SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - San Antonio
Christian hosted an outstanding meet on Thursday night that finished before the
high winds and rain could make its way into town. The meet included 19 teams,
including a large group of private schools in the area. The girls team title
went to FEAST thanks to three first place finishes in the three relays while
the boys title came down to the last event with Holy Cross coming out on top. Results
San Antonio Christian needed to beat Holy Cross in the 4x400-meter relay in order to claim the team championship title, but won in a time of 3:42.31 to win 108-103 against the Lions. The Holy Cross squad was led by senior Xavier Garza who accounted for 36.5 points all by himself. He opened the meet by winning the long jump and a third-place finish in the triple jump. He came back in the 100 hurdles to take second place and then ran an outstanding 300 hurdles to win in 40.20. Finally, he led off the winning 4x400 relay team to help secure the victory.
San Antonio Christian only won two events in the meet, Jack Hicks in the 3200 meters and Aaron Moore in the shot put, but they picked up 48 points in the relays and had solid contributors all around. Holy Cross picked up huge points in the discus where Josue Lerma and Daniel Alonso took first and second.
Other than Garza, the most impressive performance of the meet may have come from Aiden Martinez of Great Hearts Monte Vista. He won the triple jump with a mark of 43-7 which is the best mark in the area so far this year. Then he ran 14.97 in the 110 hurdles into the wind for another victory. Finally, he finished a close second to Garza in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.27.
A few other highlights from the boys side of the meet included Brendan Smith of Great Hearts Northern Oaks who won the 100 and 200 meters and was second in the 400 meters. He figures to be one of the best in the State in TAPPS this year and he mentioned wanting to run 47 seconds in the 400 at the State meet this year. Freshman Andrew Wright from the Lutheran School of San Antonio was impressive in winning the 400 in 51.24 and he was able to push Smith in both the 100 and 200 meters. The St. Anthony's 4x200-meter relay team of Nicolas Castillo, Jaidyn Abilez, Noah Casarez and Christian Trevino showed that they could be tough to deal with this year.
The FEAST girls team was led by its relays. In the 4x100 relay it was Maia Hunt, Suraiya Anderson, Tory Neeley and Mikayla Kidney running away from everyone in a time of 52-flat. In the 4x200 they subbed out Anderson and added in Jacari Jackson with the same result, a win by nearly eight seconds. The 4x400 relay was run by Anderson, Presleigh Adam, Jackson and Liberty Perette, the open 400 winner. They clocked a time of 4:32.96 to win by nearly eight seconds. They ended up winning the meet by 32 points over San Antonio Christian.
Senior Olivia Davila of the Lutheran School of San Antonio controlled the sprints winning the 100 and 200 meters. In the middle distance races it was Addison Applebaum easily winning both the 800 (2:27.93) and 1600 meters (5:23.60) for San Antonio Christian. The throwing events saw Bracken Christian's Sophia Grinstead go 2-for-2 winning the shot put with a toss of 38-5 and the discus with a throw of 113-9.
On another note, TMI's Marcelo Parra and Franco Parra each ran one individual event and one relay in preparation for the Nike Indoor Nationals next Friday at The Armory in New York City.