W2W4 At District 5-6A/6-6A Area Championship

There are area championships going down all across the state this week. Some area meets will be a cake walk to the regional championships, but some will be all out royal rumbles.

We will be live streaming the UIL District 5-6A/6-6A Area Championships tomorrow and we are highlighting some of the events to look out for tomorrow.

- - -

Girls Distances

The way Flower Mound (FM) has been running this track season, they could be the first cross country team to win the girls track and field state championship. Natalie Cook recently broke the 5,000m National Record and could be hunting for another one . . . or two. If the weather conditions are good enough, don't be surprised to see her decide to make a push for one tomorrow.

She is not the only Lady Jaguar who will be eyeing qualifying positions. Samantha Humphries will try to be a three event qualifier for state and tomorrow will be a glimpse into whether she can do it and how many points she might be able to provide to her team. Nicole Humphries will also have a key role in FM's success as she will compete in the 800m and 1,600m. Virginia Knight will compete in the 800m and Alexandra Fox will line up in the morning in the 3,200m.

Boys 100m

Last week, we saw some eye popping results from a coupe of the district meets 100m events. The 5-6A district was one of them as we saw some 10.10s from the preliminary rounds. The times were a bit more realistic in the finals. The area meet will be the chance for the district 5-6A boys to shut down the haters and the skeptics. Tsegaya Fazarro (Allen) led all by winning the 100m and 200m.

Girls 200m

Lauren Lewis (Prosper) the district 5-6A champion in the 200m will take on the district 6-6A champion Tiriah Kelley (Plano East). Kelley won the area championships last year, but both her and Lewis posted 24.01 times last week. We'll get to see the first of a couple match-ups between these two.

Kelley is also in the 100m and Lewis is also in the 400m.

Boys 400m

Jonathan Simms (Allen) has been a youth star and champion on the AAU circuit for years. He has proven to be elite in every event from the 100m up to the 800m event. Now that he is a freshman in high school, we are starting to see him break out this season. He won the district 5-6A 400m in 50.05, but has a 48.97 SB from the Lovejoy meet back on April 1, 2022.

Girls 800m

We already mentioned that Flower Mound has a lot riding on the distance events and that includes the 800m. The Humphries sisters are two of the top runners in the event in the state, however they are just two of four girls who have run under 2:13 heading into tomorrow. 

Included in the four is the defending UIL 6A state champion Aubrey O'Connell (Prosper) who ran the fastest district time of the eight area qualifiers with her 2:11.41. Mia McGlade (Allen) is another top performer from the district meets and will be a major factor.

Skyler Schuller

No, this is not an event, but she is an athlete in several events. Skyler Schuller (Coppell) qualified for the area championships in five events (100H, 300H, LJ, HJ, and PV).  Each event she will compete in will be both technical and demanding. She is the UIL 6A runner-up in the pole vault and that might not even be her best event.

If you want to see the a true athlete, you'll want to watch Schuller compete in everything tomorrow, we might not see another talent like this for quite some time.

Boys Long Jump

There are only four qualifiers moving on beyond this round, but the boy's long jump has seven boys all within a couple of inches of one another. Kassi Kassi (Plano West) has the top jump from the district rounds with his 22-11.5, but it may take a jump well over 23 to assure the win tomorrow.

Girls High Jump

This is one of the events that Skyler Schuller will compete in and she could have a good chance at winning the area championship. She may have just enough in her arsenal to advance. 

If she decides to jump it out, she'll be in competition with her teammate Megan Judd who is a very talented jumper and had the same clearing height as Schuller at district at 5-8.

The two Cowgirls will have their hands full with FM senior Riley Ward flower who is tied for the state's No. 2 ranked height at 5-10. The high jump pit just might be where the best competition of the meet will be seen.

Boys 3200m

The qualifiers for the area meet didn't really have to press on the gas too much to make it to this round, many of them moved on by running well under their PRs. The lead time coming in from last the area's two districts was 9:35.50 by Hudson Heikkinen (Plano West). That is nearly 26 seconds slower than his PR; the slowest qualifying time was 9:52 with all qualifiers at least having PRs faster than 9:41.

Depending on how safe the top four runners are, this race could see another tactical type of race this week. However, with the strength of distance running in these districts it could also be due for barn burning type of race.