SAN ANTONIO – Jose Garcia took the baton with his Harlingen High relay squad in third place. It looked as if he had his work cut out for him.
But, there’s a reason he has the designation of the Valley’s fastest runner.
The exchange was near perfect and so was the sprinter’s final 100 meters. Garcia needed less that half the distance to overtake the two runners in front of him and burn his way across the finish line alone in first. The Cardinals won the regional championship Saturday morning in 41.90 seconds and advanced to the state tournament during the Region IV Class 5A and 6A track meets at Heroes Stadium.
Garcia’s triple gold performance, combined with Harlingen High’s Eric Quilantan’s win in the 400-meter run helped lead the Cardinals to the Region IV-6A boys’ team championship Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals earned 70 points. Converse Judson took second with 53 points and San Antonio Johnson was third with 47 points.
The top two finishers from each event will move on to the state championships in the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium from May 6-8.
“It brings us a lot of joy, and it’s a reflection of the work we put in,” said Efrain Ambriz, the Cardinals’ coach. “Jose and Eric run against each other all the time in the 200, and I think that makes them better. It’s hard for other teams to find quality 200 guys to run against every day. For them to have each other it makes each of them stronger, and they were our big performers today.
“They’ve been leading the team,” he added. “The whole idea is us getting (to state) and bringing back some medals. I think their confidence is at an all-time high, and deservedly so. I don’t think any Valley team has won a 6A region championship in track. That’s a great accomplishment. We’ve won district titles, area titles, but to win a regional title puts us in elite company and shows we’re one of the better programs in the state.”
Garcia didn’t wait long to add to his medals collection for the day. Starting in lane four with a best qualifying time of the day in the 100, Garcia wasted no time pulling from the pack en route to first place to become the region meet’s first double winner of the day. Garcia broke the tape in a time of 10.17 while San Antonio Roosevelt’s John Nazzio captured second. Garcia also holds the region meet record of 10.43, set in 2019. His time Saturday, however, wasn’t a record due to a 4.1-mile per-hour wind, making the time wind-aided and not eligible for a record.
Garcia earned his third gold of the day in the 200-meter run, this time just squeezing ahead again of San Antonio Roosevelt’s Nazzio with a time of 21.07. Nazzio finished in 21.22. The two runners were side-by side for most of the final 70 meters of the race before Garcia put a little distance between the two speedsters in the final 20 meters for this third tape-breaking run.
Harlingen High’s Eric Quilantan also stepped to the top podium spot after he captured the 400-meter run in 48.71, beating Round Rock’s Preston York, with a 48.96, to the line.
Going into the 800-meter finals, Weslaco High’s Amity Ebarb said she wanted to run smart and stick to her plan.
It worked exactly – or maybe even better – than she planned. Trailing Comal Smithson Valley’s Amalie Hills, who held the top qualifying time, on the final turn, Ebarb showed a kick that would make sprinters proud, quickly closing a 30-yard deficit, passing Hills with at least 30 yards to go and easily winning the 800 regional title.
“At the 100 mark I started to kick and I thought, ‘It comes down to who wants it more,’” said Ebarb, whose time of 2 minutes, 10.42 seconds set a meet record held by Megan Rourke of Austin Lake Travis in 2017 of 2:10.72.
Mills finished second in 2:11.03.
“I usually go harder on the first lap than today,” Ebarb said. “But I wanted to have more for that second lap because of the competition out here today.”
PSJA Memorial’s Wiliams Macias continued to show why he’s one of the top distance runners in the state, whether it’s cross country or on the track. Macias captured the boys Class 5A regional title in the 800 with a time of 1:55.74, beating out the next two runners in a tight race. The top three finishers were separated by less than a second.
During the last event of the day, the McAllen High girls — Abby Villafranca, Charlotte Beck, Sabrina Garza and Leslie Sequera — with the second-seeded time of the day, took over the lead on the third leg in the 4×400 relay and finished second to also advance to the state meet.