By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
The track & field season tried to get going last week, but cold temperatures forced cancellations and premature endings to a couple of meets across the Rio Grande Valley.
That won’t be the case today, as a better weather forecast is on the horizon for today’s 64th running of the Sams Relays at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
The meet will get going at 9 a.m. with preliminaries and finals of all field events, followed by track prelims at 10:30 a.m. and finals starting at 3:30 p.m.
One bunch that did manage to get a few events in during last week’s Bobby Morrow relays were the Brownsville Hanna Lady Golden Eagles, who received wins from Jacqueline Mora and Aniel Aguero in the 100- and 800-meter runs, respectively, as well as a second-place finish in the 400-meter relay.
Hanna coach Olaya Teran is hoping to iron out the details as far as who’s running where as the season goes on, starting with today’s meet.
“We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We have those relays and those individual events with the 800, 400 and the 100, and probably 200 dash with Jacqueline Mora. We’re trying to see if we’re going to run her in the 100 and 200 because we’re going to load up on the relays, so we’ll see. It’s going to be good competition, which is good. It’s going to be a long day with good competition and a lot of schools with good runners.”
In addition to Aguero winning the 800, Hanna also had two other girls finish in the top five with Nadia Sifuentes placing third and Russia Pyle coming in fifth.
Also, Hanna is looking at Aguero in the 400 as she eyes Teran’s Sams Relays record of 58.24.
One team looking forward to the Sams Relays after not running at all last week is the defending District 32-6A champion Harlingen High Cardinals.
Harlingen High was scheduled to open at the PSJA High Winter Relays but the weather forced a full cancellation of the event, making today’s meet the season opener for the Cardinals. Coach Efrain Ambriz said the competition, along with the meet having a prelims and finals format, makes for an ideal atmosphere.
“The guys have been practicing for a few months, so they’re ready to get at it,” he said. “Even though we missed last week, going to Brownsville is one of the premier track meets in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s fun, it’s exciting and the format’s a little different. It’s more similar to the way district is run in terms of prelims and finals, with the added twist of having to do it all in one day. So you get a good workout, which is what you’re looking for, to get these kids in the best shape possible, and Sams is great for that.”
This season, Ambriz is looking for big things from the sophomore trio of Pedro Luna, Jose Garcia and Caden Feeks. All three qualified for the regional meet last year as freshmen.
Luna and Garcia are sprinters competing in the 400 relay as well as the long jump, and Feeks will try his hand in the high jump.
Other schools set to compete today are Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Lopez, Brownsville Rivera, Brownsville St. Joseph, Los Fresnos, Raymondville, Edinburg Vela, Edinburg North, McAllen High, Monte Alto, Sharyland Pioneer, the Corpus Christi Carroll boys, and the Weslaco High and McAllen Rowe girls.