Make way for St. Joe
The St. Joseph Academy girls finally took over. And they didn’t even run this past weekend.
The 2007 track and field regular season wrapped up last week with district meets across the Valley.
As expected, Rio Grande City cruised to the 30-5A girls’ crown scoring 162 points at their meet in La Joya.
The Lady Rattlers dominated the Valley’s track and field scene all season standing head and shoulders above the rest through most of the year.
But as the season winded down, teams like St. Joseph and Harlingen South closed the gap between top-ranked RGC and the rest of the group in the weekly Mythical Standings.
The Lady Bloodhounds really made a move the last few weeks coming within a couple of points last week of taking over the top spot.
This week they finally did it. SJA scored 101 points to take over the top spot with RGC trailing at 99 points.
Harlingen South remains at third with 68 points and San Benito — which recently won it’s first ever district title — is fourth with 49 points. Brownsville Rivera rounds out the top five with 33 points.
The Lady Bloodhounds really came on strong after winning the Meet of Legends in March. It was their first win of the season at the time.
The Lady Bloodhounds have the best 800- (1:45.25) and 1,600-meter (3:59.92) relay times this season. SJA’s Micaela Hernandez has the Valley’s Bests top times in the 200- (25.28) and 400-meter (58.40) dashes as well.
Prior to this week, SJA had the top three times in the 300-meter hurdles. Harlingen South’s Kassandra Larios ran the season’s third-fastest time last week at the 31-5A meet but St. Joseph still has three of the top four times.
The Lady Bloodhounds run in their district meet on April 27-28 and look in good shape to reclaim the league crown.
In the meantime, it’s practice, practice, and practice for
head coach Meme Garza’s group.
And if practice truly does make perfect, I can’t wait to see the times these Lady Bloodhounds will post next weekend.
ON THE PROWL: He’s only a sophomore but Mercedes’ Alex Trevino already left his mark in the District 32-4A — and Valley — record books.
Trevino broke the district record in the 200-meter dash winning the sprint in 21.22 at the league meet in Weslaco last week.
Trevino’s time is also the seventh-best all-time in the Valley record books.
Former San Benito sprinter and Olympic gold medallist Bobby Morrow holds the Valley record at 20.98. Sharyland’s Mike Spratt (21.08, 1962), RGC’s Rey Ramirez (21.13, 1986), McAllen Memorial’s Louie Ontiveros (21.13, 1998), PSJA’s Albert Mancha (21.18, 1964) and McAllen’s Mark Morgan (21.20, 1987) round out the Valley’s top six times.
Mercedes boys’ 800 relay also set a new district record winning their race in 1:31.07.
WARRIORS COME OUT AND PLAY: Santa Rosa’s boys and girls teams traveled to Riviera for the 32-2A meet and took care of business.
The Lady Warriors won the mile and sprint relays and scored 154 points in the win well ahead of second-place Banquete (101).
Hurdler Ashley Romero won gold in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. Sprinter Brittany Penny added gold in the 200-meter dash as well.
The Lady Warriors earned the bulk of their points in the running finals. Santa Rosa won only one gold in the field events. Senaida Rodriguez grabbed gold in the shot put.
On the boys’ side, Santa Rosa edged out Freer, 152.5-146.
Santa Rosa won all three relays in their effort and Travis Villanueva and Fernando Ruiz doubled up on gold medals too.
Villanueva won gold in the 800- and 1,600-meter runs. And Ruiz - the Santa Rosa Speedster - nabbed first-place medals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Eladio Jaimez covers track and field for the Valley Morning Star. He can be reached at 956-430-6285 or eladioj@valleystar.com
