South Texas Walking Club

National Racewalk Championship

The South Texas Walking Club won its 14^th USATF and 15^th AAU consecutive national racewalking Junior Olympic Championships in Houston and Des Moines on July 22^nd and 27^th, respectively.

There were fifty-eight clubs that competed at the USATF National Championship where the valley club earned a total of seventy points to win the championship. Second place was earned by the Elgin Sharks of Illinois, coached by USA top rated racewalking coach Diane Graham Henry of Chicago. The New Jersey Striders and the Miami Valley track clubs tied for 3^rd place with twenty four points each.

After a successful championship, the club then traveled 980 extra miles to Des Moines, Iowa where they won the National AAU Racewalking Championship with 92 points. Georgia, Missouri and Maryland earned 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th place with 70, 61, and 56 points each.

The South Texas Walking Club is elated with the addition of three new members to their elite group of national gold medal winners. They are: Carolina Hernandez, 10, of PSJA Trevino Elementary who won her gold medal in Houston; Elijah Hernandez, 11, of PSJA Ford Elementary School and Emely Antuna, 13, of PSJA Liberty Middle School who both won their gold medals in Des Moines, Iowa.

Club members winning their fourth national gold medals included PSJA Jefferson EC High School All- Americans, 17-yr-old sophomore Amberly Melendez and 16-yr-old freshman Matias Serna. Also winning her fourth national gold medal was 14-yr-old Julisa Juarez, an eighth grader from PSJA Liberty Middle School. PSJA Southwest High School five time high school All-American graduate Geraldo Flores earned his fifth national gold medal. 14-yr-old high school All-American Jonathan Aguilar, of PSJA Alamo Middle School, earned USATF and AUU gold medals for the second consecutive year bringing the total of national gold medals earned by the South Texas Walking Club to 93 during the past fifteen years, an average of 6.2 medals per year.