BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
For Freddy and Anthony Calvillo, bragging rights are always on the line. The junior Freddy is the older brother of Anthony, who is a sophomore.
When considering the best tandem of brotherly runners, the Calvillos can be overlooked in favor of McAllen Memorial senior twins Trevor and Evan Williams. This brings out their competitive nature against opponents and each other.
“I wanted to rest them this weekend before the district meet, but they wanted to race and I said, ‘No, we’re not,’” La Joya Juarez-Lincoln XC coach Rene Loera said Friday. “Earlier today, these two were going hard at practice and I had to ask them to slow it down a bit. It’s going to be an interesting race (at districts) between their two boys (McAllen Memorial’s Williams twins) and ours. We’ve gone head-to-head with them twice and Freddy was faster than them both times. But they can’t think it’s going to be that easy when we see them this week.”
Freddy Calvillo still has a lot of room for growth, but he is already one of the top boys runners in the Valley and beyond. Freddy has netted first, second and ninth place finishes in three races this fall.
His lone win came at the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islander Splash, a three-mile race he completed in 14 minutes, 49 seconds. He pulled in second at Elsa’s Yellow Jacket Invitational 5K race at 16 minutes, 13.7 seconds.
Anthony enjoyed two top 20 finishes of his own at Corpus Christi (15 minutes, 57.3 seconds) and Elsa (17 minutes, 13.9 seconds).
Both brothers credit Loera and the coaching staff for helping them morph into the runner they are becoming.
“Usually we’d take off so fast at the beginning of races, but now we’re running together as a team,” Freddy Calvillo said. “We’re trying to keep up with each other in our workouts so we can practice it for the races. Staying with each other will help us get faster and get negative splits.”
“I know I’ve improved by a lot since I’ve been running more in the summer,” Anthony Calvillo said. “I wasn’t all that dedicated to cross country my freshman year since I was in the band, but I didn’t want to stop running. I’ve been running track since fourth grade. Picking this over band feels like the right decision, because, look at me now. My improvement is all thanks to the coaches.”
Sept. 29 may have been Freddy’s formal introduction to the best runners in the state. The Huskies competed in the McNeil Invitational 5K race, the Austin-area course that will host the UIL State Cross Country Meet on Nov. 3.
Freddy Calvillo took ninth place with the second-fastest time by a Valley runner (15 minutes, 12.83 seconds). PSJA Memorial’s Cruz Gomez won in 14 minutes, 48.66 seconds which was the third-fastest high school 5K time in the United States this season.
“I was shocked by my time at first,” Freddy Calvillo said. “I was nervous, so I knew I needed to pace myself. I was with Cruz (Gomez) throughout the race, and I felt like I could do this. I’d been working so hard for this. There were almost 700 runners, and I couldn’t believe I got into the top 10.”
“The good thing is Freddy’s a junior, so we have another year with him,” Loera said. “I know Cruz (Gomez) is good, but when he was a junior, he was running a 15:13. Freddy just hit 15:12, so he is already running faster than he was as a junior. I think he can start running Cruz’s times when Freddy becomes a senior. Time will tell.”
The District 30-6A cross country meet will be hosted at La Joya High on Thursday morning. Three spots at the UIL regional meet are up for grabs for the four likely challengers: La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, Mission High, McAllen Memorial and McAllen High.
“It’s going to be a difficult race,” Anthony Calvillo said. “One of us is going to get eliminated, that’s for sure. For the best three teams, all I can say is, ‘Good luck.’ Once you make it to regionals, you’re going to see how real it gets. Right now, it’s all about getting a top three spot.”