San Antonio New and Notes

Feb 13, 2024

Caila Lyons - Brennan

The second week of the outdoor regular season is in the books. Many of the larger schools have already competed in two weeks while the majority of smaller schools have yet to compete at a single meet. The great early season weather has led to many great performances which bodes well for the rest of the season.

The Best Thing I Saw

Boerne Champion has a unique setup at their stadium where the fans are almost on the track separated from the competitors by a line of large stones rather than a fence in two corners. While that is not the best thing I saw, it is something that sets the stadium apart from others. It was hard to decide on the best thing this week because there was so much that was great. When I think back to Thursday, the thing that sticks out the most was the performance of Harlan sophomore Tate Taylor who won the 100m and 200m in 10.61 and 21.61, respectively. Off the track, the thing that sticks out is how the Boerne Champion athletic fields are set up with the softball and baseball fields backing up to the stadium. With both of the Champion ball teams practicing and the track meet going on at the same time it led to a fun buzz of excitement throughout the area.

Top of the Charts

San Antonio area athletes are dominating the State rankings early in the season. On the boys side of things Tate Taylor is ranked #1 in both the 100m (10.61) and 200m (21.61) after his performance at the Champion Charger Relays. Sotomayor senior Elijah Hernandez ran 48.88 in the 400m at the East Central Invitational while Reagan junior Gavin Chapa ran a time of 4:18.30 in the 1600m putting both in the early lead in the State. Reagan senior Samuel Abati cleared 17-1 at his season opening meet on February 1 and is still the State leader in the pole vault.

The San Antonio area girls are leading the State in even more events than the boys. Brandeis freshman London Graham has the top 100m (12.23) and 400m (56.62) times that she set at two different meets. Boerne Champion's Beth Leachman nearly broke her own national record in the 3200m again this week and leads the State in the 800m (2:13.97) and 3200m (9:45.57). Reagan's twin sisters, Isabella and Mackenzie Dagrosa, each leads the State in different events. Isabella ran 43.23 in the 300mH at the Champion Chargers Relays while Mackenzie has cleared 5-10 at each of the first two meets of the season. Finally, Sophia Grinstead of Bracken Christian has the best shot put in the State so far, 45-2.

Taking the Lead

In addition to the athletes who are overall #1 in the State, there are others who are ranked first in their classifications. At the 6A level O'Connor's Waylon McKenzie in the discus and Steele's Abdon Mata in the shot put have the early season lead in Texas. In 4A, there are also many local leaders. Somerset's Jaden Faz has the top long jump and triple jump lead and is part of the leading 4x200m relay team. Boerne's Barrett Crofut and Logan Schramm lead the 1600m and shot put, respectively. Jonah Greene of Fredericksburg is #1 in the 400m and #2 in the 800m.

The 6A girls have a few more leaders in addition to the ones previously mentioned. Isabella Dagrosa is at the top of both hurdle lists in the division while Alma Lazo Cazares of O'Connor leads the 800m and Harlan's Iyanna Webb leads the triple jump. At the 4A level, Fredericksburg boasts three State leads in Taylor Grona (800m), Ann Claire Cop (1600m) and Reese Sagebiel (shot put and discus). Boerne has Isabella Pettet who leads in the 100m and long jump and Eleanor Davis in the 3200m.

Accepting the Challenge

I wrote about the exploits of Bracken Christian's Sophia Grinstead and Michael Estrada of SA Patriots in my recap of the Boerne Champion Chargers Relays but wanted to highlight them again. Each competed at the meet without the rest of their team and came through with flying colors against some tough competition. Grinstead won both the shot put and discus with huge throws. She went 45-2 in the shot put and 127-10 in the discus. Meanwhile, Estrada accomplished the same double on the boys side. He threw the shot put 58-9.25 and tossed the discus 169-2 to defeat a few of the top throwers in the area.

School Records

In this section, I want to highlight the new school records that were set during the week. I need coaches to please let me know when you have a new record set. Either email me at shanemeling@gmail.com or message at me @ShaneMeling on X (Twitter).

Tate Taylor, Harlan, 200m, 21.61

Mathew Cordero, Harlan, Shot Put, 49-5.5

Justice Boston, Steele, Long Jump, 18-7.25

Kassia Kozarski, Steele, 3200m, 11:34.58

Around the City

At the East Central Invitational the first thing that stood out was the performance of the Brennan boys relay teams. They won the 4x100m in 42.30 and the 4x200m in 1:27.89 and then finished runners-up in the 4x400m with a time of 3:24.54. Their 4x100m and 4x200m times are the best in the city this year. Sotomayor's Elijah Hernandez appears to be focusing on the 200m and 400m this year compared to the 400m and 800m last year and it is working well. He won the 400m in 48.88 and then finished a close second in the 200m in 22.55 to Sam Houston's John Peoples (22.21). Finally, Brennan's Javyn Dalton and East Central's Deanthony Anderson each had outstanding performances in the triple jump with Dalton recording a winning jump of 44-3 while Anderson was right behind at 44-0.

In the girls half of the EC Invite it was a little of the old and a lot of the new. First, Brennan junior Caila Lyons did what she usually does in winning both the 400m and 800m. She ran a 58.17 for the quarter-mile after cruising to a 9-second win in the 800m in 2:20.29. Two athletes that made a big impression who I have not written about before were Sotomayor freshman Kaelony King and Reagan Buffin-Dudley of Brennan. King won the 200m in 26.03 and went 34-8 in the triple jump for second place. Buffin-Dudley, a junior, leaped 38-7 in the triple jump for the victory. It was the first time that Buffin-Dudley had competed in the triple jump in a meet covered by Milesplit.

The Clemens Invitational featured a close team title race in the boys division and a blow out in the girls division. The Clemens boys narrowly edged out Steele for the team title. The shot put was the best event of the competition with three throwers going over 50-feet. Steele's Abdon Mata won with a toss of 59-3 and he doubled with a win in the discus with a throw of 151-4. His teammate, Jaylon Jones, reached 54-9.5 in the shot put while Taft's Matthew McDougal also threw 51-1. Warren's Nick Ross and Taft's Malik White were each impressive in their victories in the 200m and 110mH, respectively. Brandeis freshman Ben Tealer broke 50 seconds in the 400m for the first time this year. He is the first area freshman to break 50 seconds since Roosevelt's Tyrell Darden ran 49.86 in 2015.

South San hosted a meet where the Southwest boys and girls each won the team title and all times reported were handheld. Southwest Legacy's Anthony Zapata won the 400m and 800m in 52.00 and 1:58.87, respectively. John Jay took gold in both the 4x100m and 4x200m relays.

On the girls side, Jay's Shyniece Davis and Southwest Legacy's Alicia Galvez were the big winners at the South San meet. Davis won the 100m (12.75), 400m (1:01.12) and long jump (18-1) while Galvez took gold in the 800m (2:26.00), 1600m (5:53.53) and high jump (4-10). Burbank's Beatrice Ibarra was also a double winner in the shot put and discus.

NEISD hosted their second meet of the season at Heroes Stadium. The Johnson edged Judson for the boys title, 145-140 while the Judson girls won the team title in more comfortable fashion. Johnson scored big points in the 3200m when Emanuel Mood won in 9:54.34 and Michael Repper-Molina took second in 9:54.79. In the field events, Ty Hawkins won the triple jump with a leap of 43-10 and Thomas Bucks won the pole vault with a clearance of 15-3 to give the Jaguars two more gold medals. Judson won both the 4x200m (1:29.72) and the 4x400m (3:25.79) relays. The hurdle events saw Max Bacon of Alamo Heights and Josiah Williams of Judson go head-to-head with Bacon winning both the 110m and 300m hurdles by small margins.

The Judson girls were led by Darinasia Taylor who won the 100m in 12.29 and the 200m in 25.40. Their 4x100m relay won in 48.45 edging out Johnson who ran 49.31. In the 4x200m relay, the places flipped with Johnson winning in 1:46.33 and Judson crossing the line in 1:46.95. LEE's distance duo of Virginia Lessner and Sofia Cantor picked up quality points. Lessner won the 800m (2:25.11) and 1600m (5:20.35) while Cantor was runner-up in the 3200m (12:00.28). Siara Hardeman of Highlands took the gold in the shot put with a heave of 35-2.5.

Fredericksburg was the only local school at the Hays Hawks Relays and they performed well with the boys finishing in third and the girls winning the meet against many 5A and 6A teams. Derek Adams and Jonah Green led the boys team. Adams won the 1600m in 4:38.00 and was third in the 3200m. Green won the 400m in 52.37 and was second in the 800m (2:01.31). The girls got a lot of points from Ann Claire Cop who had a full day taking second in the 3200m (12:02.00), third in the 400m (1:03.41) and second in the 1600m (5:32.46). The 4x400m relay team took the gold in 4:04. Fredericksburg dominated the girls throwing events going 1-2-3 in the discus with Reese Sagebiel winning with a toss of 113-5. Sagebiel also won the shot put with a throw of 39-4.5 and her teammate, Madison Wright, was second with a throw of 39-1.5.

I wrote out the Boerne Champion meet in another article and it was the Reagan boys and girls winning both meets.

Looking Forward

The meets start to come in bunches this week. The Comal ISD Relays are on Wednesday and then there are the Boerne Greyhound Relays, SAISD meet, Medina Valley Relays, and Alamo Heights Mule Relays on Thursday. On Saturday, Reagan and Seguin travel to the Dripping Springs Relays.

Senior Signings

I would like to keep a running tally of all the track and field and cross country signings so please contact me if you notice someone is missing.

Ella Pickron, Smithson Valley, Colorado State

Erin Martin, Boerne Champion, West Texas A&M

Isabella Dagrosa, Reagan, Vanderbilt

Mackenzie Dagrosa, Reagan, Vanderbilt

Hayden Brace, Boerne Champion, USMA

Marcelo Parra, TMI, Princeton

Franco Parra, TMI, Princeton

Ben Blomqvist, Boerne Champion, Angelo State

Araceli Ford, O'Connor, UIW

Anthony Zapata, Southwest Legacy, UIW