Lady Panthers are on a roll to their state goal

WESLACO - The second powerlifting meet of the season brought a second first place finish for the girls Weslaco team.

The event took place on Saturday where the Lady Panthers captured top honors out of 20 teams at the Rio Grande City Invitational.   Weslaco totaled 54 points while Los Fresnos came in second with 32 points and Zapata in third. Three more girls also qualified for regional competition on top of the six that secured their spots last week. Emily Guerra (97-pound weight class) captured first place for the second straight week, accumulating 550 points, while Alexsa Mora (114) captured 650 points, Tashika Sandoval (198) got 805 and superheavy weight Sasha Martinez came away with 1,070 points.  

Head coach Raul Villarreal said his team never fell behind, but did get a bit of a scare.

“It was a battle all the way till the end,” Villarreal said. “The margin was pretty great, but we came back.”

Shelbi Foerster (148-pound), Denis Martinez (181) and Priscilla Ortiz (superheavyweight) all came away with second place finishes.

After losing all but three girls to graduation, Villarreal is happy his young squad can respond to challenges posed by other Valley teams. One of his surprising newcomers is Guerra, who never participated in powerlifting and now has two first place finishes on her resume. Martinez is one of the veterans on the squad and the defending superheavyweight champion has lived up to her high expectations.

“That’s what I like about these girls, they rise to the occasion,” Villarreal said.

Up next for Villarreal’s bunch is a trip to Laredo to compete in the Cigarroa Invitational Meet on Saturday. Villarreal said teams from Laredo, Del Rio and San Antonio area are expected to compete along with many of the Valley schools.