Jack Mann won the Texas A&M Bluebonnet High School Inv. with a 17-0.75 PR
Photo Credit: Roderick Pernetter
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This past weekend was huge on the 2022 outdoor track and field season to this point. Earlier, during February, we got glimpses of what teams were stacked and which ones were waiting to breakthrough. Now, we can see more teams poking their heads through to the top of the rankings.
Today, we will recognize teams, as we do in Team Tuesday articles. The teams in today's acknowledgement come from three different areas of the sport; they encompass a true track and field picture across the board. We will highlight the Austin Lake Travis pole vault corps, the Duncanville boys sprinters, and the Flower Mound girls distance crew for their performances this last weekend.
Austin Lake Travis - Pole Vaulters
Lake Travis pole vaulters Emily Fitzsimmons and Jack Mann proved last spring that they were the real deal and more. With one event, they took home two UIL 6A state meet gold medals. They're both back and they are jumping extremely well.
This past weekend, Fitzsimmons won her second consecutive meet. She set a meet record at 12-6 when she won the Lake Travis Inv. two weeks ago. After a weekend of weather related cancellations, she doubled back this past weekend to go higher at 12-9.5 for the win at Texas A&M.
Fitzsimmons is the defending state champion, so it's expected that she would get a lot of attention. However, her squad is loaded with girls who can vault. They went 1, 2, 3 at their home meet with junior Y'Lan Nguyen going 11-6 for second and senior Kade Joslin jumping 11-0 for third. At A&M, after Fitzsimmons led the charge with the win, Joslin came through with an improved performance going from 11-0 up to 12-3.75, which tied her for second until misses gave her fourth place overall. Nguyen jumped 11-3.75 to still finish respectfully.
Mann has been the man this season; he was the sixth best jumper indoors nationally with his 16-6.75 for his vaulting at the Texas Elite Pole Vault Expo Explosion. Coming into the weekend, he had an outdoor best of 16-6, which he used to win the Lake Travis Inv. Continuing his excellence this weekend, he used a huge 17-0.75 to win the meet at Texas A&M. Jumping with a nice tail wind and doing so at his future home, the Aggie commit not only has the TX No. 1 jump, but he is also ranked No. 2 nationally.
That's more than enough to display the talent level of the Lake Travis Vaulting corps, but it doesn't tell the whole story when it comes to the depth they have. Sergio Rivas has yet to get it going well this outdoor season. He doesn't have a mark yet, but that's because he is coming in competitions high.
He was clicking indoors as he jumped 16-0 at the Mac Vault Academy Winter Invitational and at the Carl Lewis HS Inv.
Caden Durham brings the stick home for Duncanville in the 4x100 relay
Photo Credit: Roderick Pernetter
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Duncanville - Boys Sprinters/Relays
Duncanville entered last weekend with the top 4x100 relay in the state and the top 4x200 in the nation. They knew they were capable of more and they proved that this weekend at Texas A&M.
The Panthers ran 1:25.45 in the 4x200 relay on Friday; that wasn't an improvement for them on the season, but still fast enough to be No. 2 nationally only behind . . . themselves.
If you weren't looking close enough, then you could have overlooked Duncanville's 4x800 relay running the state's No. 2 time. Katy Cinco Ranch won the event with a 7:55.72, but the South Dallas half-milers kept pace and even closed ground on the lead in the last two laps. They ran 8:00.84 to rank higher than perennial distance programs like The Woodlands, Houston Strake Jesuit, and Grapevine.
On Saturday, they went back to work. They ran an absurd US. No. 1 4x100 relay with their 40.42 (faster than last year's UIL 6A state meet winning time), but that was just the tip of things to come. After a strong showing in the 100m prelims, Duncanville ramped things up a notch. Senior Pierre Goree ran a 10.41 (w) in the 100m after going 10.40 for the top time in the nation, but he had back up with sophomore Caden Durham pressing him in the finals. Durham ran 10.52 (w) in the prelims and followed that up with a 10.52 in the finals for third place overall.
Also in the race was junior Jaylon Washington. Duncanville is so good in the sprints that they didn't even have Washington on the 4x100. Maybe he wasn't good enough to make the team. Ridiculous statement, right? Yeah it is, considering he ran 10.59 to qualify for the finals and then replicated that time in the finals to place fifth overall. He then PRed in the 200m finals in 21.40 for fourth place.
Know one thing, the Duncanville boys are on a mission after not qualifying for the state track meet last year in the 4x100 relay. They had the lead at the Region 2-6A finals, but a leg cramp caused them to go from first to third and out of qualifying position in the last 20 meters of the race. They held the lead over Cedar Hill, who would go on to eventually win the state championships in the event in 40.49.
Nicole Humphries and Natalie Cook at starting line at Coppell Relays
Photo Credit: Instagram @Sam5humphries
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Flower Mound - Girls Distances
We've seen big time distance marks drop at the Coppell Relays before, so it shouldn't be a surprise that this was another big weekend at the meet. However, it is still impressive with what the Flower Mound girls unleashed. The back-to-back UIL 6A cross country state champs were at full strength for the first time in a track meet in almost two years. Now, we know without a doubt what they are capable of.
In the 800m, sophomore Samantha Humphries won the event, in 2:11.55, which is an improvement from last year's best of 2:16.60. That ranks her No. 1 in the state and fourth nationally in the outdoors event. Right behind Humphries was teammate Natalie Cook; the best distance runner in the nation dropped down in distance and got a 2:12.52 PR. She is now ranked No. 2 in the state and sixth nationally.
Neither Humphries nor Cook were finished, as they lined up on the track again for the 1,600m. Cook would get the win in 4:44.70, which is the sixth fastest 1,600m run all-time by a Texas girl and No. 9 with 1,600m and one mile conversions, per the TTFCA website. The first weekend in March and Cook is just over four seconds from the UIL 6A 1,600m state record of 4:40.97. Humphries would add a second place finish with a time of 4:54.24, which ranks third in the state and eighth nationally.
Nicole Humphries who ran 2:08.30 in the 800m as a freshman last year decided to bypass the event this weekend. However, she added a 4:57.89 for third place making it three girls on the same team with sub 5:00 1,600m performances.
Freshman Alexandra Fox made it a Jaguar sweep as she won the 3,200m in 10:50, that ranks her TX No. 2 in the event this season. She was joined on the podium by University of Tennessee commit and teammate Allison Buemi who ran 11:19.27 for third place.