MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
After taking silver in the 800-meter run at last year’s state track meet, La Feria senior Carlos Rodriguez is heading back to Austin.
This time, he won’t be alone.
Rodriguez finished first in the event with a time of 1:57.58, edging out teammate Reyes Rodriguez who took silver and also punched his ticket to the state meet with a time of 1:57.92 Saturday afternoon at the Region IV-4A meet in Kingsville.
“It was a pretty tight race and Reyes had been competing with Carlos all year and today was no different,” said boys head track coach Everardo Sanchez. “Carlos knew the field was going to push him and both guys went out there and ran hard.”
Also qualifying for state was the Lions’ 4 x 400-meter relay team and 300-meter hurdler Joseph Lunn. Both finished second.
“It’s a great feeling to have all our kids show up, grab some medals and represent the Valley,” Sanchez said. “It was something that has been a long time coming. It’s not something we started this week; it’s been four years in the making.”
Triple jumper Isaiah Martinez took bronze, but has a shot at a wild card spot.
For the girls, Tina Sierra took gold in the 3200-meter run (11:42.25).
Rio Hondo’s Mike Zuniga is also heading back to the state meet after winning the shot put (56-08.50 and taking silver in the discus (158-10).
Over at the Region IV-6A meet in San Antonio, Harlingen’s Chris Rosales and Los Fresnos’ Christian Perales both took silver and qualified for the state meet.
Rosales finished second in the 400-meter run with a time of 48.34.
“It was a great race and there was a lot of competition and it was exactly what I expected,” Rosales said. “I was excited to run against a good field and I was really proud of it. We’re going to have to improve in practice so I can get faster to keep up with the big boys at state.”
Perales finished second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.92, falling to Northside Clark’s Jon Mass’ time of 10.91.