Champion Girls, Steele Boys Win Northside Meet

The Northside ISD Meet at Gustafson Stadium on Thursday night featured some of the top teams in the San Antonio area and at the end it was the Boerne Champion girls and the Steele boys claiming the hardware given to the champs.

The Charger girls won six individual events and one relay to accumulate 187 points, well ahead of second place Clemens (113), Sotomayor (91) and Harlan (91). Payton Kidder was the lone double winner for Champion as she placed first in the 800m and 1600m. In the 800m, she held off Alessandra Obregon of Churchill and Ryland Ross of Del Rio with a sprint to the finish in 2:22.31. In the 1600m, she pulled away from Churchill's Kallie Van Proyen in the last 150m and won in a time of 5:24.21 while Van Proyen came in at 5:25.68.

The meet opened on the track with Champion's Rebecca Bezerra biding her time behind Churchill's Centli Gutierrez Juarez before passing her on the home stretch to win the 3200m by three seconds in 11:53.72. After the 2-mile race, it was time for the 4x100m relay that ended up being a barn-burner with Sotomayor holding off Champion by .01s in 49.52 while Harlan's Dessalyn Rogers nearly ran both teams down with a great anchor leg to move into third place.

The Clemens duo of Bella Andrews (17.42) and Milana Hughes (18.03) took first and third, respectively in the 100mh while Addison Davis (17.53) added a runner-up finish for the Chargers. Boerne Champion picked up even more points in the 100m when Madison Meinke (12.86) and Holly Winkenhower (13.07) took the top two spots.

After Kidder won the 800m, it was back to a sprint relay where the same three teams took the top three spots in the 4x200m relay. Sotomayor won in 1:45.06 while Champion (1:46.73) was second and Harlan (1:47.45) was third.

Churchill picked up back-to-back event wins in the 400m and 300mh. First, Savannah Welsh cruised to victory in the 400m with an easy time of 59.54 and then Aniyah Nichols took gold in the 300mh with a time of 48.74.

The 200m belonged to Harlan's Rogers who was running in her first career varsity track meet. She took gold in the event despite running from the slow heat. She posted a time of 25.49 that was better than Sotomayor's Jaden Echols who ended up in second place with a time of 25.96.

The Chargers also won the final event on the track, the 4x400m relay. The team of Mikayla Green, Amora Cummings, Michelle Cerna and Addison Davis won in a time of 4:11.80.

In the field events, Champion won the high jump and discus. Maelee Morris won the high jump with a clearance of 4-10 due to fewer misses than Clemens' Jazelle Howard who also went over 4-10. In the discus, Hannah Burkett (102-4) and teammate Cameron Wampler (98-8) took the top two spots for the Chargers. Burkett finished in second place to Harlan's Kiara Shaw (35-8.25) in the shot put with a toss of 34-3.25.

In the horizontal jumps, Kaelony King of Sotomayor and Nyla Folks of Harlan traded the top two spots in each event. King won the long jump with a mark of 16-6.5 and was second in the triple jump with a leap of 33-6 while Folks won the triple jump with her jump of 35-5 and she was second in the long jump (16-2.5).

The pole vault was won by Jazlyn Tabuyo of Clemens who had fewer misses than her teammate Caroline Sweet as both cleared 8-6.

One interesting note from the girls meet was that Churchill's Harlee Castillo won the JV 300mh in 47.12, a faster time than the varsity and Claire Untereiner of Clemens won the JV discus with a throw of 102-2, only two inches off the varsity lead.

The Steele Knight boys won more events than the Boerne Champion girls but did not end up with as many points on their way to the team title. The Knights tallied 160 points while Boerne Champion had 116 and Sotomayor posted 104.

Maverick James was the big winner on the track for the Knights. First, he won the 400m in 49.91 despite running in the slow heat. The first heat of the 400m featured a tight finish between Bryce Lloyd (50.45) of Sotomayor and Wolfgang Thoener (50.55) of Brennan. In the 200m, James and teammate Israel Wray ran stride-for-stride for nearly the entire race with James edging out Wray by .01s in 22.14.

The Steele sprint relay teams each looked very strong. In the 4x100m, the squad of Lee Smith, Wray, Samuel Harris and Deven Langston won in 41.74 although there is the caveat that Harlan, owner of the San Antonio city record set just last year in the event, was disqualified on the last hand off. In the 4x200m, Smith and Langston teamed up with Eli Johnson and Sean Robinson to take home the victory in 1:28.92.

The Knights were also victorious in the hurdles, two events where they have long had success. It was Mojubaoluwa Adejuyigbe winning the 110mh in 15.89 over freshman teammate Liam Jones who crossed in 15.93 and Amari Brown-Johnson of Sotomayor who finished in 15.95. In the 300mh, Jones took the title with a time of 41.71 as he held off Brown-Johnson who was second in 41.91.

It wasn't just Steele creating the headlines and drama on the track. The 100m featured the runner everyone wanted to see, Harlan's Tate Taylor. Taylor did not get to show his speed in the 4x100m due to a bad handoff, but in the 100m he rocketed to victory in 10.54 despite stumbling out of the blocks. Langston ran a strong 10.82 for second place for Steele. Taylor was not finished after his 100m exploits and ended up running the anchor leg on the Harlan 4x400m that was in third place when he got the baton, but he showed he is more than just a straight sprinter with his 47.2 split to bring the Hawks home in first place in 3:25.26 ahead of both Boerne Champion (3:27.14) and Clemens (3:27.54).

The distance races had a deep and fast group running all three events. In the 3200m, Boerne Champion's Charlie Houck went to the front early and just kept rolling along. Paul Wallace of Sotomayor was the only runner who went with him and it paid off for Wallace who ran a huge personal best to finish second in 9:40.94. Houck nearly matched his personal best as well en route to winning in 9:27.14. Overall, five runners ran 9:50 or better in the race as Jayce Love (9:44.64) or Clemens, Zach Hudson (9:45.44) of Churchill and Shawn Edwards (9:50.64) of Champion all posted their best times ever.

In the 1600m, it appeared that Houck and Wallace would pull off a repeat of the 3200m, but Wallace had other ideas. Heading into the final lap, Wallace made a push to get him within striking distance of Houck and then over the last 75m he unleashed a great kick that allowed him to edge Houck at the finish. Wallace ran 4:25.28, a 14-second PR while Houck finished in 4:25.42, also a PR.

The 800m was also not a slouch of a race. Wolfgang Thoener was able to come out of the pack and win in 1:57.31 as Trenton Bilderback of Clemens, Luis Tovar of Boerne Champion and Matthew Beatty of Clemens all finished a second behind.

Steele was also strong in the field events. John Williams III kept up his winning ways in the triple jump with a leap of 45-3 to hold off Harlan's Demari Fields and Noah Folks who jumped 44-8 and 44-7, respectively. Julian Hugo took gold in the discus for the Knights with a throw of 151-1 to best Cyelan Whitley of Clemens who was second with a toss of 142-10.

Boerne Champion freshman Blake Stehling showed out in the throwing events. He won the shot put with a throw of 45-1.25 and was the third place finisher in the discus with a mark of 136-6.

Luke Nichols of Clemens cleared 14-8 in the pole vault while Landon Kolacny of Champion was second with a 13-6 clearance. Sotomayor's McKell Johnekins was the top high jumper with a 6-4 clearance as both Christopher Buchanan of Champion and Michael Inweh of Sotomayor went 6-2.

Emmanuel Devonte Reyes of Del Rio won a tightly contested long jump with a mark of 21-9. Steele's Donnell Williams was second at 21-6.75 and Demari Fields was third with a jump of 21-5.5.

Be sure to check out all the race videos and interviews from Thursday night at Northside ISD Meet #3 2025 - Videos.