AUSTIN — Sharyland Pioneer’s Daisy Monie and Rio Grande City’s Serina Ramirez continued the Rio Grande Valley’s long-standing tradition of producing top-notch throwers with strong showings at the UIL’s Class 5A State Track & Field Championships.
Both took home top-five finishes to highlight the Valley’s pack of field event state qualifiers at the state meet Friday at Mike A. Meyers Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin.
In her return to the 5A state championships, Monie earned the top finishes of any RGV athletes after qualifying in both shot put and discus.
The Pioneer senior won fourth place in the discus — her third time qualifying for the state finals in the event — with a throw of 139 feet and 2 inches.
Monie’s best performance of the day, though, came in the shot put finals after qualifying for the state meet in the event for the first time in her high school career after capturing second at the Region IV-5A meet in mid-April.
She recorded a toss of 43 feet, 10.75 inches, which bested her marks from both the area and regional meets and won her a silver medal and spot on the podium. Monie finished second after being edged out by Laredo Martin’s Melanie Duron, the Region IV champ, who took the state title with a 45-foot throw.
“It feels great to be amongst the top three. I’m so happy that I’m out here again. Coming out here for the first time ever in shot put and medaling, that’s just a blessing in itself,” Monie said. “The Valley is slept on a lot, so I’m just so grateful that first, second and fourth place were from the 956. That’s just so awesome.”
Ramirez also qualified in both shot put and discus in her debut at the state championships.
(Special To The Monitor / Photo By Edward A. Ornelas)
Rio Grande City’s star thrower placed fourth in the shot put as the youngest athlete in the finals and nearly set a new season record with a throw of 39 feet, 8.25 inches to put all three Region IV state qualifiers among the top four finishers in the event.
She took home sixth place in the discus with a 126-foot, 10-inch throw to cap off a strong sophomore season that included a district championship in shot put and a pair of third-place finishes at the regional meet.
“It feels really good,” Ramirez said. “It’s been a big opportunity to throw here and I feel very proud of myself.”
Monie’s strong showing at the state meet brings a prolific high school career to a close and places an exclamation point finish on the end of a historically dominant senior campaign.
The Diamondbacks’ standout medaled in 19 of 20 events throughout a condensed track and field season in the Rio Grande Valley with limited opportunities to compete.
(Special To The Monitor / Photo By Edward A. Ornelas)
Monie captured dual district and area titles, won the Region IV title in shot put and shattered the Valley’s all-time discus record with a 47-foot, 2-inch throw in late March.
She also continued her family’s legacy by medaling at the state championships after her older sister, Nora, won a state title in discus as a senior at Pioneer in 2015. Now Monie is set to follow in her sister’s footsteps again by continuing her career collegiately as a Houston Cougar.
“I feel great and I’m thankful,” she said. “It wasn’t my best meet at all, but I’m grateful for this opportunity to come out here and represent the Valley, my family, my church and my coaches. It’s been a great four years and I can’t feel sad. I’m very thankful.”
Ramirez, meanwhile, has cemented her status as the Valley’s major contender for a state championship in both shot put and discus after advancing to the state meet in both in her first opportunity.
She is set to headline the South Texas track and field scene for Rio Grande City for the next two years as the only returning boys or girls thrower with state championship experience.
“This experience has been very beneficial for me for next year so I can take this with me, good or bad,” Ramirez said. “It’s been very good and I can come back confident next year. I will be competing here (at the state meet) for the next two years and I will be a state champion.”
(Special To The Monitor / Photo By Edward A. Ornelas)
A pair of mid-Valley athletes earned top-seven finishes, too, in field events at the 5A state championships.
Edcouch-Elsa senior Jesse Contreras, the Region IV champion, nailed a 53-foot, 8-inch throw to capture seventh place in a crowded boys shot put field.
Contreras became the second member of his family to advance to the state championships for the Yellow Jackets as a thrower after his sister, Mackenzie, took seventh and eighth place in shot put at the state meet in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Donna High junior Emily Jones won sixth place in the girls high jump tallying a leap of 5 feet, 2 inches. The mark represents Jones’ third-highest jump of the season after seizing individual district, area and regional titles for the Bravettes in April.
A pair of Valley distance runners began the day in the boys 3,200-meter run, as Sharyland High junior Diego Heredia earned a sixth-place finish with a time of 9:31.47 and PSJA Memorial senior Williams Macias finished in eighth after clocking in at 9:48.21 and overtaking Lucas Lovejoy’s Tate Barr on the final lap.
Macias, who led all 5A RGV track and field athletes by qualifying for state in three events, also earned sixth and eighth-place finishes in the 800 and 1,600-meter runs, respectively.
The Wolverines’ senior finished less than 3.5 seconds behind Denton Ryan’s Jackson Parrish for first place in the 800 with a time of 1:55.71 and passed Frisco Heritage’s Soham Patil on the final lap en route to a 4:28.20-second place in the 1,600.
The McAllen High girls 4×400 meter relay team of Sabrina Garza, Charlotte Beck, Abbigail Villafranca and Leslie Sequera ended the night by finishing with a time of 3:59.54 to earn an eighth-place finish.
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