By EDWARD SEVERN, Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville ISD swimmers competed against each other Friday in a city swim meet.
Fantastic races, stellar team performances and personal bests capped off a crisp meet at the Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center.
Two of the most exciting races happened before the halfway break. In the 200 IM, Lopez’s Lesly Rodriguez out-touched Brownsville Veterans’ Mia Marin-Mera by 0.09 seconds. Rodriguez and Marin-Mera were close the whole race, and into the final leg it looked like Marin-Mera might take it.
But Rodriguez got the boost she needed.
“I thought I got second,” Rodriguez said. “When I breathe I can see her arm. I saw her arm and thought, ‘She is right there.’ So in the last few meters I gave it my all, and I did it.”
The other really good race was the boys 50 freestyle. Brownsville Veterans’ Diego Gonzalez bested Hanna’s Michael Kowalski by 0.06 seconds.
“It was a good meet, a small one,” Gonzalez said. “I feel pretty confident right now. I am where I need to be for district, it is a month away. We feel good about the relays right now. Our goal is to make it to state.”
The Chargers’ Diego Gonzalez and David Perez were fantastic, winning every event in which they took part.
“I feel really good. Every meet I come in, I just want to drop time.” Perez said. “My favorite event right now is the breaststroke, I have always been a breastroker. It helps me come back in the IM. Our relays are looking good right now. We are excited for the end of the season.”
Brownsville Veterans’ boys were beat as a team by Hanna, 455-416. Ricardo Rodriguez, Jeremiah Lovett, Ricardo Najera and Kowalski picked up plenty of key points. Lovett cruised in the 200 freestyle but was beaten by the Chargers’ Everado Garza Garcia by a couple of seconds in the 500 freestyle. Rodriguez won the 100 freestyle and was key in the 200 freestyle relay.
“There are some things I need to work on, like going into the wall and my dolphin kicks going into my breakout, but overall I think it is a good season,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez does two events within minutes.
“I like the challenge,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like it motivates my teammates to try to push harder knowing that I am having to do that. I get motivated from that. I just want to do as much as I can to help the team.”
The Rivera Lady Raiders stole the show at the end with a great team performance. Rivera beat Lopez by 30 points, finishing with 438. The joyous celebration was fueled by great performances from Madison Shea in the 100 butterfly, Gabby De Los Santos in the 200 freestyle and two relay teams that picked up big points late in the meet.
“It was an awesome win,” Rivera coach Ryan Shea said. “It is a whole team win, our boys and girls came together, practice together and they won together. I am proud of both teams. They both dropped a lot of times.”
The Brownsville Veterans girls took third. They did not have a deep team at the meet but were at the top of the leaderboard all morning. Carolina Meza won the distance races with ease. Frida Munoz beat Madison Shea in the 100 breastroke by 0.25 seconds. The Lady Chargers won every relay, and Keyla Medina won the 100 backstroke.