- The San Benito Lady Greyhound track team is shown earlier this week at the high school before departing to the District 32-5A track preliminaries. (Staff photo by Francisco E. Jimenez)
By CHRISTY CORTEZ &
MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
San Benito News
Remember the numbers five and one … chances are the San Benito Lady Greyhound varsity track athletes will never forget.
Five equals the amount of District 32-5A titles the Lady ’Hounds have won consecutively, number one is where San Benito now ranks among ladies track programs in recent memory, securing what many argue is now a dynasty.
Not bad for a bunch of underclassmen.
“This is a young group that wanted to keep the tradition alive and just worked really hard this year. Them being so young, they stepped up and came through when a lot of teams thought that we didn’t have a shot,” said Danny De La Rosa, head track coach for the girls varsity team and a state champion back in his San Benito High School days.
Following a strong performance in field events and preliminaries Tuesday, San Benito came into the finals Thursday in Weslaco ready for a five-peat performance. They didn’t disappoint.
2 comments
It was nice to see the five time Track Champions in the paper but disappointing to see my daughter Melizza Duncan not in the picture or even mentioned in the article. Being it was a “Team” that won this I think all team members should have been mentioned. Not only did my daughter compete but she placed 5th in the long jump which gave her team 2 points, that might not matter to everyone in San Benito but it mattered to her family. As a freshman she placed in the district meet. I’m sure other parents feel the same but don’t make it known. This was a big honor to her and to see her name on the RGV sports web site made her feel great but her own hometown paper doesn’t recognize her or her other team mates though she is not advancing on she is still a district winner and part of the team. I think every team member should have had their names in the paper. I look at it as if we wasted our money on our hometown paper and maybe should have bought the Harlingen paper. A hometown paper should be for all in the hometown.
Author
Thank you for your comment. Please keep in mind, however, that the San Benito News makes every effort to include the achievements of all athletes. With that said, if you for whatever reason believe your daughter, or anyone else’s exclusion was intentional then you’re incorrect. It simply was a matter of coaches responding to questions regarding who qualified for regionals in girls track. If your daughter did not qualify for regional competition, then obviously her name wouldn’t have been mentioned by coaches. No more, no less.
As far as the picture is concerned, understand that we’re at the mercy of the high school schedule, and barring holding over the story for another edition (when it wouldn’t be considered news anymore), there was no other way to schedule another photoshoot with everyone present in enough time.
On another note, buying “the Harlingen paper” would have gotten you nowhere. We were the only publication to feature the team winning its fifth straight title. In fact, I believe we still are – no one has really caught on. So remember, this hometown paper carries more hometown coverage than other publications combined, and with less resources to boot.
Again, thank you for your concern, ma’am. Please keep reading.