Two meets into the track and field season, the Harlingen boys find themselves atop the Valley’s mythical standings and they’ve been consistent with a pair of second-place finishes.
After losing a few standout athletes to graduation, the Cards have been able to have this early success through a better-rounded team approach.
“I think we’re more consistent overall as a team because last year we had what you’d call heavy hitters but this year, I really like the way the team is coming around,” said head boys track coach Efrain Ambriz. “In the past, the Cardinal runners were the ones who carried a bulk of the point load.
In the past, the runners were the big point collectors.
This year, the field athletes are shouldering some of that load for the Cards.
At the Bobby Morrow Relays in San Benito, high jumpers Devin Rosas and Daniel Ramirez finished first and third place, respectively(5-10 and 5-06), while Travis Barnes took silver in the discus throw (144-08)and Devin Rosas grabbed bronze in the triple jump (41-04).
This past week at the Sams Relays, Saul Saavedra and Trenton Teinart took gold and silver, respectively, in the pole vault after each cleared 13-00.
Meanwhile, Rosas finished second in the high jumps (6-0), as did Michael Allen in the long jump (21-04.5).
“After last year, we wanted to put more emphasis on the field events and I think it’s paid off,” Ambriz said. “We want to be strong in all phases in our track program and it’s helped us out a lot.”
ON THE RISE
Last year, it was then-senior Cierra Pena, now at UTSA, who stood on top of the valley standings in multiple events before going on to break the all-time Valley 100-meter dash and the long jump records.
This year, Nicole Gonzalez is trying to leave her own kind of mark on the Valley.
As of right now, Gonzalez has the top times in the Valley in the 100- (12.43) and 200-meter dashes (25.97), as well as the third-best time in the 400-meter dash (59.27).
She is also the anchor to the Valley’s top 400-meter relay team (50.58), for a total of seven gold medals this year.
As a team, the Lady Hawks are also having a solid year, ranking No. 5 in the Valley’s mythical standings.
STRONG GUYS
Rio Hondo’s Mike Zuniga continues to look solid throwing the shot put this season and is hoping to get back to the state meet.
His mark of 57-09 is the best so far this season by nearly four feet.
The next two throwers in the standings behind are Harlingen’s Travis Barnes (53-11) and San Benito’s Juan Belmares (52-03), who is also looking to get back to the state meet.