MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
After being sidelined with a hamstring injury for nearly a month, Hanna sprinter Jacqueline Mora made her return to the track at the PSJA Memorial Flying Ws meet Friday afternoon in Pharr.
The junior sprinter placed second in the 100-meter dash in 12.72 seconds.
While it wasn’t a win, Hanna head coach Olaya Teran was pleased just to see her standout runner get back to action and help her team with the District 32-6A meet set to begin today.
“(Mora) ran the 100 last week and she looked good,” the Hanna coach said. “She got second, but she was trying out her hamstring and she should be fine. We’re going to add her to the (400-meter relay), so we should be OK in the relays. We should be fine in the individual events as long as everything stays OK. The girls have worked hard and have done really well without our main runners. I believe we’re going to pull through and do well.”
Today’s meet will start at 9 a.m. with the field events, 3200-meter run and track preliminaries.
Other Hanna runners bringing home hardware from Pharr was Aniel Aguero, who won the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.38.
Distance runner Nadia Sifuentes also had a solid day, coming in third in the 1600-meter run (5:44.30) and fifth in the 3200-meter run (12:45.51).
The Hanna relay team also came in third in the 1600-meter relay (4:15.80), seventh in the 800-meter relay (1:52.14) and fifth in the 400-meter relay (51.48), though Mora’s addition should help bolster the 400-meter relay time this weekend.
One team coming in on a high note is the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons, who won the Flying Ws despite not taking distance runners, long and triple jumpers or top hurdler Brianna Alex, who competed at the Texas Relays in Austin.
Los Fresnos also didn’t run a mile relay team.
Still, the Lady Falcons topped the standings with 92 points, edging out Harlingen high (76), Rivera (70), Brownsville Veterans memorial (65) and San Benito (62).
“We went into that meet not expecting to win the whole thing, just to go in there and compete,” Los Fresnos head coach Brent Blackman said. “Everybody competed well and we ended up pulling it off. We felt like everybody is running well right now and peaking at the right time. Our relays are running at top form; there’s a lot of confidence coming off that.”
Several Lady Falcons had big days, starting with Luisa Cruz, who placed first in the 100-meter dash (12.40) and second in 200-meter dash (26.88).
In the 800-meter run, Gisemani Garcia placed first with a time of 2:29.85.
In the field events, Alejandra Garcia won the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 7 inches, while Ashley Muniz won the discus throw with a 128-8.
Los Fresnos also won the 400-meter relay (51.26) and the 800-meter relay (1:49.15).
TEXAS RELAYS
A few Cameron County athletes tried their hand in the Texas Relays held at the University of Texas at Austin this past weekend and had good showings among the large field of competitors.
Harlingen High’s Jose Garcia ran the 100-meter dash and competed in the long jump.
Garcia finished 12 in the long jump with a distance of 22 feet, 3.25 inches and placed 20 th in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.77.
Harlingen South’s top throwers were also in action with Chase Harrel finishing in 13 th with a throw of 158-3 and Cristian Cortez following in 14 th with a 157-5.
In the shot put, Andrew Ott placed 16 th . South’s Nitai Duran also competed, placing 25 th in the 110-hurdle preliminaries.
St. Joseph’s Pablo Zolezzi competed the in the discus and finished 18 th (154-1).
Hanna’s Giovani Rivera placed 26 th in the shot put (48-5.5).
DISTRICT BEGINS
The district meets in the area begin tomorrow, but the District 32-5A kicked off Tuesday with the running preliminaries and the distance running and field finals.
A few Brownsville athletes opened the meet on a good start.
Pace’s Esmeralda Ruiz-Bali won the girl’s discus with a throw of 127-05.
In the boy’s long jump, Porter’s Matthew Sandoval placed first (20-07), followed by Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Michael Garza (20-04) and Lopez’s Alejandro Rivera (19-09).
In the boy’s triple jump, Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Diego Hinjosa placed first (42-01) and teammate Tony Medrano placed second (41-03).
In the Boy’s discus throw, Jose Quintero took home the gold with a throw of 161-04).