MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — The 2019 Rio Grande Valley track & field season is officially off and running.
Well, for the most part.
Wet and chilly weather forecasts earlier in the week led to the cancellation of field events, but temperatures continued to fall into the low 40s, forcing meet officials at the Bobby Morrow Relays to call it a day Friday in San Benito.
San Benito athletic director Dan Gomez said the decision was made with the athletes in mind.
“The No. 1 concern for any coach is the safety of their athletes,” he said. “With the weather the way it was, we decided to cancel our field events and our track events. We wanted to get some of our sprints in because the coaches wanted to see their kids work out and compete against other schools. We got in what we could and cut it short so everyone could get home safely.”
In total, the meet ran six events and did not declare a winner.
The 400- and 800-meter relays were the only relays ran Friday.
On the girls side, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers team placed first, finishing the 400 relay in 52.35 seconds, followed by Brownsville Hanna (52.85) and Sharyland High.
In the 800 relay, the Los Fresnos girls placed first with a time of 1:52.75, followed by Brownsville Veterans and Edinburg High.
With first- and second-place relay finishes under their belts, the Lady Chargers’ Alexa Chavez and Gio Leal felt pretty good despite the short meet.
“We came into the season with a lot less girls than we’re used to,” Chavez said. “So it’s good to start off fresh, and we did better than expected.”
“We did our best today,” Leal added. “We plan on doing better in our next meet. The weather didn’t help, but we did our best and we can’t wait to see what we have ahead of us.”
For the boys, the San Benito Greyhounds took home the gold in the 400 relay with a time of 45.32, followed by Brownsville Pace (45.59) and Harlingen South (45.78).
In the 800, the Sharyland High Rattlers placed first with a time of 1:36.40, followed by Brownsville Porter (1:37.06) and Harlingen South (1:38.36).
In the boys 100 dash, Los Fresnos’ Nico Valencia came in first with a time of 10.90, followed by Enrique Garcia (11.0) and Ismanol Benavidez (11.16).
“I thought it was a good start to get the track season going,” Valencia said. “In our 4-by-100 relay we didn’t have very good handoffs, but it was a good start and we know what we can improve on.”
Hanna’s Jaqueline Mora took the gold in the girls 100 with a time of 12.44, followed by Brownsville Veterans’ Carolina Davila (12.88) and Los Fresnos’ Kameron Garcia (13.01).
In the 3,200, Rivera’s Andrea de la Rosa placed first (12:03) in the girls race and Mercedes’ Guadalupe Reyes took gold in the boys race (10:07.76).
In the 800, Hanna’s Aniel Aguero (2:31.37) and Weslaco High’s Antonio Sanchez (2:06.87) won the girls and boys races, respectively.
Harlingen South’s Nitia Duran won the boys 110-meter hurdles (14.91), and Los Fresnos’ Brianna Alex (14.59) won the girls race.