San Antonio News and Notes for Week #3

The Boerne Champion meet was held at the Boerne High School Stadium and they have a great setup for their meet. The long and triple jump and pole vault are all held right outside the stadium on the home side while the throwing events are right next door and easy to get too.

The Best Thing I Saw

Among the two meets that I attended this week there was one event that I was looking forward to the most and that was the boys discus at Boerne Champion. The event did not disappoint and even the warmup throws were exciting as the guys were bombing throws that were nearly hitting parked cars beyond the end of the sector. It was Ennis' Heath Vernor who won the event with a toss of 171-5 and Rafe Clendenin of Brandeis was right behind him at 170-0. Boerne Champion's Connor Warzecha also had a strong performance with a 164-5 throw.

I was very impressed by Veterans Memorial senior distance runner Brian Caloca. He won the 800 and 1600 in similar fashion at the NorthEast 10 Meet. Despite not being one of the top seeds he was able to run down the leaders in each race. In the 800, he was in sixth place after one lap but ran down the leaders within a half lap and finished strong for the victory. In the 1600, he made an extended push over the final 800 meters to pull away from a strong group of contenders. Even though his times will not show up at the top of the standings, he showed me that he has the toughness to run well throughout the season.

At Boerne Champion they ran a unique event, the distance medley relay, that is not normally run at high school meets. The host girls team provided fireworks to start the meet. The Chargers were engaged in a tight race with the Canyon Cougars through the first three legs with the Cougars holding about a five second advantage. However, freshman Beth Leachman ran down Canyon for the Chargers and clocked a 5:05 final mile to cross the tape first giving the team a time of 12:31.69.

It is tough to limit the best of what I saw when there were so many close races at the NorthEast meet, but I am going to go with Alexis Jessie's triple jump of 40-1.5 for Judson. Jessie missed nearly all of last year with an injury so it has been really nice to see her back at full strength. She went over 40-feet on two of her three jumps will be one of the top choices for a State berth in the event this year.

School Records

This section is self-explanatory, and I will be highlighting all the athletes and relays who set school records throughout the season. I think it is important to recognize these achievements and I hope that coaches and athletes will let me know when they happen. I am on Twitter @ShaneMeling or you can email me at shanemeling@gmail.com.

Smithson Valley Girls, 4x200 Relay, 1:40.79 at the Bastrop Bears Relays (Jacquelyn Rolle, Favour Uduji, Jatorie Mobley, Alyssa Jones), second straight week to break the record

Tori Adams, Boerne, Discus, 135-11 at the Boerne Champion Charger Relays

Vanesa Gonzalez, Boerne Champion, 100 meters, 12.00 at the Boerne Champion Charger Relays

Mariela Gonzalez, Boerne Champion, 200 meters, 25.38 at the Boerne Champion Charger Relays

Fredericksburg Girls, 4x100 Relay, 49.18 at the Liberty Hills Relays (Rylinn Oliver, Cameran Whiting, Peyton Celotto, Elizabeth Erlandson)

Garrett Jones, Round Rock Christian Academy, Shot Put, 42-8

Did You Know

One of the best things about being at a track meet is learning something about the schools, athletes and coaches. This weekend I learned a couple of things that are interesting. The first is that Boerne Champion boys have a pair of teammates who ranked in the top 10 in the nation in the decathlon last year, Benjamin Blomqvist and Brock Lewis. Blomqvist had a great meet where he clocked a 48.5 in his leg of the 4x400 relay and he is slated to run the open 400 meters this week. Lewis, a University of Texas signee, has been injured but he let me know that he expects to be back on the track soon.

The second thing that I learned this weekend is that Brandeis' Rafe Clendenin is planning on attending the Virginia Military Institute on an ROTC scholarship and he will continue his track and field career where he will be adding the javelin, hammer throw and weight throw to his docket. He will also be able to be on the same team as his older brother, Sam.

Around the City

Edgewood ISD hosted a meet that saw strong performances in the 200 and 400 meters. South San's Joshua Salas clocked a hand-held time of 51.17 in the 400. In the girls meet it was Kennedy's Treasure Vallerie who ran well in both of the events. She won the 400 in 1:01.44 and came back to win the 200 at the end of the meet in 25.12. In the field events, it was McCollum's Rubi Moreno who shown the most with a triple jump of 38-4.

NISD's Gustafson Stadium hosted its second meet of the season, and it featured top performances in nearly every event. Brennan's Caila Lyons had a great day winning both the 400 and 800 meters. She ran some of the best times of the year in each event, 57.69 in the 400 and 2:17.12 in the 800. Sotomayor's Iyanna Dixon had a brilliant performance taking home two firsts and a second. She won the 100 in 12.94 and 200 in 25.56 and finished second to Lyons in the 400 with a time of 59.03.

The Clemens Invitational was a loaded meet with the Steele, Central Catholic, Wagner and the Reagan Boys all at the meet. It was hard to narrow down the best performances of the meet but Central Catholic's Gary Mejia takes the top spot. He clocked the best times in the city in both hurdle events, 13.97 in the 110 hurdles and 38.20 in the 300 hurdles. He also cleared 6-4 in the high jump. East Central's Michael Pinones busted out a shot put of 63-9.5, the best mark in the State, and he tossed the discus 153-9. The boys 4x100-meter relay was fast with Reagan (41.84) topping Central Catholic (42.03) and Steele (42.41) in a fantastic race.

Randolph traveled to the George West Relays and showed why both of their teams are the likely favorites in Region IV-3A. Both teams excelled in all three relay events. Individually it was Sophia Bendet and Poth's Brooklyn Albert who dueled in the 800 and 1600 meters for the first time this season. Taylor Nunez started her season with a long jump of 19-1.

Cole and Marion both travelled to the Navarro Panther Relays where Cole's appropriately named Speed Leigh ran a 25.64 in the girls 200 meters. Marion's Michael Purcell tossed the discus 136-3, the top mark in the Region.

The Reagan girls headed north to the DeSoto Nike Invitational and ended up winning the meet. Isabella Dagrosa continues to shine after taking home three individual gold medals in the 100 hurdles (14.76), 300 hurdles (43.99) and long jump (18-4). Her sister, Mackenzie Dagrosa, competed in the high jump for the first time this year and won with a clearance of 5-6. The 4x400-meter relay team rolled to a time of 3:56.47.

Smithson Valley traveled to the Bastrop Bears Relays and the girls team won the meet. On the boys side it was AJ Breault nearly setting a school record with a time of 48.77 in the 400 meters. Mia Perez was outstanding in the 800- and 1600-meters running times of 2:15.19 and 5:19.60, respectively. Finally, the girls 4x200 relay ran a time of 1:40.79, the top time in the area.

At the Round Rock Quad Meet, Pieper's Caroline Peterson won the meet with a high jump of 5-4. The Davenport girls 4x400-meter relay posted the second-best time in the State in 4A with a time of 4:10.91. The Davenport boys 4x100-meter relay matched the girls when they clocked a 43.24.

The final meet to mention is Liberty Hill where the Fredericksburg girls team won the meet against a bunch of 5A and 6A teams. Their sprint teams were outstanding while Cameran Whiting excelled in both hurdle events and the long jump while running a leg on their record-setting 4x100-meter relay team. The boys team was led by Xavier Alvarez who threw the shot put 45-6.5 and the discus 136-1.5.

Previewing the Week

This week I will be traveling to a pair of meets. The first one will be at San Antonio Christian School where Great Hearts Northern Oaks, Stacey, St. Anthony's and River City Believers Academy are all scheduled to compete. The second meet is a little bit of a homecoming for me with the Ranger Relays hosted by Smithson Valley. New Braunfels, Reagan, Brandeis, Canyon, Leander and San Marcos registered for the meet.