By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
As the track & field season begins, the 61st annual Sams Relays will serve as an early season test for teams today at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Teams include the Brownsville public schools, Los Fresnos , Edinburg Vela, Edinburg High, Harlingen High, San Benito, Weslaco High, Weslaco East, Progreso, Sharyland High, the boys teams from Corpus Christi Carroll and Santa Rosa , and the McAllen Rowe girls team.
The field events and the long distance running events begin at 9 a.m., and the preliminaries for the rest of the running events are slated for 10:30 a.m. The finals are to start at 3:30 p.m. following the awards for the field events.
The Corpus Christi Carroll boys team and the Port Isabel girls team are the defending champions. However, the Lady Tarpons are not competing this year.
Los Fresnos’ girls team was third last year, but that isn’t the main goal.
“It would be nice to win, but we’re not going to lose sleep over it if we don’t,” Los Fresnos coach Johvonne Howard said. “We just want to make sure we’re improving every week.”
The Lady Falcons opened the season last week at the Bobby Morrow Relays in San Benito .
Los Fresnos is using the early season to see where it stands and to get ready for the important tests of the season like the District 32-6A meet.
“We’re using these early meets as workouts in a competitive environment,” Howard said. “We’re gearing up for the Meet of Champions and district. We’re looking to see how our workouts are translating to our events. Are we gaining from it? What do we need to work on?”
The Lady Falcons lost some talent to graduation but still have some experience coming back this season.
“We have an abundance of talent here,” Howard said. “We have several kids that have the ability to score several points. I have a lot of kids to fill those voids and pick up where we left off last year.”
Porter also is competing in its second meet of the season. Last week, the Cowboys were at Steve Stark Relays at Sharyland High.
Porter also considers this meet to see where certain kids fit in various events.
“We’re still trying to find our relay teams,” Porter coach Jaime Pena said. “We want to make sure the kids feel comfortable in different events. I’m looking to see who will help us in district.”
The Cowboys also will worry more about their early season progress regarding time and distance rather than wins. But it will be a good test before the District 32-5A meet later this year.
“We’re excited, but it’s still just preparation for (district),” Pena said. “It’s just good competition.”
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.