Lady Falcons win third consecutive regional title

BROWNSVILLE — When Los Fresnos coach Jaime Perez asked his athletes, “Who’s the No. 1 team in the Valley?” on Friday night, the Lady Falcons loudly responded, “We are!”

They proved to be the No. 1 team in the region with a resounding win in the Region VIII-6A swimming & diving meet at Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center. Los Fresnos accumulated 418 points and the Lady Falcons clinched their third straight regional title, qualifying several athletes for the state meet in the process.

“First, I want to thank God for my many blessings, which include the opportunity to coach student-athletes and help them accomplish their swimming and academic goals,” Perez said. “I congratulate our swimmers for rallying together to defend their regional title, making it three in a row. When they work as hard as they do and do all the little things, to get to the next level is something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.

“Winning is a new experience every single time,” Perez added. “Every victory is special, and we work hard for each and every championship. As we head to state, our goal is to keep elevating the level of swimming in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Laredo United (313 points) finished second and Laredo Alexander (300) finished third. Mission High (252) and Harlingen South (187) rounded out the top five teams.

Los Fresnos battled to win two of the three relays. The Lady Falcons started the meet by swimming a 1:56.13 to take gold in the 200-yard medley relay, comprised of Ariana Mancillas, Maria Jimena Trevino, Jada Ashford and Rebeca Osuna. Osuna, a senior, swam an impressive final leg to overtake Laredo United for the win. The quartet also made up the gold-medal winning 200 freestyle relay.

“I love the relays because it’s the team event, and they were really close. We had to come from behind on both of our state qualifying relays, so that made it special,” Perez said.

Ashford, a sophomore, was named the athlete of the meet, which she also accomplished last week at the District 32-6A meet. She won both of her individual races, swimming a 24.22 in the 50 freestyle and a 53.81 in the 100 freestyle to qualify for her second straight state meet.

Ashford wasn’t thrilled with her times, but she was happy with her team’s success and is “very excited” to return to the big stage.

“I thought I could go a lot faster, but the type of meet it was, with prelims and finals in the same day, that took a toll on my performance. A little more rest would’ve done a lot,” Ashford said. “It feels really good to see everything that I worked for be worth it, despite my times. I feel a lot more prepared now that I’ve experienced the crowd, the swimmers (at state). I know what to expect in two weeks.”

Osuna, Mancillas and Trevino finished second in individual races and could advance to state if their times are among the top eight overall from all swimmers among the eight regional meets.

Harlingen South’s Camille Conlu Lizada was the only other Valley swimmer to advance to state from the Region VIII-6A meet, winning the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:01.97. She also anchored South’s 200 and 400 freestyle relays, which both finished third. Lizada finished second in the 100 backstroke, putting herself in contention to qualify with her time to compete at state.

Weslaco High’s Ivy Hernandez (200 freestyle), Mission High’s Jaquelyn Seledon (500 freestyle) and the Lady Falcons’ Citabria Barrales (200 IM, 100 backstroke) and Kallyia Seanz (100 butterfly) earned bronze medals. Harlingen High and Mission High were third and fifth, respectively, in a competitive 200 medley relay race.