San Antonio News and Notes for Week #12

The Best Thing I Saw

I was at the Region IV-5A/6A meet at Heroes Stadium this past weekend and wrote a recap about the meet on Sunday. I did not mention the 5A girls 800m final because it falls under the category of being something memorable but also leaves you feeling a little sad at the end. If anyone has ever watched the movie, "Chariots of Fire," then you know the scene I am talking about where Eric Liddell is pushed off the track and falls down, but then gets back up to win his race.

Smithson Valley's Mia Perez very nearly pulled off the same feat. She entered the meet as the clear favorite in the 800m with a best time that was three seconds faster than anyone in the race. She was tripped from behind at the 200m mark while she was in a dead heat for first when a runner tried to move from the third lane into the first lane and clipped her heal. The referee's flag immediately went up, but the race continued and by the time she was able to get up and start moving again she was 40m behind the leaders and in last place by 15-20m. That did not deter Perez as she started running and racing again. She passed the last few runners before the 400m mark and then started moving up quickly. She moved into fifth place with 200m remaining and still had one last kick remaining where she moved into third place and finished 0.10 behind second place.

It was an outstanding effort by Perez, but it makes me both angry and sad at the outcome since she now misses out on the State meet. Even though the yellow flag went up, there were no disqualifications and no option for Perez to run it again to see if she could run a time that would be fast enough to advance.

Playing the Wild Card

It was good to see a number of local athletes earn the "wild card" bid to the State meet as the best third place finisher in the State. Being the wild card does not mean that an athlete has no chance to win because when I was a coach at Smithson Valley, I witnessed Colleen Clancy get third place at the Regional meet in the pole vault in 2017 and then she won the State meet two weeks later. The locals who earned the wild card qualifier were the following:

Angelina Lione, San Antonio Stacey, 2A Girls 3200m

Salvatore Lione, San Antonio Stacey, 2A Boys 3200m, 1600m

Keandra Johnson, Falls City, 2A Girls Long Jump

Lytle, 3A Girls 4x400m Relay

Ann Claire Cop, Fredericksburg, 4A Girls 3200m

Cadence Patterson, Canyon Lake, 4A Girls 1600m

Fredericksburg, 4A Girls 4x400m Relay

Gabriel Wray, Wimberley, 4A Boys Long Jump

Connor Warzecha, Boerne Champion, 5A Boys Discus

Ethan Malesich, Brandeis, 6A Boys 800m

Mackenzie Dagrosa, Reagan, 6A Girls 400m

Daniell Cantu, Johnson, 6A Girls Pole Vault

Top Regional Performances

It is time to look at the top performances from the 2A, 3A and 4A Regional meets from this past week. In the 4A boys meet it was Christian Pena of Davenport who shown the brightest after winning the 3200m in 9:31.48 and then he closed out the meet by winning the 1600m in 4:25.63. Wimberley's Gabriel Wray, the best triple jumper in San Antonio, advanced to the State meet in both the long jump and triple jump and he went 47-8.75 in the triple jump. Pearsall's 4x100m relay team won the gold medal with a time of 43.03.

In the 4A girls meet Fredericksburg advanced a good group to the State meet. Cameran Whiting won the 100m hurdles (14.69) and 300m hurdles (46.23) while Ann Claire Cop advanced in the 1600m and 3200m. There were four other locals who were Region champions: Alencia Lentz of Canyon Lake in the pole vault (14-2), Tori Adams of Boerne in the shot put (45-6.5), Kendall Lemm of Boerne in the high jump (5-10) and Emily Thames of Wimberley in the long jump (19-2.5). All four should compete well for the State title.

At the 3A boys meet Isai Moran of Great Hearts Northern Oaks put on an incredible performance. He won the 3200m in 9:33.18 and followed it up with wins in the 800m (1:57.92) and 1600m (4:28.76). Randolph saw their 4x200m and 4x400m relay teams both move on with the 4x400m team winning in 3:25.55. Randolph's Parker Cabra won the 110m hurdles in 14.56 and was second in the 300m hurdles (39.70).

As expected, Taylor Nunez and the Randolph girls team were amazing at the 3A girls meet. Nunez won the long jump (20-8.5), 100m (11.61), 200m (24.36) and anchored the winning 4x100m relay team giving her a chance to repeat her performance from the State meet last year. Her teammate, Sophia Bendet, won the 800m in 2:17.47 and the 1600m in 5:13.77 while Randolph also won the 4x200m and 4x400m relays. Poth's Brooklyn Albert had a great meet winning the 3200m in 11:43.60 and she was runner-up in the 1600m.

The 2A meet saw the Falls City boys send their 4x100m relay and Jacob Swierc in the 400m. In the girls meet, it was Cayla Albers of Falls City winning the shot put (38-5) and finishing second in the discus.

School Records

I am on Twitter @ShaneMeling or you can email me at shanemeling@gmail.com with any new school records.

Christian Pena, Davenport, 1600m, 4:25.63 at Region 4-4A

Ikenna Opara, Reagan, 200m, 21.29 at Region 4-6A

Alyssa Jones, Smithson Valley, 200m, 23.78 at Region 4-5A

Reagan Boys, 4x200m Relay, 1:26.84 at Region 4-6A (Josh Torres, Jadon Johnson, Grant Williams, Ikenna Opara)

Mya Robinson, Taft, 100m Hurdles, 14.48 at Region 4-6A

Isabella Dagrosa, Reagan, 100m Hurdles, 13.84 at Area Meet

Makai Williams, Steele, Shot Put, 54-7 at Region 4-6A

Roosevelt Boys, 4x100m Relay, 41.70 at Region 4-6A (Brennan Carroll, Dontay Seay, Wesley Hall, Dillion Coleman)

Kendall Lemm, Boerne, High Jump, 5-10 at Region 4-4A

Chayse Wilson, Round Rock Christian Academy, Discus, 113-3 at TAPPS 3A Regional

Rachel Milikan, Round Rock Christian Academy, Shot Put, 38-0.5 at TAPPS 3A Regional

Beau Thompson, Round Rock Christian Academy, Discus, 124-3 at TAPPS 3A Regional

Malik White, Taft, 110m Hurdles, 13.62 at Region 4-6A

Kyree Wilson, Brennan, 110m Hurdles, 13.64 at Region 4-6A

Taylor Nunez, Randolph, Long Jump, 20-8.5 at Region 4-3A

Around the City

Antonian hosted the TAPPS 6A - South Regional last week and there were many outstanding performances by local athletes. Gerardo Mejia of Central Catholic has had a great season and he continued his excellent performances by running 13.95 in the 110m hurdles, 37.98 in the 300m hurdles and he long jumped 22-7. He ran the lead leg on Central Catholic's winning 4x100m relay team joining Cristian Villarreal, Jeremy Burch and Isai Prezas to finish in 41.71. Todd Worth of Antonian won the 800m in 1:54.31 while Prezas won the 400m in 49.04.

The top girls from the South Regional were Micaela Villarreal of Antonian and Giana Hilliard of Incarnate Word. Villarreal won the 800m in 2:15.79 and was second in the 1600m in a great time of 5:11.61. Hilliard won the long jump with a leap of 17-9.25.

Texas State University hosted another TAPPS South Regional where numerous San Antonio schools were in attendance. The boys 3200m race featured Marcelo Parra and Franco Parra of TMI and Adrian Rule of San Antonio Christian. The trio took the top three spots with Marcelo Parra winning in 9:23.98. Holy Cross got big performances from Xavier Garza in the 300m hurdles (39.40) and Josue Lerma in the discus (155-9).

In the girl's meet at Texas State it was Isabella Godoy of the Geneva School of Boerne who had the best performance on the track. She won the 800m in 2:18.25 and also won the 400m and took third in the 1600m. Elaina Craven of Fredericksburg Heritage cleared 5-4 to win the high jump while Laura Sierra of St. Anthony's (shot put) and Madeline Seebeck of John Paul II (triple jump) each performed well in the field events.

Looking Forward