By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
Local summer Track athletes recently traveled to Boerne, TX to compete in the Comets Hill Country Championship meet.
Youngster D’Anthony Howard came away with a pair of first place finishes competing in the (8 & Under) Shot Put and Javelin events.
In the Shot Put event, D. Howard threw for a new personal best of 23’-2.75”, beating the runner up by almost nine feet. He surpassed his previous best of 21’-10.5” he set at last month’s May meet. And when compared to last season, he improved his personal best by almost 3 feet (20’-6.25”)- a feat he accomplished as a 7-year-old in the AAU Track & Field Regional 19 Qualifier.
In the Javelin event, Howard set another personal best with a throw of 49’-7”. An impressive 7-foot improvement from last summer’s personal best of 42’-7” that he set during the AAU South Texas – South District Qualifier.
Meanwhile, older sister Jayda Howard, now in her fourth season of summer track competition, also returned home with a pair of gold medals.
Competing in the Shot Put event, J. Howard had a throw of 33’-10.25”, setting a new personal best. A 3-foot improvement from last seasons personal best of 30’-4.25”.
As well as shed did in the Shot Put, she did even better in the Discus event, throwing for a whopping 97’-3”, greatly outdistancing the runner-up by 30+ feet. Quite an improvement from last season’s personal best of 68’-7” that she accomplished at last year’s AAU Junior Olympics Games.
Both athletes are being trained by their mother, PIECHS coach Johvonne Howard along with her husband. Coach Howard has seen tremendous progress in both of them and expects them to continue developing.
“Both of them have invested enough to this point in their team sports to see increase in skill so they understand that hard work pays off. When it comes to summer track it is fun and they really enjoy it.” Said coach Howard. “Technically speaking, Jayda is in a very critical point in her throwing career, because she is connecting her strength to her technique. This is built progressively and, in most cases, takes 3 seasons to build. She is in that window and that’s where you can visually see the huge increases in distance because the light switch is on. For 12-year-old girls, she has the 3rd best throw in the country. In shotput she has the 5th best throw. She’s taking this more seriously as she’s matured. D’Anthony is having fun throwing far and learning the events. We are very proud of both of them and thank the community for their support. Overall, any type of success comes with a cost. We have many kids that understand the sacrifice and my kids are part of that group.”
Port Isabel Early College High School track stars, Elle Walla and Layla Mata will be competing at a multi-event competition in San Antonio on June 19th.
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