HARLINGEN — It was a Harlingen CISD sweep as the South Hawks and Cardinals finished atop the competition in their Invitational meet at Boggus Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
On the boys side, the Hawks finished first in the standings thanks to their dominant performance in the field events. Meanwhile, Harlingen High came in second, followed by Weslaco High in third.
On the girls side, it was the exact opposite as the Lady Cardinals won gold, followed by the Lady Hawks and, in third, San Benito.
South track coach Ralph De La Rosa was pleased with his boys team and how it performed, but believes it is still a work in progress.
“We finished first, second and third in the shot put, which pushed us through the field events,” said De La Rosa. “Any time you can do that, you put yourself in good shape for the rest of the meet.”
Chase Harrell, Andrew Ott and Sky Tatum were the competitors for South in the shot put and placed respectively in that order.
In the discus, South’s Abel Villarreal stole the show by placing first with a toss of 161-feet, 9-inches.
“I practiced pretty well this week and all of our guys that came out today did what we needed to do, and it felt great today,” said Villarreal. “This is good confidence booster that we need for the rest of the season. These guys definitely have the skill because they put in the work, so it’s a good confidence booster to push in the coming meets.”
On the running side of it, Israel Villarreal placed seventh in the 110-meter hurdles, but later redeemed himself in the 300 hurdle race where he finished second.
Villarreal also went on to capture bronze as part of South’s 4×400-meter relay team.
“The 110 was a really good race for me, unfortunately I had some circumstances that messed me up but I came back in the 300. I made it my goal to win that,” said Villarreal. “My relay team and I have been fighting since the beginning, so I’m proud of all these guys.
“Today’s win is motivation for all of us since we didn’t get that many points in the past couple of meets, so this is an inspiration for all of us to just keep moving forward.”
As for the Cardinals, Devin Rosas was the standout performer for the team as he finished first in the triple jump and high jump.
Rosas also won gold as part of the 4×200-meter relay.
Another notable standout for the Cards was long distance runner Edward Ramos, who swept the competition in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
“I liked what I saw today. I think they performed really well and we’re still going to evaluate our guys heading into district,” said Harlingen coach Efrain Ambriz. “We got a good taste of what we’re going to see in district and we’re going to continue to get better every day.”
Leading the way for the Lady Cards was Yazmine Martinez, who took gold in the 100 and 400 runs. She was also part of the gold-medal winning 4×400 relay team, along with Kristen Kattan, Desiree Sanchez and Juliana Guerrero, who took first place in the triple jump and high jump as well.
