FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
For the third consecutive season, the Lyford Bulldogs boys and girls track & field programs swept the competition at the District 32-3A track meet earlier this week in Santa Rosa.
The boys won with a total of 203 points ahead of Santa Rosa (155 points), Edinburg IDEA Quest (121 points), Monte Alto (115 points) and Brownsville IDEA Frontier (68 points).
Meanwhile, the girls won the event with 172 points ahead of second place Santa Rosa (137 points), Edinburg Quest (135 points), Monte Alto (88 points) and Brownsville Frontier, which finished with 66 points.
Both teams will now head into the 31/32 area meet, which is scheduled for Wednesday at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Boys head coach Jaime Guerra said he credits the team’s consistency for the Bulldogs’ successful three-year run.
“In all honesty, it’s the consistency in the kids,” said Guerra. “They come to work every day and they work hard because that’s all the boys and girls teams know how to do. They have a chip on their shoulder knowing they have to come out and compete every single day.
“I think the program has done a heck of a job emphasising the competiveness everyday and that translates to the field.”
The boys were led by a strong senior contingency, including Jared Stroud, who had a strong showing by winning the 200-meter (22.93) and 400-meter run (52.90). Stroud also finished in second place in the long jump and anchored the boys 4×100-meter relay team, which finished second.
Other notable standouts were Justin Garcia and Aiden Silva. Garcia won first place with a discus throw of 130-8 while Silva won the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.99.
“The No. 1 thing that we talked about all year was to compete and fight,” said Guerra. “Going into the finals on Wednesday, I just told them to do those two things and everything else will take care of itself.”
In the girls events, the Lady Bulldogs finished the discus with a one-two punch. Summer Castro finished first with a throw of 94-3 and Ashley Rangel finished second with a toss of 93-1. Castro also finished second in shot put with a throw of 30-6.
Samantha Delgado also had a good meet finishing first in the 200-meter dash (26.68), second in the 100-meter (13.05) and third in the long jump.
Another notable standout was Adrianna Liserio, who finished first in the 300-meter hurdles (51.52), second in the 110 hurdles (17.92), and third in both the pole vault with a height of 7-6 and the high jump with a leap of 4-10.
Dulce Rodriguez, meanwhile, finished second in the 1600-meter run (5.50.27) and third in the 3200-meter (13.14.20).
“Most of my girls run five events and have a full day,” said girls head coach Marisa Chapa. “But the girls did well and were tired at the end of the day, but they performed really well.”