2025 San Antonio Area News and Notes #2

Feb 19, 2025

Photo of Mia Perez

The first week of the track season delivered great weather, but cold weather has blown into San Antonio cancelling at least three meets last week and likely more this week. The weather meant that multiple teams competed in their second meet of the season while many others are still waiting to get their first crack at the 2025 season.

The Best Thing I Saw

My plan this week was to attend the Comal ISD Relays until I realized that the meet was starting in the morning and my work schedule would not allow me to go. Despite not attending the meet, the result that got me most excited was the 4x800m relay. The Smithson Valley girls reeled off a 9:14.08 time to win the race easily and claim the top time in the State this year. Mia Perez led off the relay with a split of 2:09.89 and she was followed by Skyler Fonseca (2:26.37), Lilly Koenig (2:15.58) and Brady Solansky (2:21.98). The scary thing is that one of their best 800m runners is still playing soccer so there is room for improvement.

The Perfect Man for the Job

Steele's John Williams III has a perfect name for a triple jumper and he is quickly making this season one to remember. At the season opener, he went 46-3 at the Clemens Invitational and also went 21-6 in the long jump. This week, the Knights went to the East Central Invite and Williams extended his mark in the triple jump out to 48-4. He is currently ranked second in the State and should be a strong candidate to grab a medal at the State meet in May.

What's in the Water?

This year O'Connor and Pieper each boast hurdlers that are at the top of the charts in San Antonio. For O'Connor, Jake Grullon has run the two fastest 110mh times in the area this year including his time of 14.67 last week at the East Central Invite. He is also among the best 300m hurdlers and has a personal record of under 40 seconds set last year. Madisyn Jackson leads the O'Connor girls and is ranked first in the 100mh (14.69) and second in the 300mh (45.74) in the San Antonio area.

Pieper is led by Grayson Stewart and Cash Lancaster for the boys and Shyla Boydstun for the girls. Stewart won the 110mh at the Comal ISD Relays in 15.79 and was second to Lancaster in the 300mh with a time of 41.61. Lancaster won the 300mh in 41.16 which was a personal record for the junior. Boydstun, a freshman, burst onto the scene this week with her first high school meet. She took gold in the 100mh in 15.07 and in the 300mh with a time of 45.41. The 300mh time is the top time in the city so far.

The High Jump Queen

Pieper's Caroline Peterson has been a beacon of consistency and success throughout her career in the high jump. Throughout her career, she has won high jump gold at 19 high school meets and has never finished worse than third place at any meet. She has accumulated a gold and two silver medals in the event at the State meet and has a personal best of 5-9. She opened her season this past week by winning the Comal ISD Relays for a third straight year with a clearance of 5-6.

Pleasanton Prowess

The Pleasanton boys showed at their first meet that they will be strong in the field events this year. Evan Guardiola leads the way in both the shot put and discus. He was fifth a year ago in the 4A State meet in the discus and started off his season at the Marion HS Relays with a toss of 147-4 and backed it up with a win in the shot put with a throw of 44-2. Demitrius Jimenez figures to be one of the top high jumpers among all classifications this year and he went over 6-4 at the same meet. Finally, freshman Pierson Pilgrim opened his outdoor campaign with a clearance of 13-6 and he went over 14-0 on two occasions during the indoor season.

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).

Smithson Valley girls, 4x800m, 9:14.08 (Mia Perez, Skyler Fonseca, Lilly Koenig, Brady Solansky)

Around the City

The East Central Invite was won by the Steele boys in convincing fashion and the Judson girls but less than six points over the Steele girls. In the boys meet, the field events were kind with the triple jump leading the way. John Williams III of Steele went 48-4 while East Central's Deanthony Anderson jumped 45-1 and Julius Johnson of Sotomayor went 44-0. In addition, JJ Clay of Judson jumped 44-0 in the JV meet. Sotomayor's McKell Johnekins took gold in the high jump by clearing 6-3 while East Central's William Holton went 6-2. In the throwing events, Josiah Green of Judson posted marks of 47-3 in the shot put and 144-8 in the discus while Jordan Pinones (East Central) was second in the shot put with a toss of 46-7 and Steele's Julian Hugo won the discus with a throw of 150-4. Jake Grullon starred in the hurdles for O'Connor while Deven Langston (Steele) posted a quality 100m time of 10.77 to win.

The excitement in the East Central girls meet came immediately in the 4x100m relay where Judson nipped Steele, 48.22 to 48.24, in a matchup that will be seen multiple times this year. The 400m dash saw Judson's Jenesis Cordero and Juliana Dodson come in a near dead heat with Cordero nabbing the win in 1:01.05. Kassia Kozarski of Steele won the 3200m in another strong showing with a time of 11:24.48. Finally, Madisyn Jackson set the pace for O'Connor in both hurdle events.

South San hosted their second meet of the season on Wednesday and Laredo Alexander took the top spot in both meets. In the boy's sprints it was Churchill's Ilan De Luna and Micah Castillo of MacArthur setting the tone. De Luna ran a hand-held 10.56 to win the 100m and was second in the 200m in 22.80. Castillo clocked a winning 200m time of 21.81. South San's Elegant Thompson performed his usual Superman performance by winning the triple jump (41-9), placing second in the 110mh (15.16) and long jumping 21-3. Markeis Dixon of Lanier (21-7.5 long jump) and Harlandale's Jermaine Ramirez (45-4.5 shot put) showed well in the field events.

Like their boys team, the Churchill girls also finished second at the South San Relays. Distance runner Kaelyn Holland was their star after taking gold in the 1600m (5:29.24) and 3200m (11:39.31). Savannah Welsh finished a close second in the 400m with a time of 59.37 to Jay superstar Shyniece Davis. Davis won the 400m in 58.81 and the 200m in 24.52 while adding a silver in the long jump after a leap of 17-4.5. MacArthur's Ayana Young continues to impress in the 100m with another victory with a time of 12.14.

The Holy Cross Knights Relays were held last Thursday. The host Knights won the boys meet with 137 points while Lytle was second with 127 and it was visiting H.M. King (Kingsville) taking the girls team title with 124 points. The Knights were led by their winning 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams. The 4x100m team posted a time of 44.60 while the 4x400m team crossed the tape in 3:36.46. TMI's Beau Bregman showed well in the 100m (11.28) and 400m (51.80) while Lytle's William Davalos took gold in the shot put with a throw of 44-0.5 and Rocky Martinez of St. Anthony's took the triple jump with a distance of 41-2.

Lytle's Frances Scotello and Juliet Alcott of Great Hearts Northern Oaks went against each other in the 1600m and 3200m with fun results. Alcott won the 1600m in 5:45.63 to hold off Scotello, but Scotello got her revenge by winning the 3200m in 12:16.18 against Alcott. TMI's Kate Philbin was a double winner in the long jump (16-2) and 100m (13.40). The 4x400m relay was likely the most exciting race of the meet with TMI's Chloe Ogden holding off Klayre Cook of Lytle. TMI won with a time of 4:35.18, just 0.11s ahead of Lytle.

The Marion Relays were won by both La Vernia teams. In the boys division, La Vernia held off Pleasanton to win by a scant seven points. Ty Carter led the team with a victory in the long jump with a mark of 20-5 while Santiago Urtiberea won the 300mh in 44.03 and was a close second to Cole's Rahman Jalloh in the 110mH. The La Vernia 4x100m relay team of Carter, Sebastian Reyna, Sean Garza and Ayden Kramer won in 44.90. Pleasanton was led by the field event generals, Evan Guardiola, Demitrius Jimenez and Pierson Pilgrim who combined to win four events. Marion's Tanner Otis won the 200m in a hand-held time of 22.59.

The La Vernia girls had an easier time in their win as they were 58 points in front of Marion. Violet Fox was LV's only double winner taking gold in the high jump (5-0) and long jump (15-6). Katie Dallas won a tightly contested 1600m race for LV with a time of 5:37.19 and their 4x400m relay team won in 4:29.43. Zoe Breitsprecher capped of La Vernia's meet with a clearance of 11-0 to win the pole vault over Marion's Kaitlyn Rackley who went 10-0. Marion got a strong performance from Maggie Luna who won the 100m (12.34) and was second in the 200m (26.69). Their sprint relay teams won both the 4x100m and 4x200m. Navarro freshman Emerson Cochran was impressive in her high school debut winning the 200m in 25.68 and the 400m in 1:00.87.

The Comal ISD Relays showcased plenty of top talent on Friday with Smithson Valley coming away with both team titles. Hans Scheff led the Ranger boys with wins in the discus (142-9) and shot put (49-0) to start his sophomore year. Their 400m runners took the top three spots with Gavin Kantorak (51.62), Devin Zook (51.70) and Noah Johnson (52.12) sweeping the top three spots. Wimberley racked up a bunch of points in the field events with Nolan Waida winning the long jump (21-4) and taking second in the triple jump (42-2) while Ethan Talley was second in the long jump with a mark of 20-8 and Charlie Hanle took gold in a tough pole vault competition by clearing 14-6. Canyon's William Moffatt was with him to the end but had to settle for second place with a 14-0 clearance. Pieper was led by their hurdling duo of Grayson Stewart and Cash Lancaster. Wimberley's 4x400m relay team closed out the meet with an impressive time of 3:25.79.

According to Milesplit, the Comal ISD girls meet featured 18 elite performances with five coming in the 1600m and four coming in the pole vault. One performance that won't show up on the elite list is the Smithson Valley 4x800m relay team running a 9:14.08, the fastest time in the State this year. The 1600m was loaded with top talent and it was SV's Mia Perez winning in 5:00.59 and teammate Brady Solansky was second in 5:02.04 with Savanah Moya of New Braunfels not far behind in 5:02.92. Lilly Koenig (5:12.09) and Madi Molinar (5:13.90) of Canyon each ran fast enough to win most meets. The pole vault featured Paige Beeghley of New Braunfels, Sofia Mitschke of Smithson Valley and Cassidy Henderson of Canyon all clearing 11-0 while NB's Deanna Wenzel went 10-6. Moya added a win in the 800m with a time of 2:17.42. Pieper's Shyla Boydstun and Caroline Peterson also showed out in their events. Canyon Lake, the smallest school at the meet, received strong performances from Aubrey Avey in the 300mh (46.08) and Hannah Hammer in the 800m (2:19.30).

On Saturday, Reagan, San Marcos and Seguin competed at the Dripping Springs Tiger Relays. The Reagan boys were led by Rayshun Hurt who won the 200m in 22.26 and anchored their winning 4x100m relay team that posted a time of 42.15. Seguin's 4x100m relay team ran a strong 42.55 without their fastest sprinter, Nikolas Henry. They also finished second in the 4x400m with a time of 3:26.43 and got a winning performance from Cordel Leon in the high jump (6-2). Kameron Adamski was strong for Reagan in the hurdles running 15.38 in the 110mh and then he finished second in the 300mh with a time of 40.40. Connor McGlothlin led San Marcos with an excellent 3200m run of 9:44.94.

The team results for the girls division at Dripping Springs proved to be about as exciting as possible with it coming down to three teams all having a chance to win with the 4x400m relay remaining. Heading into the race, Lake Travis had 119 points, Reagan had 116.5 and Round Rock had 115. The Rattlers won the 4x400m in 4:07.89 with Katie Burnett anchoring the victory and Lake Travis was second which was enough to give Reagan a 1.5-point team victory. The Rattlers scored nearly half of their points in the relays with wins in the 4x200m and 4x400m and despite runners in the 4x100m being told by meet officials the wrong lane they still managed a second place finish in 48.52. Seguin's Daisha Shular destroyed the competition in the 200m with a time of 24.42 and it was Nnenna Opara of Reagan taking second in a strong 25.30. Seguin's Leah Brown was outstanding in the jumping events taking first place in the high jump (5-6) and triple jump (37-1.75).

Looking Forward

There are many meets on the docket for this week but it is feared that the cold weather could ruin the majority of them. SAISD is scheduled to host a meet on Wednesday while the Steele Invitational, Northside Meet #2, Northeast 8, the Lockhart Lions Relays, Navarro Relays and Southwest Legacy Titan Relays are scheduled for Thursday. On Friday, the Lytle Pirate Relays are scheduled and then on Saturday the Central Catholic Relays and Hays Hawk Relays probably have the best chance to happen.

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