By EDWARD SEVERN, Staff Writer
East Valley swimming & diving teams will be in the pool this weekend for their district swim meets.
Today and Friday, the Harlingen CISD Aquatic Center will play host to the District 32-6A meet. Diving is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. today, and swimming at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Brownsville ISD’s Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center will play host to District 32-5A’s swim meet, with diving slated to begin at noon Friday and swimming at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Last season, the Los Fresnos Falcons won both the boys and girls titles at the 32-6A swim meet.
“My assistant coaches and I have been working really hard every day to prepare our athletes and provide them with the best opportunity to successfully represent our school district,” Los Fresnos coach Jaime Perez said.
Los Fresnos had another good year in the pool and brought home a lot of trophies at various events. Perez expects his athletes to have good times and expects everyone else to have them as well.
“Our district is very competitive,” he said. “We have strong coaches with excellent programs who always bring their ‘A’ game. This leads to fast times for everyone. I am thankful for the motivation we get from our competition. We are looking forward to the challenge, starting (today) with our divers. It will be a lot of fun.”
Harlingen South had a good showing at last season’s district meet. Despite having an underclassman-heavy team, coach Hector Castaneda Jr. expects the athletes to give it their all at the meet.
“Our swimmers work very hard, they worked hard during all the winter breaks,” he said. “They have a lot of heart, and that is something we expect in our program. Hopefully we get a good portion of our squad in regionals.”
Brownsville Hanna’s boys team has plenty of good swimmers and expects to challenge the Falcons’ boys and others for regional spots.
The Brownsville Rivera Lady Raiders won the Brownsville city meet. Weslaco High and Harlingen High also have good programs that will make the meet competitive.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial also swept its district meet last season and again has a really talented team that could do the same this season.
“The team feels really good and well-prepared,” Brownsville Veterans coach Frank Sanchez said. “Just hoping that everyone remains healthy. All teams look pretty even going in on Saturday. It will come down to the wire for both boys and girls. It will be a tight race, which makes for a very exciting Saturday.”
One of his team’s main competitors is expected to be the Brownsville Lopez Lobos. The Lady Lobos finished second last season and have had impressive performances individually throughout the season. Weslaco East performed well at last year’s meet, too.