By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
LA FERIA — The La Feria and Port Isabel boys track teams put together some strong showings Wednesday at the District 31/32-4A area meet at Lions Stadium.
The top four finishers in each event qualified for the Region IV-4A Meet on April 26-27 at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
The Lions and Tarpons each had their share of regional qualifiers.
Even though La Feria won the final event, the 1,600-meter relay, Rockport-Fulton captured the boys team title with 95 points and the Lions finished second with 87 points. Sinton, Progreso and Port Isabel rounded out the top five places in the boys team standings with 75, 69 and 66 points, respectively.
Rockport-Fulton also won the girls meet title, amassing 107 points. Ingleside was second with 87 points, Sinton third with 64, West Oso fourth with 51, while La Feria and Beeville Jones tied for fifth with 45 points each.
La Feria coach Everardo Sanchez said he was proud of the effort his athletes, male and female, gave on Wednesday.
“We have a very young team, so we were very impressed with how we came out today,” Sanchez said. “We got first in the mile (1,600) relay, we had a sophomore (Jose Dominguez) who surprised us with a gold medal in the 1,600-meter run, plus we had a gold medal in the high jump today (by Emanuel Sanchez),” the La Feria coach said. “And somehow, our sprint (400-meter) relay snuck in there and got second behind Port Isabel, so it was a good day.”
Dominguez provided one of the meet highlights for La Feria by winning the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 48.42 seconds, barely ahead of Progreso’s Jonathan Vega, the second-place finisher with a 4:48.45. Earlier in the day, Vega won the 3,200 in 10:22.80.
“It feels very good to win this (1,600) race,” Dominguez said. “I want to thank my team and my coaches for helping me go this far in my event and get to regionals. I’d also like to thank my family for always supporting me.
“I think I had a very strong last lap,” Dominguez added. “It allowed me to keep the lead and become the area champ. Last year (as a freshman) I just made it to the area meet and didn’t make it to regionals. It was extra motivation for me this year.”
Another winner for La Feria was Emanuel Sanchez with a 6-foot clearance in the high jump. Also, for the La Feria girls, Dariana Vasquez was a double-winner in the 1,600 (5:42.65) and the 3,200 (12:18.77).
The first-place 1,600 relay (3:30.14) for La Feria consisted of David Saenz, Darius Hernandez, Christopher Diaz and Ethan Padilla.
La Feria had a second-place finisher in Darius Hernandez, who took the runner-up position in the 300-meter hurdles in 41.30. Also finishing second for La Feria was Santos Botello, who was the runner-up in the 800 (2:03.76). The 800 race was won by Progreso’s Hector Perales in 2:02.61.
The Lions (44.30) took second behind Port Isabel in the 400 relay (44.15).
Members of the Port Isabel 400 relay were William Camacho, Mac Strunk, Tavien Ellison and Cesar Aguilera. Members of the La Feria 400 relay were Dereck Perez, Eric Alegria, Darius Hernandez and Ethan Padilla.
“I felt confident running that last leg (of the 400 relay),” said Aguilera, the standout QB for the Tarpons football team last fall. “I had the lead and I just finished it (in first). I trusted my teammates to do their part and I did my part.
“I feels great to be going to Kingsville (for the regional meet),” Aguilera added. “That’s been our goal to go up there. We wanted the gold medal at this meet and that’s what we got. The wind was rough. Without the (strong) wind, I think our time would have been better.”
The Port Isabel boys took first in the 800 relay (1:31.35) with runners Tavien Ellison, Jesus Moctezuma, Juan Ramos and Mac Strunk.
Strunk won the 200 dash in 22.02, while Camacho placed first in the triple jump with a leap of 43-01.50, which bettered Progreso’s Luis Garcia (42-09), the runner-up finisher.
Also for Port Isabel, Madison Ramos was second in the high jump with a 5-0 clearance and teammate Marlyn Cesenes was second in the pole vault with a 9-6 clearance.
Other area winners included Rio Hondo’s Jazaline Ayala, who finished first in the 800 (2:32.21) and Raymondville’s Armendariz Zaraivion, who was first in the 400 dash (51.56), just ahead of second-place finisher Jorge Arredondo of Progreso (52.77).