By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — The Harlingen High Cardinals and Lady Cardinals swept the Falcon Relays on Friday at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial, Port Isabel, the Brownsville Lopez girls, Harlingen South boys, San Benito boys and PSJA North boys also competed in track & field events.
The Lady Falcons finished second, and the Lady Chargers were third. The Hawks placed second, and the Raiders were third in the boys standings.
The Cardinals took first in the 400-meter relay, finishing in 42.49. The Chargers won the 800 relay with a time of 1:32.09.
Harlingen High’s Kelsey Rodriguez won the 1,600 meter run (5:41.79). Alyssa Barnes finished first in the 100 dash (13.48), and Jaiden Barbour (27.27) won the 200 dash for the Lady Cardinals.
Port Isabel’s Mandy Perkins (1:08.72) placed first in the 400 dash for the Lady Tarpons.
For some, the meet was a tuneup before district.
“There was great competition, Harlingen’s loaded,” said Benny Ellison, coach of the fourth-place San Benito Greyhounds. “Harlingen South is always good, Ralph does a good job over there. We just hoped to stay within striking distance of those guys. I think we did OK today, our kids ran pretty well. A couple injuries, we had some kids coming back, but overall it was a great meet.”
San Benito’s Joaquin Medina finished first in the boys 1,600 with a time of 4:29.10 and placed second in the 800 at 2:01.36, behind Michael Paredes of Los Fresnos, who clocked in at 1:58.90.
“There’s not a lot of rest between the (800 and the 1,600),” Ellison said. “And then he turns around runs a leg on the mile relay as part of his training. His times are coming down. He does a great job. He’s a hard worker. But there’s only one meet that matters now, and that’s the district meet. So all of this is just training.”
In the final event of the night, the PSJA North boys won the 1,600 relay, finishing in 3:25.86. Arturo Beltran ran in the 1,600 and finished tied for second in the 400 dash with Paredes, at 51.32, behind Harlingen High’s Cole Swinnea, who won with a time of 51.16.
The Harlingen schools nearly cleaned up the field events, winning all but the boys pole vault, which went to Nathan Salinas of PSJA North with a vault of 14 feet, three inches.
Harlingen High’s Caden Feekes topped the boys high jump, recording a jump of 6 feet. Harlingen South’s Jose Garcia posted the best long jump of the day, stretching to 21-8. Los Fresnos’ Aiden Vega won the triple jump at 41-9.
In the shot put, Andrew Ott finished first for the Hawks at 59-2.