By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
The Los Fresnos Falcons captured their 10th straight district championship and the Lady Falcons earned their second consecutive swimming title Friday during the District 32-6A swimming & diving meet at the Weslaco Independent School District Aquatic Center.
The Harlingen South boys finished second, and Weslaco High finished third. The Lady Hawks finished second, and the Harlingen High Lady Cardinals finished third.
“We were able to accomplish our goal today, which was difficult because we had a lot of competition,” Los Fresnos coach Jaime Perez said. “This is just a step towards where we want to be, which is competing in regionals.”
Los Fresnos senior Luis Osuna broke the pool record Friday with a time of 49.10 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. Senior Robert Waters broke a Los Fresnos school record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.03. Reina Apacible set a new school record for the Lady Falcons in the 100-yard breastroke, clocking in at 1:14.86.
“They set the standard for our kids to come,” Perez said. “That’s always really nice to have.
“Our goal was to have 100 percent personal bests with all of our kids,” he continued. “Some of them showed up and shattered their personal bests. We did have some kids that swam out of their minds today, and as a coach I was, like, ‘Where was this all season?’ But this is the place where you want to see it.”
Eleven Lady Falcons qualified individually for the regional meet, and 12 boys. Los Fresnos swept the girls relay events, and the boys won all but the 200-yard medley relay, finishing third behind Weslaco High and Harlingen High.
Perez is mindful of the fact that the close of another district season will bring with it the end of the tenure of some of his most accomplished swimmers, either in regional or state competition. And he’s looking forward to some of his younger swimmers stepping up to fill their place in the starting blocks.
“(Osuna) has been our leader all year,” Perez said. “He’s one of those that leads by example, which is the best way. With our boys, this year we’re losing eight top seniors, but with the legacy that they’ve left, that encourages everybody else to continue to move forward and to strive to be the best that you can be.”
Moving ahead, Perez said his goal for his swimmers moving on to the regional meet is to rest adequately and prepare mentally to minimize mistakes in future meets.
“We’ve done most of our hard work,” Perez said. “This week we’ll taper and shave down.”
Harlingen South coach Hector Castañeda was named coach of the meet by the Texas Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association, and the Hawks and Lady Hawks finished second overall behind Los Fresnos.
The Harlingen South boys improved upon their 2018 district finish by jumping two places.
“We did have some district champions in several events,” Castañeda said. “But overall, I just feel like our team did their job.”
Castañeda relied upon captains Lola Garza (12 points), Catherine Duncan (six points) and Erick Velarde to set the tone for Harlingen South.
Garza finished second in the 100 breastroke and posted a 35.8 second split in her segment of the 200 medley relay. Duncan, in the third leg of the relay, finished in 31.69 seconds and finished her two laps of the 400 relay in 1:05.26.
Velarde swam a 27.53 second split in the third leg of the boys’ 200 medley relay and a 54.31 in his two laps in the 400 freestyle relay.
“We work hard every day for this,” Castañeda. “The kids know that. They came out here wanting it today, and they pushed themselves.”
One of the top individual performers Friday was Weslaco High senior Brock Bloomquist (16 points). He helped the Panthers finish first in the 200 medley relay (29.35 seconds) and 500 freestyle (5:07.86). He and Weslaco High finished second in the 200 individual medley (2:05.43) and 200 freestyle relay (23.18).