SPORTS

Fourth trip's a charm for Lockney's Ramos

Ramos qualified for the UIL state track and field meet all four years of high school.

Don Williams
Lockney's Tanae Ramos wins a bronze medal in the 100 meter dash during the UIL State Track Meet on Saturday in Austin. (Zach Long)

AUSTIN - Lockney senior Tanae Ramos qualified for the UIL state track and field meet all four years of high school. Finally, she had more than a program and a t-shirt to take back home as mementoes.

Ramos won a silver medal in the girls' triple jump and a bronze medal in the 100 meters, both in the Class 1A Division I meet that unfolded Saturday night on the University of Texas campus.

Although the 100 served as Ramos' ticket to Austin each of the previous three years, it was the triple jump in which she did her best work Saturday. She went 37 feet, 9 ¾ inches for second place.

Ramos was a four-time qualifier in the 100 and moved up a little higher in the standings each year. She missed the medal stand by one one-hundredth of a second last year with a fourth-place showing, but her time of 12.59 seconds was good enough to place Saturday.

"I feel like I performed really good," she said. "It's my first time going in the triple jump and fourth time coming in the 100, and I've gotten better every single year. I'm glad and I'm blessed to be on the medal stand. The triple jump, I'm super excited about."

Several other South Plains athletes made off with more than one medal Saturday night. At the Saturday night session, the small-school 1A Division I athletes had their meet simultaneous with the Class 5A competition, before a crowd of more than 19,000 at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

The Sudan boys' 1,600-meter relay took second, which made it a two-medal meet for Barry Johnson and Tanner Fisher. Earlier in the meet, Johnson ran third in the 300-meter hurdles and Fisher got second in the high jump.

The Hornets posted a time of 3 minutes, 22.05 seconds in the relay with Jelmer Vanderlei and Reece Harper as the other two legs.

"I couldn't have done any more," said Harper, the anchor leg. "I left it all out on the track, for sure."

Johnson's third-place time in the 300 hurdles was 39.34 seconds. That left him well short of the classification record - 37.44 - which was set in 1983 by Johnson's father, also named Barry Johnson, who did it for Amherst.

Barry Jr. has another year left to pursue a gold medal and his dad's record, which they've discussed.

"Oh, so many times. It's crazy," Johnson said. "Like every day, every time I go home, he's there. He's like, 'When are you going to get my record?' He's wanted me to break it real bad, and I'm going to get it."

Sudan, which also had a bronze-medal performance from sophomore Landon Williamson in the 800 meters (2:00.06), finished sixth in the team standings with 36 points. Right behind the Hornets was New Deal in seventh place.

The Lions got 28 of their 34 points from relay teams. Ladareon Hunter, V.J. Gamez, Xavier Hernandez and Demetrius Jackson started the evening session getting third in the sprint relay in 42.96. A little later, Gamez, Sebastian Hartless, Hernandez and Jackson ran a time of 1:29.50 for second place in the 800-meter relay, after which Jackson hustled off to prepare for the 200. He took third in that event in 22.34.

On the 800 relay, Gamez and Hernandez are seniors, Hartless a sophomore and Jackson a junior. They held off Timpson and Stamford, both of whom broke 1:30, for second.

"Us two as seniors, we pushed with everything we had," Gamez said. "It's our last race, maybe ever, so we gave it all we had. Our last leg, he brought it home for us. We set up our last leg to go out there and contend to at least get top three."

Gamez said the Lions' relay team members were dedicating their performances to their coach, Kyle Carver.

"It's monumental for us, and our coach has been there for 35 years," he said. 'The medal's not for us; it's for him. All these years, he's pushed his track teams over and over and over, and it's good to see him get a team there and place top three in state."

don.williams@lubbockonline.com

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