East Valley track & field athletes competed in meets throughout the week to keep their seasons alive and advance to regional competitions.
District 32-5A athletes from four Brownsville ISD schools battled against District 31-5A qualifiers in the area meet Thursday in Mercedes. The top four finishers in each event advance to next week’s regional meet at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio.
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers and the Brownsville Lopez Lobos had a big day at Tiger Stadium.
Brownsville Veterans finished sixth in the girls team standings with 43 points. Kimberly Lopez finished second in the discus, and Naia Gracia continued her strong freshman campaign by qualifying in the 800-meter run. Both advanced to the regional as individuals.
Madison Brock, Camila Trevino, Gabriellla Grossman and Aaliyah Calzada teamed up to take fourth in the 400 relay and second in the 800 relay and will be moving on.
Brownsville Porter’s Brianna Franco qualified for the regional in the girls high jump after taking home the silver medal with a jump of 4 feet, 10 inches.
The Lobos advanced two individuals and two relays. Jonathan Munoz finished fourth in the boys triple jump, and Jesus Serrata took fourth in the 100.
The pair also contributed to the relay success. Kenitay Munoz, Jonathan Munoz, Alejandro Martinez and Serrata earned a regional spot with a fourth-place finish in the 400 relay. The same group edged Brownsville Pace to advance in fourth in the 800 relay.
“I think they performed very good, exceptional,” Lopez coach Mike Gonzalez said. “We only have five sprinters on our team, and one of them has been hurting. We had four and they did great. I hadn’t had a (400 relay team) make it in, I can’t even remember, it’s been a long time. The (800 relay team) is carrying on the tradition that we picked up at Lopez. They did excellent and they’re trying to break the school record, so they’ll try to do that at regionals.”
Each Brownsville school advanced at least one boy to the regional meet.
Brownsville Veterans had a pair of high jumpers in Alex Ampadu and Kenneth Davis finish third and fourth, respectively. Nathan Herrera was fourth in the 110 hurdles and will represent Pace. Porter’s Chris Ortiz took bronze in the 400.
The Brownsville St. Joseph track & field teams continued the strong athletic year for the Bloodhounds at the TAPPS 5A District 5 meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Corpus Christi.
Both the boys and girls teams came home with the district championships and had several athletes finish in the top two to advance to the regional meet in Bastrop.
“It was very exciting, and I’m very happy to see the kids do so well,” SJA coach Teddy Lopez said. “Our school has been doing extremely well. They’re just continuing on the success of the year. To have both of them win was pretty thrilling.”
Pedro Cardenas was the top boys performer, taking gold in the 3,200 and silver in the 800 and 1,600. Elise Esparza led the girls with a first-place finish in the 200 and high jump, and a silver medal in the long jump.
SJA advanced 10 boys as individuals to the regional meet and all three relays. A highlight from the meet was having the boys sweep the throwing events. Sergio Martinez and Eduardo Esquivel earned first and second in the shot put, and Blake Fowkes and Julian Gomez went 1-2 in discus.
The Lady Bloodhounds had nine girls advance and all three relays. They won the 800 relay and took gold in three running events. Maria Jose Morales and Alondra Loya swept the girls discus.
“The discus on the first day really set us apart, because in both the boys and the girls, our discus finished first, second and third,” Lopez said. “That’s a very technical event, and our discus coach Rey Cortinas is very knowledgeable and really puts a lot of effort in with those kids. That set the tone for the second day. … We coaches kind of knew, but we were trying to put on our poker faces and say, ‘Hey, we got to keep doing good. We can’t take our foot off the gas.’ They were expecting us to be in it at the end, and they were. They were pretty excited.”
At the 32/31-4A area meet Tuesday in La Feria, the La Feria Lionettes won the girls team title and Raymondville finished fifth. The La Feria Lions and Port Isabel Tarpons finished second and fifth, respectively, in the boys team standings.
Liana Navarro of La Feria earned gold in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs. The Lionettes won all three relays to anchor their big win. Ashley Reath took gold in the long jump and second in the triple jump.
Port Isabel’s Madison Ramos won the high jump, and Rio Hondo’s Karly Lozano won the pole vault.
La Feria’s Julian Dominguez took gold in the 800, Ethan Torres won the 1,600 and Joshua Marquez was first in the 3,200.
Port Isabel’s William Camacho won gold in the 100, long jump and triple jump. Raymondville’s ZaRaiVion Armendarez won the 400, Jayson Cantu was first in the shot put and Bryen Robles took gold in the high jump.
The 4A regional meet will be at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville.
