WESLACO — The Weslaco High track program swept the District 31/32 area meet held in Weslaco’s Bobby Lackey Stadium Thursday.
The boys team bounced back from a third-place finish in district to narrowly won the area championship with 80 points, one point above PSJA Southwest (79 points) and four points above District 32-6A champions Harlingen South (76 points). Brownsville Rivera finished the meet in fourth place with 75 points.
“We did well today because all the kids performed,” said Weslaco coach Gus Cabrera. “All year long I’ve been telling these guys that it’s going to come down to the mile relay. At district it came down to the mile relay between us and Harlingen South and we ended up in third place.
“But overall our kids performed and that’s all we can ask that they do.”
The Panthers had two athletes set area records. Weslaco’s Alexander Lara ran a 14.59 110-meter hurdles, breaking the previous mark of 14.63 set by Harlingen High’s Roman Hernandez in 2014.
“It feels good to break the record, but I think I could have done a lot better with a faster time,” said Lara. “I was a little rusty going through the first hurdle but afterward I just finished strong and aimed for the record, which was all I was hoping for.”
But that wasn’t all as Lara took home a total of five medals including two golds (110-meter hurdles and 4×200-meter relay) and three bronze medals (300-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump.)
Lara wasn’t the only athlete to set new area marks as teammate Jon Zapata also set a new personal best in the pole vault.
“It felt good breaking the record, honestly,” said Jon Zapata. “I’ve been working hard and busting my butt in practice, so going over that 15-foot mark felt amazing. I didn’t even know that record was 14-6, honestly, but I was just focused on my personal best and getting 15 was just amazing and I’m grateful for all of that.”
Harlingen South, meanwhile, didn’t do as well as they had hoped. After winning the area meet last year and winning the District 32-6A meet this year, the Hawks fell four points shy of a repeat. However, South finished the meet on a high note winning the mile relay with a time of 3:25.68.
“A lot of things came our way in that last race and that brought the totals a lot closer than what I though it was going to be,” said Harlingen South track and field head coach Ralph De La Rosa. “Moving forward, like I said last week, we worry about ourselves as we try to get ready. We did not have a perfect meet today, but I don’t think anybody did. I thought everybody competed well and when you look at the results it was a pretty strong meet.”
Harlingen High’s Devin Rosas and Roel Renterria both took home first-place medals. Rosas won first place in the high jump clearing 6-5, meanwhile Renterria collected his gold on the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.36.
“Rosas has done a tremendous job all season and has been one of our main guys this year, and I’m really proud of him for finally getting to that point and getting to regionals,” said Harlingen High head coach Efran Ambriz. “Renterria has come a long way so we expect bigger and better things from him at regionals and, of course, next year.”
On the girls side, the Weslaco Lady Panthers won their fifth consecutive area championship. The Lady panthers finished with a whopping 121.5 points, well ahead of second-place Harlingen High, which finished with 74 points, and Edinburg High, which finished with 72. Edinburg Vela finished in fourth place with 69.5 points.
“It’s a testament to how all our girls work year in and year out,” said Weslaco high girls track head coach Pablo Almaguer. “I’m very proud of this group. Every year is a new challenge and I tell the girls that last year is last year and we have to put in the same work as we do every year. We weren’t as big of a team as last year, but they were hungry and worked hard every day.”
Another athlete to make some noise was Harlingen South’s Caroline Grannum. The freshman’s 37-foot triple jump eclipsed the previous mark of 36-8 set by Los Fresnos’ JaleahCalvillo in 2015.
