams.
“We’re pretty excited because we know how much they’ve worked this year,” Los Fresnos girls coach Johvonne Howard said. “It’s just rewarding. They know they’ll have extremely stiff competition, as always, our region is very competitive, but their mindset is pretty relaxed, go out there and have fun and compete as hard as they can.
“Our objective is to run on Saturday (in the finals).”
Hanna has a trio of competitors, Marina Garcia (100), Nadia Sifuentes (800) and Pamela Ellis (long jump) and Brownsville Veterans Memorial has two relay teams competing, the 400 and 1,600 squads. Rivera has a lone competitor in Andrea De la Rosa in the 1,600 and 3,200.
“She knows she has the ability to be in the top eight for both,” Rivera girls coach Jenny Schuster said of her talented freshman. “I told her what (time) she needs to run to advance. I’ve told her to run her race, let it draw her to a better time. I’m excited to see how she does.”
For the boys in 6A, Rivera is led by Manny Guerrero won qualified in the 800, 300 hurdles and as a part of the 1,600 relay team. Aron Gutierrez (100), Sammy Orive (200 and triple jump), Ruben Chapa (800), Anthony Garza (1,600 and 3,200), and Jonathan Herrera (3,200), and the 400-relay team will compete.
Los Fresnos also has several qualifiers. Christian Perales leads the way in the 100, 200 and part of the 800-relay team. Everardo Garate (long jump), Isaiah Zepeda (discus) and Pete Perez (triple jump) will also compete for the Falcons and Brownsville Veterans’ Darian Thuku (high jump) also qualified.
“We treat each meet the same, it doesn’t matter (to us),” Los Fresnos boys coach Benny Ellison said. “We just go in with our goals in mind, our strategy to run our best times. We try to run within ourselves and run a good race. We need to stay focused on what they can do and not worry about what’s around them. They need to compete the best that they can compete.”
In 5A, Porter and Pace have several athletes qualified as well.
Porter’s Anthony Gonzalez leads the way with in the 400 and the long jump, Armando Payan (200) and the 400 and 800 relay teams also qualified.
Gertrudis Ruiz- Balli leads Pace to the regional meet in the shot put and the discus, Katia Trevino (400), Hope Ngo (800), and the 1,600-relay team will compete for the Lady Vikings. For the Pace boys, Omar Rodriguez (shot put), Juan Jesus Mendez (discus) and Levi Jaramillo (high jump) also qualified.
In 4A, Port Isabel qualified Omar Silva (110 hurdles), Sydney Mock, (discus), Simone Harry (triple jump), Alexandria Martinez and Sabrina Garza (pole vault), Ava Gomez (long jump and 300 hurdles), Natalie Garza (400) and the 1,600 girls relay team.
For St. Joseph, Gaby Garza will compete in the 100 and 300 hurdles, Marifer Valencia (pole vault), Camryn Gloor (pole vault), Marijose del Pozo (long jump) and part of 800-relay team with Ceci De La Garza, Alejandra Elizondo and Alejandra Sequra. For the boys, Mario Garcia (200, 400 and relays), Miguel Guerra (100, 200 and relays), Gerardo Moses (relays) and Adrian Perez (relays), Pablo Zolezzi (distance), Marte Rodriguez (high jump), and Bernie de la Garza (long jump), and Cole Conner and Kai Money are coming off injuries and expected to compete.
“We’re looking forward to it,” St. Joseph coach Meme Garza said of the TAPPS regional meet, the first competitive meet in nearly a month for the Bloodhounds. “We’ve been doing some interesting things (to get ready and keep in shape) and hopefully we’ll qualify some kids for (state meet at) Waco.”
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.