By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Clarissa Chavez won two events during field event finals at the District 32-6A track & field meet Wednesday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The running preliminaries also were held Wednesday, and the finals are set for today at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.
Chavez won the shot put with a throw of 36 feet, 10 1/2 inches and the discus event with a toss of 132-1.
“Honestly, it felt great,” she said. “I hadn’t been doing well in the past few meets, so this redeemed my confidence.”
Brownsville Veterans coach Jaime Castaneda said his senior athlete wanted to make up for some off days recently.
“She had some pretty good throws today,” he said. “I think she felt like this was her time. She realized this was her time to shine. She won district in both events, so it’s awesome. I know she’s looking toward area and hopefully regionals.”
In other girls events, Mariana Sanchez of Hanna won the 3,200-meter run with a time of 12 minutes, 2.66 seconds. Mikaela Flores of Harlingen South (9-0) won the pole vault and teammate Cierra Pena (18-11 1/2) won the long jump. Jaleah Calvillo (36-06) of Los Fresnos took the triple jump, and teammate Jackie Kingsbury (5-4) won the high jump.
After seven events, Los Fresnos leads with 70 points, followed by Harlingen High (29) and Brownsville Veterans (27).
“I felt like they have performed well, I think it’s near our projected point total,” Los Fresnos girls coach Johvonne Howard said. “We’re trying to pull (points) from where we can and control what we can control.”
On the boys side, a pair of Rivera teammates won their events. Anthony Garza (9:48.72) took the 3,200 run, and Angel Espinoza (161-10) won the discus event.
“I felt good out there, but I didn’t expect to get first, though,” Garza said after besting a couple teammates to the finish line. “We usually compete and help each other out. But it was slow, and I pushed the pace.”
In other events, Darren Gonzalez of Lopez (6-2) took the high jump and teammate Brandon Frausto (21-1) won the long jump. Albert Villarreal of Harlingen High (14-0) won the pole vault and teammate Travis Barnes (49-1 1/2) took the shot put. Pete Perez of Los Fresnos (43-9 1/2) won the triple jump.
Rivera has a slim lead after seven boys events with 44 points, just better than Harlingen South (43) and Harlingen High (42).
Raiders coach Omar Gonzalez was pleased thus far.
“We’re in first place, but that can change really quick,” he said. “We’ll see what the rest brings. We should be right in the thick of things if we compete the way we can, so I’m excited.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.