NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITERS
MISSION — The Rio Grande City Rattlers got off to a strong start Thursday, earning (# of golds) in field and distance events on the opening day of the District 31-5A championships at Mission Veterans High School. In the girls competitions, a mixture of familiar winners and new champions earned reason to celebrate.
Future University of Texas Longhorns runner Brandon Gracia missed most of the track season with a back injury but felt healthy again Thursday, winning the 3,200-meter race for Rio Grande City in 9 minutes, 34.73 seconds.
“It feels good, because all season I wanted to race, but I couldn’t, because I was injured. And we were worried. ‘What if there’s not enough time to recover and be back to myself for district?’” Gracia said. “This year, I didn’t do that many speed workouts. If I keep qualifying, I get more time, and that’s more time to get stronger and faster for the races.”
Laredo Nixon’s Juan Salinas took silver, but RGC earned the next two area-qualifying finishes. Freshman Alex Canales was composed in his first district 3,200 race, finishing in 9:48.68, ahead of Alejandro Lopez’s 9:54.20.
Canales said he was confident about this meet and showed it with a personal record time almost 20 seconds quicker than his previous best.
“I just played it cool. It just felt like a regular race to me. Until regionals — that’s like a real race,” Canales said. “My teammates help me to prepare every single race, especially good races. They told me to stay with them as much as they can, so I try to stay with them.”
Lopez, a junior, was happy that his distance group will advance as a unit and contributed points to the district team standings.
“It’s an honor, because we all work through this track season as a team,” Lopez said. “For all of us to go to area, it’s a dream, because we train really hard together and push each other. When all of us qualify with 20 points, it helps the rest of the team — the long jumpers, the relays. Little by little, they get more positive and think, ‘We can do it,’ for a district title, which is very exciting.”
In the boys discus throw, RGC’s Jaime Gomez pulled an upset for the district championship. His throw of 154 feet, 4.5 inches was ahead of Sharyland Pioneer’s Johnny Howell at 149-06.
Gomez’s championship toss came in his final throw. As soon as he let the discus fly, he knew it was a special attempt, yelling, “Go, baby” at the 1.6-kilogram projectile. He said he was humbled by the win and his ability to knock off a familiar competitor.
“This is my first time (winning district), and it was a long process,” Gomez said. “It was a lot of hard work. It took so much effort throughout all four years of my high school career. Johnny’s a very great thrower. He’s been throwing since he was a little kid. He’s a hard worker. Me and him were training partners since we were in seventh grade. To edge him here, it’s a great accomplishment. I’m not taking anything away from Johnny, but it feels very good to defeat him.”
Mission Veterans’ Charlize De La Garza won her third high jump championship in three years.
“I really was nervous, but I’ve been doing well this whole season. I just needed to keep it up,” De La Garza said. “I’m focusing on myself, but it’s good that there’s competition, so it makes me push myself to do better and, of course, reach higher jumps.”
After clearing 5 feet, De La Garza set the bar to 5-03 to get close to her personal record, but the back of her ponytail knocked the jump bar. She joked that she’ll have to wear her hair in a bun at the area meet.
“I have cleared 5-04 and 5-05 one time in practice, and yeah, it was just my hair that hit it,” she said.
Sharyland High sophomore Izzy Garza won gold and led a group of three teammates qualifying for area in the pole vault. Garza cleared 9-00, Andrea Marcos cleared 8-06 and Paola Chapa tied for third at 8-00.
Garza said she was nervous to start but remembered the improvements she’s made, jumping 2 feet better than during her freshman season.
“I jumped my first height, and that kind of calmed my nerves,” Garza said. “Because of the way I cleared it, I cleared it by a lot, so I knew that I could perform better. It’s awesome to share this experience with (my teammates). It’s awesome, because I didn’t want this season to end.