By LARRY GAGE
Special to the PRESS
The bad news is that Port Isabel’s winning streak at the district track meet has ended. The good news is that it was another gold rush for the Lady Tarpons, as individuals, and a number of them advanced to compete in this week’s area meet at Kingsville.
The Lady Tarpons had won the team title at the last four district track and field meets, and they led host team La Feria, 87 points to 72, at the conclusion of the first day’s events. In the end, it was La Feria, with 191 points, just ahead of Port Isabel’s 187 points. No one else was in contention. RGC Grulla was a distant third in the team race with 80 points.
The Lady Tarpons were as good, or better, as they have been all season, collecting a total of 11 gold medals, nine individual and two in relay races.
Leading the way was Gabby Torres, who collected five golds, and Simone Harry, who won four. Ava Gomez was awarded three gold medals.
Torres earned her hardware with first-place finishes in the 100-meter hurdles, the long jump, and the high jump. She also ran in the victorious 4×200-meter and 4×400-meter relays. Harry won gold by winning the 400-meter dash and the triple jump and she was also in on the two relay wins, as was Gomez who also came home first in the 300-meter hurdles.
“We had a great handoff and I had a really great lead,” Harry said Monday about the 4×200. “All I had to do was maintain. The three of them did some major work out there and we PR’d.”
Amaya Lampkin, who ran the opening leg of the 4×200 relay, said they are continuing to practice on grass; “We don’t want to do anything too strenuous to where our legs are too tired or get injured.”
Other gold medalists for P.I. were Daniela Murchison, in the shot put and discus events, and Alex Martinez, who topped everybody in the pole vault.
“It was a little stressing because I only had two weeks of practice,” Martinez said Monday at practice. “I didn’t do it for a year but I got the hang of it and I actually like it again.”
But it was La Feria’s depth that allowed the Lady Lions to come from behind for the team title. “For every one we had in the finals they had two,” head Lady Tarpon coach Julie Breedlove told the Press Monday. “For every two (of ours) they would have three. In the hurdles we got first and got 10 points. They got third and fourth and also got 10 points.”
A huge difference was also the fact that Port Isabel had no one to run the 1,600-meter or the 3,200-meter races. La Feria’s Tina Sierra won both events by wide margins.
It came down to the last event, the 4×400-meter relay. “We had to win the mile relay, with La Feria fourth to tie or win the team title outright if La Feria finished fifth.” Port Isabel won with its fastest time of the year. La Feria was third.
Following are the finishing results for all Lady Tarpon athletes in the finals of last Thursday’s District 32-4A meet: Running events; 100-meter dash; J’yah Cook, fifth-13.08 seconds (first; Milytza Galvan, La Feria, 12.26). 200-meter dash; Amaya Lampkin, third-27.96 (M. Galvan, 27.29). 400-meter dash; Simone Harry, first-1:02.20; Natalie Garza, second-1:02.47. 800-meter run; N. Garza, fifth-2:35.88 (Valerie Gutierrez, 2:32.63). 100-meter hurdles; Gabby Torres, first-15.65 seconds. 300-meter hurdles; Ava Gomez, first, 50.64. Relay Events: 4×100-meters; Port Isabel, third-53.00 seconds, (Jasmine Saldavar, A. Lampkin, Victoria Macias, J’yah Cook). 4×200-meters; P.I., first-1:46.78 (Natalie Garza, S. Harry, A. Gomez, G. Torres). 4×400-meters; P.I., first-4:07.19 (N. Garza, S. Harry, A. Gomez, G. Torres).
Field Events: Shot put; Daniela Murchison, first, 45 feet 3.5 inches. Tiffany Ochoa, third, 32-11.5. Jocelyn Padilla, seventh, 28-11.5. Discus; D. Murchison, first, 126-03.00. T. Ochoa, fourth, 101-10.00. High Jump; G. Torres, 5-00. Madison Bickerton, T-second, 4-10.00. Long jump; G. Torres, first, 17-09.00. A. Gomez, third, 15-04.00. Triple jump; S. Harry, first, 34-03-00. A. Gomez, fourth, 32-07.00. Pole vault; A. Martinez, first, 9-00.
The top four finishers in all events advanced to the area meet at Kingsville, which was held this Thursday (April 23rd).
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