By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
While the team standings at last weekend’s Brownsville ISD Fall Festival Swimming & Diving Meet reflected strong showings by Upper Rio Grande Valley teams, there were still a number of standout individual performances by Brownsville-area swimmers.
For the Metro area at the meet, the top finish by a team in the girls division was Hanna in fourth place, and for the boys it was Los Fresnos in fifth place. Above them, it was all the Upper Valley at the two-day event completed Saturday at Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center. It attracted more than 650 athletes representing 33 teams, and it was one of the bigger Valley meets so far this season.
“We had some pretty good swims by individuals (from the Brownsville area),” said Monica Rosales, Clark Aquatic Center director.
The local individual standouts included Rivera’s Stephanie Castillo, Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Jonathan Ashford, St. Joseph Academy’s Adrian Fierro, SJA’s Luis Davila, SJA’s Jessie Hainley, Los Fresnos’ Ivana Besteiro and Brownsville First Baptist’s Victor Carreon.
All of them won at least one event at the meet, and Castillo, Ashford and Fierro were double-winners.
Castillo captured the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, and she also competed on her school’s first-place 200 medley relay along with Fernanda Rodriguez, Ximena Gonzalez and Sofia Gonzalez. In that same relay, SJA was second and Los Fresnos third.
Ashford won the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke. Notable for Ashford was that his time in winning the 100 breaststroke was 59.96 seconds, which was believed to be the first time he dipped under 1 minute in the event.
It was also a day of distinction for Fierro, who set SJA school records in winning the 50 and 100 freestyles in 23.04 and 50.65 seconds, respectively. Teammates Davila and Hainley were winners in the boys 200 freestyle and girls 100 freestyle, respectively, making it quite an enjoyable outing for the Bloodhounds, who picked up some second places from those swimmers as well.
Los Fresnos’ Besteiro won the 50 freestyle and was second in the 100 freestyle in the girls competition.
Continuing the strong showings by city private schools, Brownsville First Baptist’s Carreon won the 100 butterfly and took second in the 100 freestyle in the boys division.
CHESS GAME
Although district meets for Valley teams are still two months away in late January, Rosales said even at this nearly midpoint of the season coaches never stray too far from trying to figure out which events might allow their swimmers to score the best and contribute to a possible conference title.
“It’s definitely all about strategy and where the coaches put their swimmers to score the most points (at the district meet),” said Rosales, once a coach herself before taking over duties as an administrator at the Clark Center.
The District 32-5A Meet involving Pace and Porter is scheduled for Jan. 22 at the Clark Center. The District 32-6A Meet is set for Jan. 30 in Harlingen.
The regional meet for 6A teams is scheduled Feb. 5 and 6 at the Clark Center, and the regional meet for 5A teams will take place on the same dates in Corpus Christi.
UPCOMING
The Valley’s top swimmers and divers will be competing this weekend at a Texas Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (TISCA) qualifying meet in Corpus Christi.
The Valley’s next big meet is set for Dec. 5 at Harlingen’s recently opened aquatic facility.
The Pre-Regional Meet is scheduled Dec. 11 and 12 at the Clark Center.
The Brownsville City Meet is on tap Dec. 18 at the Clark Center.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.