2025 San Antonio Area News and Notes #1

Feb 12, 2025

Photo of Thomas Bucks, Johnson HS

The 2025 outdoor track and field season is underway and we were blessed with some outstanding weather which led to some excellent results for the first week of the season. I was able to cover the NEISD 9 meet and posted a bunch of great interviews and learned a lot about some of the athletes in the San Antonio area. Keep reading to find out more about what happened last week and what is to come.

The Best Thing I Saw

I narrowed down my options for the best thing I saw this week to either Isabella Porter tripping and falling in the 3200m and still being able to get back up and eventually win the race or to Thomas Bucks setting a new Johnson HS school record in the pole vault. I decided to go with Bucks' performance since he got the entire crowd involved en route to his exciting performance. After clearing 16-0 twice last year, he went over the height three times in the meet clearing 16-0, 16-5 and 16-8 to set the school record. It looks like we may have a 17-0 vaulter in the area for a second straight year after Reagan's Samuel Abati accomplished the feat last year.

Breaking Down a Race

Every week I want to take a deeper look at a race that occurred at the meet I was at. This week, I will be looking at the varsity girls 800m race from the NEISD 9 meet that.

A Long Road

In 2023, Taft's Mya Robinson ended her sophomore season by running the 100mh at the 6A State meet. A broken tibia the following summer included surgery, rod replacement and a long recovery that included missing the 2024 season. Fast forward to 2025 and she is back on the track. She ran one indoor meet back on January 11 and then this past week she ran at the Clemens Invitational and appeared to be back to her old self. She won the 100mh in 15.17 and then took second in the 300mh with a time of 48.24. She also ran the second leg on the team's 4x400m relay. Her performance shows that she should be one of the top hurdlers in San Antonio once again this year.

Winning Ways

A few names stood out for their multi-event performance last week. South San's Elegant Thompson earned 36 points at the South San Relays thanks to two individual gold medals and two individual silver medals. He won the 110mh in a hand-held 15.32 and the triple jump with a mark of 40-4. He added second place finishes in the long jump (21-4) and discus (115-10). At the same meet, Jay's Shyniece Davis won the 200m in 25.03, the 400m in 59.91 and the long jump with a leap of 18-2. At the Northside meet, Jake Grullon of O'Connor swept the hurdle events with excellent times of 14.85 in the 110mh and 40.80 in the 300mh and he added another victory in the long jump with a leap of 21-6.5.

Half-Milers Crush It in Week #1

It was a banner week for local half-milers. There were nine total boys in the area who broke 2:00, including five runners at the Boerne Champion Charger Relays. The Northside and NEISD meets each had a pair of runners break the mark. In Boerne, it was Reagan's Gavin Chapa leading the onslaught with an outstanding time of 1:54.90 and he was followed by Caleb Dehart of Boerne Champion (1:56.74), Barrett Crofut of Boerne (1:57.69), Samuel Ackerman of Reagan (1:57.83) and Payton DeFelippis of Medina Valley (1:59.14). Chapa finished up his meet performance with another victory in the 1600m. His time of 4:17.95 was the fastest of the weekend for the area.

Hop, Skip and Jump

There have been some outstanding triple jumpers coming out of San Antonio in recent years and it looks like it will be no different this year. Steele's John Williams III and Wagner's Channon Davis have already posted big early season marks on the boys side while Rachel Nwankwo of Clark and Daniella Okorie of Southwest Legacy had the top marks for the girls. Williams took gold at the Clemens Invitational with a mark of 46-3, but that was still a ways off from Davis' 47-7 winning mark at the Edgewood ISD Invitational a day earlier. As an aside, Davis also won the 800m at the same meet giving him a unique double. Nwankwo and Okorie were the only girls to go past the 36-foot mark with Nwankwo winning the Clemens Invitational with a jump of 36-8 and Okorie was the winner in Boerne with a leap of 36-5.5. Nwankwo was also the only area girl to jump over 18-feet in the long jump with her mark of 18-0.25.

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).

Thomas Bucks, Johnson, pole vault, 16-8
Daniela Shelfo, Taft, 800m, 2:11.18

Around the City

Veterans Memorial swept both the boys and girls titles at the South San Relays last Wednesday. Ben Toney (200m) and Isaiah Francis (300mh) each picked up individual victories for Vets. Toney blazed a hand-held time of 21.59 while Francis crossed the tape in 41.00. Elegant Thompson of the host school was the leading point scorer with 36 points. Lanier's Brian Sanchez showed out with a strong performance in the jumps by winning the long jump (22-3) and high jump (6-0). McCollum's Jorge Vargas was another double winner taking the 400m in 49.56 and the 800m in 1:59.06.

Jay's Shyniece Davis was the star of the South San girls meet winning three events. However, Lee's Penny Pim and Delilah Benn of South San each grabbed to victories on the track. Pim won the 1600m (5:30.28) and the 3200m (12:03.52) while Benn swept the hurdle events in 17.43 (100mh) and 51.16 (300mh).

Wagner dominated both the boys and girls Edgewood ISD Meet from Wednesday. Amauri Thornton led the Thunderbirds by winning the 110mh (15.46) and long jump (20-2.75) while placing second in the 300mh. Chance Stanley blazed to a hand-held time of 10.52 in the 100m and was also part of the winning 4x100m and 4x200m relay teams. The wins in the 800m and triple jump for Channon Davis capped off Wagner's meet performance. Rene Gonzalez of Edison took gold in both the 1600m (4:46.75) and 3200m (10:14.21).

The Wagner girls matched their boys in scoring over 200 points. Zoe Maricle was a double winner in the 400m and 800m while Jasmine Kenney won both horizontal jump events. The top individual performance was MacArthur's Ayana Young running a 12.17 in the 100m.

The Steele boys won a tightly contested meet with Clemens at the Clemens Invitational on Thursday. The Knights dominated the jumping events behind John Williams III and Donnell Williams. Williams III won the triple jump and was one of three Steele jumpers over 21-feet in the long jump and D. Williams took the long jump with a mark of 21-10.25. The two best performances on the track were by Brandeis' Ben Tealer and Ja'Dan Keiler of Taft. Tealer won the 400m in 49.06 while Keiler picked up where he left off last year by winning the 300mh in 38.43. Steele's Julian Hugo (158-8) and Cyelan Whitley of Clemens (150-11) each threw over 150-feet in the discus.

It was a loaded meet for the girls at the Clemens Invitational. In the distance events, Steele's Kassia Kozarski won the 3200m in 11:17.09 to start the meet and finished it off with a win in the 1600m in 5:17.08. Daniela Shelfo of Taft and Savanah Moya of New Braunfels blasted the 800m in 2:11.18 and 2:15.75, respectively. Shelfo finished second to London Graham of Brandeis in the 400m despite running 58.70 because Graham crossed the line in 57.66. Graham also won the 200m in 25.15 ahead of teammate Leila Smith-Harris who was right behind her in 25.76 and was the gold medal winner in the 100m with a time of 12.47. Clark's Rachel Nwankwo swept the long and triple jump. The Steele 4x200m relay team of Caydence Jackson, Sienna Baker, Kayla Minor and Lauren Dobbins set down an outstanding time of 1:40.89.

The Reagan boys won the Champion Charger Relays with 178 points to hold off Champion and Medina Valley. In addition to the aforementioned Gavin Chapa and Samuel Ackerman, they posted wins in the 100m (Rayshun Hurt), 300mH (Kameron Adamski) and long jump (Ian Armstrong) showing hey are strong throughout their lineup. Champion's Charlie Houck won the 3200m in 9:45.16 and was second to Chapa in the 1600m with a time of 4:27.92. His teammate, Jamarri Bowie, clocked a fast 21.98 in the 200m. Kerrville Tivy's Jackson Kerth took his improvements from the summer in the circle to 2025 and won the shot put with a throw of 56-9 and he was second in the discus with a toss of 160-4. Gibson Conard of Medina Valley won the hotly contested discus with a throw of 163-8. Three pole vaulters went over 14-feet led by Canyon's William Moffatt who cleared 14-6.

The Reagan girls also won the Charger Relays without any individuals winning two events. Instead, Nnenna Opara won the 100m in 12.23, Morgan Schlueter won the 300mh in 47.72, and freshman Gabby McHugh won the long jump with a mark of 16-5. Sophia Grinstead of Bracken Christian won the shot put with a toss of 40-3 but had to settle for third in the discus behind Annabelle Jehl (132-11) of Medina Valley and Peyton Wilson (130-1) of Canyon. Canyon's Madi Molinar won both the 1600m (5:21.13) and 3200m (11:51.98) while Kiyana Perez of Medina Valley was the winner in the 100mh (15.65) and high jump (5-1). Freshman Mallory Miles of Boerne Champion was right behind Perez in behind events.

Northside also hosted their first meet of the season on Thursday at Gustafson Stadium. O'Connor took home the boys team title with 178 points. Jake Grullon's three individual victories led the way, but he received plenty of help. Chris Esparza won the 1600m in 4:40.44 and battled Jacob Vargas of Health Careers in the 800m. Vargas won in 1:58.69 while Esparza ran 1:59.42. Vargas added a win in the 400m in 51.54 as well. Deanthony Anderson of East Central won the triple jump with a great season opening effort of 44-6.5 and East Central also held off Warren in the 4x100m with both teams running well.

Churchill managed to win the Northside girls meet by just eight points over O'Connor. They dominated the distance races with Kallie Van Prooyen and Kaelyn Holland taking the top two spots in the 1600m and Holland added a win in the 3200m. Madisyn Jackson led O'Connor by winning the 300mh in 45.74 as she battled Warren's Syenna Lara who was second in 46.33. Lara also won the 100mh in 14.79. Warren received great sprint performances from Morgan Young who won the 100m in 12.66 and Kaprice Johnson who won the 200m in 26.34. East Central's twin sisters Jasell Espitia and Jade Espitia took the top two spots in the triple jump and ran legs on their winning 4x200m and 4x400m relay teams.

Please read my article from February 7 for more information on the NEISD 9 meet.

Looking Forward

There are a ton of meets this week. East Central and South San will each be hosting events on Wednesday. On Thursday, Marion, Medina Valley, Boerne, and SAISD have meets. The Comal ISD Relays will be hosted by Canyon on Friday and Reagan is traveling to Dripping Springs on Saturday.

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.

Taylor Nunez, Randolph, Texas A&M

Sophia Bendet, Randolph, Texas A&M

Zailey Zimmerman, Smithson Valley, Texas A&M-Kingsville

Mia Perez, Smithson Valley, Texas

Thomas Bucks, Johnson, Penn

Zac Miller, Brennan, Houston

Christopher Harris, Cornerstone, UIW

Alicia Galvez, Southwest Legacy, Houston

Gavin Chapa, Reagan, Texas A&M

Maddie Meinke, Boerne Champion, Western Colorado