Photo of Smithson Valley's Sofia Mitschke
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The Smithson Valley Ranger Relays was not a big meet, but it did have big results on Saturday as some of the top Region IV-5A teams went head-to-head at Ranger Stadium.
The girls meet was likely a preview of what the Regional championship will look like with Smithson Valley and McAllen each trying to gain the upper hand. The two teams have won the last two Regional titles with the other taking runner-up honors in each case. The Rangers came out on top with 149.5 points while the Bulldogs finished with 148 points. Pieper finished in third place with 107 points.
The meet opened with a blistering 3200m that featured five of the top 11 finishers at the 5A State Cross Country championships. Dana Rojas Vazquez (McHi) pushed the pace through the first mile and beyond, but Brady Solansky (SV) hung tight and made a definitive move heading into the final lap and ran away from DRV to win in 10:45.56 while Rojas Vazquez finished second in 10:54.56. The top six girls all broke 11:17.
Solansky added another indivdual victory in the 1600m. It was another great race that featured top contenders, but eventually it was just Solansky and Rojas Vazquez and Solansky was able to pull away again to win in 4:57.66 while DRV was second in 5:03.09. Savanah Moya of New Braunfels took third place in 5:06.88. The remaining distance event, the 800m, was won by SV's Mia Perez who crossed the tape in 2:10.31 to hold off McAllen's Yaneli Rocha who finished in 2:11.49. Aniyah Gill of Pieper was a strong third place finisher in 2:16.77.
McAllen won their first event of the day in the 4x100m. They got the baton around the track in 42.42 with Jacqueline Renfrow running the anchor leg to hold off Pieper's excellent team that ran 48.78. The next event featured McAllen's top scorer, Dariana Luna. Luna won the 100mh in 14.38 while Shyla Boydstun (Pieper) and Maycee Moody (SV) showed top quality to take second and third, respectively. Luna followed that up by taking gold in the 300mh in 45.40 to knock off Boydstun who ran 47.53 and Gregory-Portland's Tristen Grimes who finished in 48.58.
Luna added silver medals in the shot put (33-4) and long jump (16-11) to cap off her day. She finished behind G-P's Kaitlyn Kilgore in the shot put who had a big throw of 41-10 and to Pieper's Hailey Thompson who jumped 17-0.5.
McAllen added another relay win in the 4x200m as Ecklyn Vaden, Ava Barreda, Katelyn Vaden and Renfrow picked up their second relay win of the day in 1:41.11 as they held off Brandeis by just 0.15s. Rocha picked up the final event win for the Bulldogs with her win in the 400m with a time of 58.60. Brandeis' Danelly Carrion (1:00.15) and Payton Ware (1:01.60) took the next two spots in the event.
The sprint events belonged to Pieper. In the 100m, Taniyah Adams outraced both London Graham and Leila Smith-Harris of Brandeis to win in 12.24. Adams added a win in the 200m when she nipped teammate Mishaila Briggs at the finish to take the gold in 25.41.
The final track event of the day was a good one with three teams breaking four minutes. Smithson Valley's group of Izabella Sutherland, Avianna Miller, Solansky and Perez won in 3:52.14. McAllen took second in 3:57.85 and Brandei was third in 3:58.88. Miller also won the triple jump for the Rangers with a school-record leap of 38-6 to win easily. Sofia Mitschke won a loaded pole vault with a clearance of 12-3 to defeat Tristen Grimes and Charleigh Jacobs of Brandeis who each went 11-9. Overall, there were six competitors who went over 10-feet.
Kilgore added a runner-up finish in the discus with her throw of 115-0 to finish behind Canyon's Peyton Wilson who threw the discus 117-1. Pieper's high jump superstar Caroline Peterson took another gold in the event with a 5-6 clearance.
The Pieper boys won a competitive meet with 150 points to hold off McAllen (132) and New Braunfels (118). The amazing thing about the win for the Warriors is that they only won four events, but their overall depth showed through. Kahdyn Freeman won both horizontal jump events going 22-8 in the long jump and 45-2 in the triple jump. Michael Ajagbe (43-6) and Ethan Palmer (43-3) gave Pieper a 1-2-3 sweep in the triple jump.
Ajagbe joined Caleb Sumpter, Isaiah Champagne and Malachi Thornton in the winner's circle of the 4x100m relay. They won in a time of 42.05 to hold off Smithson Valley who ran 42.43. Thornton added the final victory of the day for the Warriors with his winning time of 10.96 in the 100m. Thornton added a third place finish in the 200m.
McAllen finished in second place but had seven event winners. Fletcher Frisby won a tightly contested discus with a throw of 146-9. Noah Blomquist of Boerne took second with a throw of 144-9 and Hans Scheff took third with a throw of 144-6 for Smithson Valley.
On the track, Jack Gurwitz got McAllen started with his win in the 3200m in 9:53.09 as he held off Carson Pair of New Braunfels who led most of the race and clocked a 9:57.19. The Bulldogs followed that with a win in the 4x800m in a time of 8:16.20.
The 800m featured a great performance from McAllen's Jacksen Ahlman who out-ran one of the best half-milers in San Antonio, Ben Tealer of Brandeis. Ahlman won in 1:55.47 and Tealer had to settle for second with a time of 1:59.80. Samuel Enriquez took center stage for McAllen after that by winning the 400m in 49.74 where Tealer was once again the runner-up and he won the 200m in 21.80. Ahlman and Enriquez closed out the meet by running two outstanding legs of McAllen's winning 4x400m relay team that posted a time of 3:22.70. Brandeis took second in 3:23.46 and Smithson Valley was third with a time of 3:25.35.
New Braunfels won the 4x200m in 1:29.73 as they held off a strong Pieper team who finished in 1:30.26. Cole Redding starred in the 300mh with a fabulous time of 38.90 as he knocked off Brandeis' Caiden Rodriguez who also ran well with a time of 39.82. Pair won 1600m with a strong finish in 4:34.27 to hold off Kian Pinilla-Jimenez (Brandeis) and Joseph Rodriguez (McAllen) who were right on his heals.
Nick Barber of Brandeis won the shot put with a toss of 48-3.5 while Scheff took second with a mark of 46-2. The high jump was also extremely close with six athletes clearing 6-0, but only Canyon's Mason Wright was able to clear the next height, 6-2.
The pole vault was another strong event with seven vaulters going over 13-feet. Gavin Starnes of New Braunfels and William Moffatt of Canyon each went 14-3 but Starnes won due to fewer misses.