SAN BENITO — Saturday marked the final day of the District 32-6A track meet, which kicked off Thursday, and a new district champion was crowned on the boys side.
Art Benavides helped guide Harlingen High to the school’s first district title in two years.
Big Red finished with 165 points, in second place was Harlingen South with 114.33 points and in third place was Weslaco High with 82.
“What really helped us was we got the lead in the field events on Thursday,” said Harlingen coach Efran Ambriz. “That cushion helped us out and today we had some hiccups in our relays, but overall our boys came out, performed and brought back the trophy to our school, and that means a lot to us.”
Benavides, who is a senior, took first place in each of his three events, which is a first in program history. Benavides topped out with a 2:03.57 in the 800-meter run, in the mile he finished in 4:29.50 and in the two-mile run he finished with a time of 9:38.70.
“It took a lot of work and preparation coming into this meet,” said Benavides. “We knew it was going to be tough. This was my first meet where I had three events and the objective was to win all three events, and that’s what I did. I have a great coach in Coach Ambriz. He pushes me to get better and we continued to work hard in practice, and we came in and did what we needed to do.”
Harlingen South, meanwhile, swept the field events and placed second overall. Marcus Ramirez finished in first with a 15-00.00 in the pole vault, Chase Harrell placed first in the shot put with a throw of 56-08.00 and teammate Andrew Ott finished in second with a 56-07.00.
In the discus, Sky Tatum finished in first with a throw of 175-07 followed by teammate Bejamin Ruiz, who placed second with a 155-08, and Christian Cortez, who placed third with a 154-06.
“It was a very competitive meet the last few days,” said South coach Ralph De La Rosa. “My hat’s off to Harlingen High. They competed very well and did a great job and finished strong. Now we have to prepare for the area meet. We have different events we will be competing in so it is something we’re looking forward to and aiming to win the area title.”
On the girls side, Weslaco High took home the gold with 165 points followed by Brownsville Hanna and Los Fresnos in third.
Harlingen High, meanwhile, finished in fifth place followed by Harlingen South in sixth and San Benito in seventh place.
In the triple jump, South’s Caroline Grannum finished in first with a jump of 37-00.75 while Annelle Rodriguez placed first in the high jump with a leap of 5-02.00.
