By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
There were strong performances and even some pleasant surprises for St. Joseph Academy at the past weekend’s TAPPS track and field state meet in Waco.
The meet was held Friday and Saturday at Baylor University’s Hart Stadium.
Highlighting the SJA boys’ third-place TAPPS Class 6A team finish were state championship performances by Pablo Zolezzi in the discus and Marte Rodriguez in the 300-meter hurdles along with record-breaking times by the Bloodhounds’ 400- and 800-meter relays consisting of Mario Garcia, Miguel Guerra, Keaton Cackley and Kai Money.
“It was a good day for St. Joseph,” SJA coach Meme Garza said. “The competition was tough and we had a strong showing considering we didn’t really have a lot of athletes there.”
SJA qualified 12 athletes for state — nine boys and three girls.
Garza, the longtime SJA coach, said it appears both relays, besides setting school records, logged times that are the fastest ever run in those events by Brownsville relay athletes.
Both relays took third places as the 800 relay finished in 1 minute, 29.26 seconds and the 400 relay was timed in 42.61 seconds.
“It was one of the best (showings for Brownsville in those two events), that’s for sure,” Garza said.
Also highlighting the weekend for the Bloodhounds were the first-place finishes of Zolezzi in the discus on Friday and Rodriguez in the 300 hurdles on Saturday.
“It feels great winning the state championship for discus considering how much effort I put into practice,” said Zolezzi, who took first in his event with a throw of 147 feet, 4 inches to edge second-place teammate Ricardo Miner’s 142-8 effort. “I knew it would be hard, but I was determined to do my best.”
Added SJA assistant coach Teddy Lopez, “We got a state champion — not in the event we expected. But Pablo Zolezzi really stepped up. He worked hard over the Easter Break and he deserved it.”
Meanwhile, Rodriguez impressed his teammates and coaches by making a late surge to the finish line and winning the 300 hurdles in 40.73 seconds. He also took fourth in the 110 hurdles in 15.86.
“Marte was the hero of the day with his incredible showing and win at the end,” Garza said. “He ran with his heart. It was a beautiful race to watch and it inspired the whole team.”
Gaby Garza, who holds Valley-best times in her events, finished second in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles in 14.62 and 44.41, respectively.
Also in the girls competition for SJA, Leslie de la Llata was third in the discus with a 97-5 and Camryn Gloor was fifth in the pole vault with a 9-6 clearance.
The Bloodhounds’ Michael Lopez was sixth in the pole vault with an 11-0 clearance while Garcia and Guerra finished fourth and sixth in the 200 dash in 22.50 and 23.08, respectively.
Also, Miner was third in the shot put with a 49-6 1/4 toss.
Concordia Lutheran of Tomball won the 6A boys division with 119 points and Dallas Bishop Dunne was second with 97. SJA finished third with 76.