Hawks, Cards shine at meet

EDINBURG - New year, same result.

Harlingen and Harlingen South returned to Cats Stadium to capture the boys and girls District 31-5A championships, respectively, on Saturday.

The Lady Hawks won their fifth straight district title scoring an amazing 193 points to run away with their eight title in 10 years.

Edinburg was second with 87 points and Edinburg North was third with 86.

Verita Grannum stamped her place in South's school history as one of the top athletes ever.

After taking a year off from track, Grannum came back this year as a senior and won four gold medals adding two on Saturday in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Grannum won gold in the long and triple jumps on Thursday too.

Junior Zariah Noyola also bagged three gold medals winning a couple during the running finals.

Noyola won the high jump on Thursday and added first-place finishes in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

On the boys side, the Cardinals needed to wait until the final race of the night to secure their third straight title under fifth-year head coach Harvey Noyola.

Harlingen finished in third in the mile relay to secure the district title.

On Saturday, Harlingen had first-place finishers in the 800 (Ryan McNutt), 400 (Erwin Oliva), 110 and 300 hurldes (Randy Bermea) and the Cards also won the 800 relay.

The Harlingen boys and South girls won district here at Cats Stadium last year when Edinburg ISD was scheduled to host the meet.

Harlingen was scheduled to host the district meet this season but the track and Boggus Stadium has been in horrible shape the past few years.

DISTRICT 32-5A: at Brownsville, the San Benito Lady Greyhounds don't know the meaning of the phrase, "give up."

The Lady Greyhounds' sprint relay got disqualified for running out of their zone to start the district meet at Sams Stadium on Saturday.

But it didn't set the tempo for the rest of the night as San Benito won the mile relay in 4:02.96 to edge out Weslaco for the district title, 166 points to 158.

It was a sweet victory for first-year head coach Danny De La Rosa.

"It was a tough one but the girls fought back and pulled it out," De La Rosa said. "Im so happy right now. It's unbelievable."

It's the Lady Greyhounds third straight district title and third overall in school history.

Cinthia Adame - the Valley's top 800 runner - won her race on Saturday. Samantha Villarreal added two golds in the 100 and 200 and junior hurdler Tina Valenzuela won the 100 and 300 hurdles.

DISTRICT 32-3A: at Raymondville, La Feria got its hands on points here and there as the Lions captured the boys district title scoring 131 points on Saturday at Burnett Stadium.

On Thursday, La Feria captured the top three spots in the high jump. On Saturday, the Lions added gold in the pole vault, 400-meter dash and mile relay as the Lions edged the Port Isabel Tarpons (117 points).

"Everyone contributed," La Feria head coach Johnny Hinojosa said. "We knew Port Isabel was going to be tough and Raymondville was very good too. But we had guys get points her and there and that was the difference tonight.

The Port Isabel Lady Tarpons won the girls title beating out second place La Feria.

PI scored 163 points and La Feria 144 ½.