3A Girls 800m
The 3A Girls 800m was tightly contested the entire race.
Spearman's Braylen Lusby was first to the break in, but all nine runners were
tightly packed at the 200m. At the 400m mark, Lytle's Moriah Gomez held a slight
lead hitting the lap in 69 seconds, but three girls were only a stride behind
her.
With 300m remaining, Randolph's Sophia Bendet
had worked her way onto the outside hip of Gomez and held her position until
the duo hit the final home stretch. Bendet had a little too much speed for
Gomez and crossed the finish line a stride ahead of her competitor.
Sophia Bendet (7) leads the 800m
Photo Credit Shelton Jolivette/MileSplit TX
3A Girls 1600m
Randolph sophomore Sophia Bendet showed off her patience in
winning the 3A Girls 1600m. Lorena's Addison Sykora went out fast and led by
20m just a half lap into the race and held her lead through two laps. The pack
caught Sykora 900m in with Holliday's Kenli Atwood taking over the lead.
Bendet continued along right behind Atwood for the entire
race and bided her time. With 100m to go, Bendet unleashed the same finishing
kick that she used to win the 800m and zoomed past Atwood who could not match
her speed. Bendet closed with a
finishing lap of 1:10.77 to grab her second gold medal.
Atwood and teammate Jaycee Lyons picked up big
points for Holliday as they took second and third place, respectively.
