By MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
While athletes from all over the Rio Grande Valley convened in Brownsville for the 63rd running of the Sams Relays, two teams stood above the rest.
The Weslaco High girls and the Harlingen High boys dominated the team standings and took home meets championships Saturday afternoon at Sams Stadium in Brownsville.
Weslaco High totaled 129.50 points as a team thanks to wins in the 400- and 1600-meter relays as well as a 33-point day from Eleanor Arndt, who won gold in the triple and long jumps and competed on three relay teams.
It was the second meet win in a row for the Weslaco High girls.
“It’s early in the year and we’re trying to be competitive and trying to get our work in — that’s the main thing for us,” Weslaco head track coach Pablo Almaguer said. “It was good to see the girls compete and do well. We had a couple of bumps in the road, which I think is good for us at this time of year.
“This time of the year is a great time to be winning meets, but we’re always preparing for the end of the year.”
Palmview placed second with 84 points, while Hanna (73), Weslaco East (56) and Los Fresnos (54) rounded out the top five.
The Harlingen High boys placed first with 138.50 points, winning five track events, two field events and the 400-meter relay. Harlingen also had Jose Garcia emerge as the high-point male athlete with wins in the 100-meter dash and long jump.
“All the work we’re putting in during practice is showing at the meets and that’s the biggest thing,” Harlingen head coach Efrain Ambriz said. “We’re always trying to get better every meet down the road and be running our best at district, area, regionals and hopefully state.”
Coming in second on the boys side was the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers, who had a strong showing with 89 points, followed by Weslaco East (83), Edinburg Vela (83) and Los Fresnos (43).
A few metro-area athletes turned in big days and took home some hardware.
For the boys, Brownsville Veterans thrower Andres Bodden won gold in both the discus and shot put.
In the discus, Bodden posted a mark of 162 feet, 1 inch and a 49-02 in the shot put. Teammate Max Carmona won the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 1.65 seconds.
On the girls side, Los Fresnos’ Brianna Alex won both the 100-meter hurdles (15.41) and the 300-meter hurdles (48.46), while teammate Luisa Cruz won the 200-meter dash (26.07).
Rivera distance runner Andrea De la Rosa won a pair of medals on the day.
She started the day by taking first in the 3200-meter run with a time on 11:45.81 after passing Sharyland’s Valeria Diaz during the final 100 meters and finished the 1600-meter run in second with a time of 5:28.78.
Hanna’s Audren Pineda captured gold in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.42.
Teammate Rebekah Schlatter led Hanna with 20 points, taking home silver in the 100 hurdles (16.51) and the triple jump (35-03.