BY JOSHUA MCKINNEY, Staff Writer
One Metro-area team put itself ahead with medal-worthy performances by athletes during the first day of the district meet.
Athletes from District 32-6A fought through a rainy morning to compete in 3200-meter run and field events in Day 1 of their district meet Wednesday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons leads the Harlingen High Lady Cardinals 54-49 after Day 1.
“It was good, aside from the elements,” Los Fresnos coach Johvonne Howard said. “The kids are competing very well.”
Valeria Granados (gold in the discus throw and bronze in shot put) and Alyssa Salazar (silver in triple jump and bronze in long jump) won two medals each, and Alondra Escobar won a gold in the long jump to lead Los Fresnos in the meet.
“They handled the weather pretty well,” Howard said. “Everybody had to compete in the weather. It’s not like anybody had an advantage or disadvantage. We’re in the same boat.”
Harlingen High heads into the meet’s second day in first place, holding a 25-point lead over crosstown rivals Harlingen South.
The Cardinals earned 60 points in Wednesday’s events, led by thrower Travis Barnes’ gold medal in shot put and bronze in discus.
Harlingen High coach Efrain Ambriz thinks getting a good amount of runners qualified for today’s finals puts his track team in a good spot to close out the meet.
“(We’re) happy but not satisfied,” Ambriz said. “We had a certain goal of trying to come out in front after the field events and I think we’ve set ourselves up nicely for the field events.”
Rivera sits in third place in both the boys and girls competitions with 32 points each after Day 1. The Raiders started meet by sweeping the top spots in the 3200-meter run.
Andrea De la Rosa and Jennifer Lopez finished 1-2 in the girls race, and Jonathan Herrera and Anthony Garza took silver and gold in the boys race.
The Raiders and Lady Raiders also had key performances in the field events, with Sammy Orive earning gold in the boys triple jump, Ashley Salazar winning silver in the girls long jump and Joanna Hernandez getting bronze in the girls high jump.
“Coach (Jenny) Schuster’s done an excellent job,” Rivera coach Omar Gonzalez said. “She’s won several district titles. Rivera’s known as a football and soccer school. I’m trying to change the culture. This is my fourth year here, and we’re making headways. I like our chances going into tomorrow’s finals and see what that brings.”
Gonzalez says the boys have a good chance of making a run at Harlingen High’s lead with strong runs in the 800, 1600 and hurdles.
“Today was a big day,” he said. “Harlingen High, Harlingen South, Los Fresnos and (Brownsville Veterans Memorial) have a healthy relay back. It’s going to be a tough task. We accept the challenge. We’re going into the meat of the packet right there in third place and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The Metro-area’s other gold-medal winners in field events are Lopez’s Jose Echavarria (long jump) and Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Andres Bodden (discus throw).
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.