By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Los Fresnos finished second to McAllen High in the boys team standings at Saturday’s Halloween Hysteria swimming meet, and under the circumstances, Falcon coach Albino Cisneros was OK with the result.
McHi won the boys division of the two-day meet at Brownsville’s Margaret M. Clark Center with 357 points, while Los Fresnos came next with 288 points. Sharyland Pioneer was third with 231.
“I was happy with our finish,” Cisneros said. “McHi is the defending regional champion (for the boys), so it doesn’t bother me at all that we were second to them. We didn’t have a full squad and we beat everyone in our district (so I was pleased about that).”
McHi’s boys were boosted by double-winner Shaine Casas, who placed first in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle. Also winning individual events for the Bulldogs were Joe Williams (200 individual medley) and Thomas Wilkins (100 backstroke). McHi won two of the three relays as well.
“Winning this meet is a good confidence booster for us right now,” McHi coach Jared Kaminski said. “It’s early in the season and we’re trying to get ready for a couple of big (out-of-the-Valley) meets that are coming up, so being able to perform well and succeed against good competition today means a lot to our guys.
“(It was good to see) especially because we were trying out a lot of swimmers in new events,” Kaminski added. “For them to perform the way they did, it’s definitely a good confidence booster for all of them. I think our (strong) effort was the thing I was most pleased about. Our swimmers had an extra fight in them today and they were willing to race well, which was good to see.”
Besides Casas, the only other double-winner for the boys was Adrian Fierro of Brownsville Veterans Memorial. The St. Joseph Academy transfer won the 50 and 100 freestyles.
Other individual event winners for the boys were Mission High’s Luciano Farias-Ramirez (200 freestyle), La Joya High’s Eddie Barrera (1-meter diving) and Roma’s Ahren Trevino (100 butterfly).
The girls team title went to McAllen Rowe with 304 points. McHi was second with 280 points and Hanna was third with 241. SJA had a strong showing with 208 points for fourth place in the girls standings.
Rowe was led by Shaena Reyes’ first-place finish in the 100 backstroke.
“This (girls team title) actually motivates us to want to do better,” Rowe coach Amy Gallegos said. “This is our second time to win a big meet so far this year, and I know the girls that I have right now (at this meet) are underclassmen because all my seniors were taking the ACT. My top guns weren’t here for this meet, so to see that my younger girls were able to carry the team the way they did today was really amazing. I’m really proud of them.”
Double-winners for the girls included Hanna’s Maya Athena Imperial (200 individual medley and 500 freestyle), SJA’s Jessie Hainley (50 and 100 freestyles) and McHi’s Shelby Swanson (200 freestyle and 100 butterfly).
SJA also won two of the three relays and Hanna took the other one.
Other individual event winners for the girls were Mission High’s Sandra Valdez (1-meter diving) and Harlingen South’s Lola Garza (100 breaststroke).
The next major meet at the Clark Center will be the Brownsville ISD Fall Festival Nov. 4-5.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess