Photo of Lee Thompson
The Mule Relays kicked off Thursday night with one big change to the normal chain of events, instead of taking place at Alamo Heights High School it was run at Heroes Stadium due to the construction on campus. Regardless, the meet turned out to be a nail-biter with both team titles decided by 10 points or less.
The Boerne Champion boys took the title with 183.33 points while Alamo Heights finished second with 176 points. The meet came down to the 4x400m relay with the Chargers leading the Mules by 3.33 points. The Chargers took first in the mile relay in 3:27.83 while Alamo Heights finished in second in 3:28.82. Overall, the Chargers won 10-of-18 events.
Champion got off to a good start in the field events. Blake Stehling won both the shot put with a throw of 54-5 and the discus with a toss of 146-6. Ricky Gonzalez (Alamo Heights) and Logan Schram (Boerne) both threw over 49-feet in the shot put to take second and third, respectively. Boerne took second and third in the discus with Ben Bays and Keegan Fischer each throwing over 130-feet. BC added a third field event victory when Landon Kolacny cleared 13-6 in the pole vault to finish ahead of Southside's Maverick Vela who cleared 13-0.
On the track, the Chargers began the meet with a win in the distance medley relay covering the distance in 10:39.06 to defeat Boerne by nine seconds. In the 3200m, William Coover (10:28) and Noah Moreno (10:47) took the top two spots. In the sprints, Jamarri Bowie took gold in the 100m (11.40) and 200m (22.52) despite running into a strong head-wind. He won a close race in the 100m over Jay's Miles Gutierrez and then won the 200m over Jay's Damarcus Shynett by over a half second.
Charlie Houck grabbed important points for Champion in the 1600m with his winning time of 4:29.40 as he held off Boerne's Aaron Garcia (4:31.90) and Shawn Edwards (4:35.70). The team's final win came in the 4x200m relay where they ran 1:31.76 while Alamo Heights trailed closely behind in 1:32.13.
Alamo Heights picked up huge points in both hurdle events going 1-2-3 in both events. In the 110mh, Jack Hollimon won the first heat in 15.40 over teammate James Lynch who crossed the tape in 15.60. Then, in the second heat Max Bacon won his heat in 15.48 to finish in second place overall. Bacon followed that by winning the 300mh in 39.21. Lynch took second place again, this time in 39.90 and Hollimon followed in 40.10. The Mules also won the 4x100m in a school record time of 42.10 to hold off Boerne Champion and Marshall.
In the 800m, Brayden Scott (Boerne) took gold with a time of 2:03.30.
Churchill won both the 400m and triple jump. Ilan De Luna took gold in the 400m in 51.23 after finishing third in the 100m. Earlier in the day, freshman Chauncey James won the triple jump with a leap of 42-4 and Alamo Heights' Coltrane Kennan was the runner-up with a jump of 41-7.
Southside's Jessiah Escobar medaled in all three jumping events. He cleared 6-0 in the high jump to win due to fewer misses over Jaxon Barnes (Boerne Champion) and Anthony Romero-Kibler (Alamo Heights). He was third in the triple jump with a mark of 40-4 and nearly won the long jump with his jump of 20-4.5 but had to settle for third as Warren's Lee Thompson (20-7) and Jay's Camrin Garza (20-6) each finished less than three inches in front of him.
The girl's meet also came down to the 4x400m relay, but it was not as close as the boy's meet. Warren led by 14 points heading into the race over Churchill. The Chargers did manage to win the race in 4:11.20, but Warren was able to hold on to second place in 4:12.70 to secure the team title.
Warren won the meet despite only winning four events. Hurdler Syenna Lara was the star of the meet for the Warriors. She won the 100mh in 15.32 into a strong head-wind and topped a tough opponent, Boerne's Prisca Igbo who finished in 15.71. In the 300mh, Lara dominated the competition and crossed the line in 45.20. Igbo was second again in 48.30.
The Warriors took gold in the 4x200m with a winning time of 1:49.40 as they held off both Boerne Champion and Alamo Heights who took the next two spots. The final event win for Warren came from Lillian Hubbard who took the high jump with a clearance of 5-0.
Jay's Shyniece Davis continued her winning ways and was the leading scorer in the meet. She won the triple jump with leap of 34-7.5 and took third in the long jump with a mark of 16-1. She finished close behind both Alzara Mysliwiec of Alamo Heights and Marieme Fall of Marshall who tied for the long jump title with matching jumps of 16-5. On the track, Davis won a closer than expected 400m in 58.44 over Savannah Seibert (59.77) of Boerne and Michelle Hinds (1:00.77) of Marshall. She finished off her evening by winning the 200m in 26.08 while Charlotte Tompsett (26.80) of Alamo Heights and Melanie Mendiola (26.98) of Warren took the next two spots.
Mysliwiec added another victory in the 100m for the Mules by holding off Warren's Kaprice Johnson by just 0.03s in 12.59. The only other first place finish for the Mules was by pole vaulter Kennedy Veale who cleared 10-6 to knock off Churchill's Alexis Martens who went over 10-0.
Churchill opened the track portion of the meet by scoring big points. They won the distance medley relay in 12:48.38 to easily hold off Boerne Champion and Alamo Heights. Then, Kaelyn Holland won the 3200m in 12:17.00 for the Chargers. Hanah Dismukes of Marshall (12:20.33) and Katie Allison of Alamo Heights (12:20.95) took the silver and bronze.
In the closest race of the meet, Boerne Champion nipped Warren in the 4x100m by 0.01s in a winning time of 49.52. Churchill was third less than a second behind the two teams. For the second straight week, BC's Payton Kidder and Churchill's Kallie Van Prooyen went 1-2 in the 1600m in a close race. Kidder finished in 5:29.55 while Van Proyen came across in 5:30.22 and then Micah Monteleone of Alamo Heights was right on their heels in 5:31.30.
Southside's Emarald Aguirre ran a strong race to win the 800m in 2:27.94 as she out-raced Warren's Alexis Flores who finished in 2:28.52.
The Highlands sister duo of Siara and Senya Hardeman took first and third, respectively in the shot put. Siara won with a personal best throw of 37-9 while Senya had a throw of 35-9. Sandwiched in between was Champion's Hannah Burkett who had a nice throw of 36-0. Jay's Khristyan Harville won the discus with a toss of 109-7 while Arrian Spratt (106-5) of Marshall and Churchill's Nia De Luna (104-11) took the next two spots.
One big feature of the meet was the prevailing North wind that was strong throughout the meet making it difficult to finish most races.