By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
Swimmers and divers from Brownsville high schools are afforded an opportunity to compete one last time before they enter the holiday break at the annual City Meet.
The meet is scheduled today at Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center.
Meet warmups begin at 8:30 a.m. with the diving to start at 9:30 a.m. Swimming competition begins after the diving has finished.
The defending meet champions are the boys from Brownsville Veterans Memorial and the girls from Hanna. Rivera’s boys and girls won the team titles two years ago.
“Our swimmers feel confident (about this meet), but we still feel the need for more conditioning these next few weeks (to prepare for our District 32-5A meet Jan. 25-26),” Brownsville Veterans coach Frank Sanchez said. “I think we will have a good showing, and this meet will give us a great tune up for district.
“All Brownsville schools will have a shot for the city championship,” he added. “I think it will come down to the relays.”
Brownsville Veterans won the boys team title last year with 309 points. Hanna was second with 232.5 and Rivera third with 222.5. Hanna won the girls team title with 274 points a year ago. Brownsville Veterans was second with 257 and Rivera third with 252.
Brownsville schools Veterans, Hanna, Rivera, Pace, Porter and Lopez are expected to have athletes competing at the meet along with Valley Christian. St. Joseph Academy is not expected to participate due to testing.
The meet attracted eight teams last year when SJA participated.
“I think Rivera and Hanna will duke it out in the boys (for the team title),” said Monica Rosales, Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center director. “The girls is a toss up. The Porter girls may be the outside smoke (darkhorse).”
Besides the 32-5A meet at the Clark Center on Jan. 25-26, the District 32-6A meet is scheduled Jan. 25-26 in Weslaco. The Region VIII-6A meet will be Feb. 1-2 at t he Clark Center, while the Region VIII-5A meet will be in Corpus Christi, also Feb. 1-2.