By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
This past weekend June 19-22, a select group of young local track stars recently competed in the AAU Track and Field District & Region 19 Qualifiers.
Former track star and current PIECHS coach Johvonne Howard has had her two children, D’Anthony and Jayda Howard, competing in the summer track for some time now.
After sharpening their skills in a handful of meets, the sibling duo took their talents to the South Texas District Association Meet (South Qualifier).
Competing in the 8-Year-Old division D’Anthony Howard out threw the competition by some distance on his way to winning the Shot Put championship with a throw of 23’-2”. Howard then won the Javelin competition with a throw of 58’-8”, setting a new personal best.
Next up was Jayda Howard who competed in the 12-Year-Old division. By the end of the competition, J. Howard had captured a pair of gold medals. As the Shot Put champion, she threw for a distance of 34’-0.75”, setting a new personal best. She then followed up by winning the Discus event with a throw of 88’-4”.
Port Isabel also had a middle schooler in Adalyn Samaniego and two PIECHS track stars Layla Mata and Elle Wall compete in multi-event competition.
Samaniego finished in second place competing in the USATF 13-14: Women’s’ 14 Years Old Pentathlon with a Multi Mark (score) of 1777. Finishing in the top three was quite an achievement considering it was her first year participating in summer track.
Competing in five events, Samaniego’s place and result were: 100m Hurdles (4th, 20.81 seconds), 800 Meters Run (1st, 2:46.65 minutes), High Jump (1st, 4’-2.25”), Long Jump (4th, 13’-8.75”), and Shot Put (5th, 21’-2”).
The Heptathlon competition consists of seven different track & field events- the 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, 200 Meters, Long Jump, Javelin, and 800 Meters run. An athlete is awarded a certain number of points based on their order of finish in each event. At the end of the events a total is calculated and a final order of finish is created.
Competing in the Women’s 15-16 Years Old Heptathlon, Mata had a score of 3576 securing herself a second-place finish.
\Mata’s place and results were: 100m Hurdles (7th, 18.19s), 200 Meters Dash (3rd, 27.65s) *, 800 Meters Run (1st, 2:38.05m), High Jump (4th, 4’-7”), Long Jump (4th, 15’-0.5”) *, Javelin (1st, 89’-6”) * and Shot Put (1st, 29’-8.75”) *. *= new personal best.
Competing in the Women’s 17-18 Years Old Heptathlon, Wall earned a silver medal after recording a score of 4608.
Wall’s place and results were: 100m Hurdles (3rd, 16.01s) *, 200 Meters Dash (2nd, 26.10s) *, 800 Meters Run (2nd, 2:28.66m) *, High Jump (2nd, 5’-1”), Long Jump (3rd, 16’-10”) *, Javelin (1st, 114’-1”) * and Shot Put (1st, 34’-2.25”) *.
As per their website, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was created to promote consistent standards across amateur sports. The organization has long supported the Olympic movement by helping athletes prepare for the Olympic Games. Today the AAU includes more than 800,000 participants and 150,000 volunteers.