Photo of Mia Perez
UIL District 26-5A
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The District 26-5A meet opened with high anticipation on Tuesday and concluded on Wednesday night with the Smithson Valley girls taking care of business and the Pieper boys separated themselves from the pack as both teams took the District titles at Judson ISD's Rutledge Stadium.
Smithson Valley's meet opened with some bad news with distance star Brady Solansky not being healthy enough to run, but their depth shined through as they won eight events. Lilly Koenig got the Rangers started with a victory in the 3200m running a time of 10:54.52. She ran with Savanah Moya (New Braunfels) for the majority of the race before pulling away in the final 600m. Moya took second in 11:10.24.
In the shot put, Boerne Champion's Lorena Barreiro-Bidot took gold with a throw of 33-9.75. She won by less than a foot over Boerne's Ella Schram and her teammate, Hannah Burkett. Burkett ended up advancing to Regionals in the discus where she finished third with a throw of 101-2. The discus was won by Piper Moeller (Smithson Valley) who had a personal record toss of 112-9. The runner-up was Taiya Aurora of New Braunfels.
The Rangers picked up another event win in the triple jump where Avianna Miller bounced out to 38-8.5. Wagner's Jasmine Kenney had a big season best to take second place at 36-6.75 and Elizabeth Cludius (New Braunfels) was third at 35-5. Kenney was the only athlete to advance to Area in both the triple jump and long jump. She was fourth in the long jump with a mark of 17-3. Alaina Fugate of New Braunfels had a big season best to win at 18-1 while Boerne's Isabella Pettet (17-5) and Pieper's Hailey Tomlinson (17-4) finished on the medal stand.
Pieper's Caroline Peterson, a three-time State medalist in the high jump, easily won her prize event with a clearance of 5-7. Smithson Valley's Aliya Murphy (5-2) and Bryn Beisenbach (5-0) nabbed the remaining medals.
The final field event of the meet took place on Wednesday where Smithson Valley's Sofia Mitschke took gold in the pole vault with a clearance of 12-0. New Braunfels swept the next three spots advancing Paige Beeghley, Sydney Garcia and Deanna Wenzel to the Area meet.
On Wednesday evening, the track event finals began with the 4x100m relay. Pieper entered as the heavy favorite and the quartet of Hailey Tomlinson, Taniyah Adams, Mishaila Briggs and Shyla Boydstun won in 47.80. The next three teams all finished within 0.20s of each other; Boerne Champion, Wagner and New Braunfels.
Boys Varsity 400m finals
Jamarri Bowie (Boerne Champion) and Kevon Carter (San Antonio Wagner) compete in a very entertaining and close 400m finals
The next event on the track was the 800m and it ended having the top performances of the meet. Mia Perez (Smithson Valley), Moya and Koenig all rank in the top four in the UIL 5A after the race that was won by Perez in 2:10.08. Moya (2:10.64) and Koenig (2:11.24) each ran big personal bests. Later in the meet, Perez dueled Moya again in the 1600m and won in 5:07.09 while Moya came in right behind her in 5:09.96. Skyler Fonseca of Smithson Valley took the bronze with a quality time of 5:15.59. Payton Kidder of Boerne Champion advanced to the Area meet in both events after finishing fourth in each.
The hurdle events promised to be competitive. In the end, Boerne's Prisca Igbo took gold in both events. She won the 100mh in 15.15 after overtaking Smithson Valley's Maycee Moody (15.75) and Pieper's Shyla Boydstun (16.11) over the final half of the race. In the 300mh, Igbo ran away from the field to win in 46.48. Boydstun nabbed second in 47.90 and Wagner's Samantha Franco (48.11) took third place.
Pieper won their second relay of the meet in the 4x200m. The group of Peterson, Tomlinson, Briggs and Adams crossed the tape in 1:41.81 to easily win. Wagner (1:43.99) edged out Smithson Valley (1:44.09) for second place.
SV's Izabella Sutherland jumped out to the lead in the 400m and held on for the win in 59.50 as Pieper's Aniyah Gill (59.76) and Tivy's Summer Fayhe (59.81) came on strong at the end to take the next two spots.
The two short sprints were each won by Pieper's Taniyah Adams and Mishaila Briggs. Adams won the 100m in 12.38, a great time running into a strong wind. Alzara Mysliwiec of Alamo Heights took the silver medal with a time of 12.69 and Juliana Syroney (Champion) was third in 12.78. Briggs blasted the 200m in 25.30 to pull away from the field. Avianna Miller was runner-up in 26.06.
Smithson Valley capped off their team title by winning the 4x400m relay in dominant fashion. Sutherland, Fonseca, Koenig and Perez won in a time of 3:57.25. Wagner (4:06.34) and New Braunfels (4:06.80) fought it out for the next two spots. The Rangers finished with 163 points while Pieper (122) took second and New Braunfels (102) was third.
The Pieper boys took the team title with 128 points despite only winning two events. Boerne Champion won five events and finished in second with 99 points while Alamo Heights won four events and finished third with 93 points.
The meet opened on Tuesday morning with a fast 3200m that featured five runners breaking 10 minutes. Champion's Charlie Houck took his first of two gold medals with a winning time of 9:34.15. Boerne's duo of Aaron Garcia (9:36.62) and Valor Menn (9:41.50) took the next two spots while Carson Pair of New Braunfels was fourth in 9:43.96. Houck, Garcia and Pair also advanced to the Area meet in the 1600m. Houck edged out Garcia to win in 4:23.21 and Garcia crossed in 4:23.50. Pair was fourth once again in 4:27.93 while Luis Tovar (Boerne Champion) was third in 4:26.78.
Tivy's Jackson Kerth and Pieper's Kahdyn Freeman were the stars of the field events. Kerth took gold in the discus (163-2) and shot put (58-6.25) while Freeman won the long jump (22-9) and triple jump (47-1.25). Smithson Valley's Hans Scheff and Champion's Blake Stehling will be joining Kerth at the Area meet in both events. Scheff was second in the discus and third in the shot put while Stehling did the opposite.
Freeman led a sweep by the Warriors in the triple jump. Ethan Palmer took second with a jump of 46-1.75 and Rashard Dunbar was third with a leap of 44-5.25. In the long jump, Ben Toney of Veterans Memorial got his meet started with a runner-up finish of 21-7. New Braunfels' Cole Tavarez took third with a mark of 21-5.
Alamo Heights picked up big points in the high jump. Cole Crosley took the gold with a clearance of 6-4 while teammate Anthony Romero-Kibler was runner-up after clearing 6-3. Wagner's Damarion Kerley also cleared 6-3 but had to settle for third place.
The pole vault ended up being the closest competition as seven vaulters cleared 14-0 or 14-6. Landon Kolacny (Boerne Champion), Gavin Starnes (New Braunfels), Ryan Rush (New Braunfels) and Logan Tennell (Pieper) all cleared 14-6 and finished in that order.
The 4x100m relay finals finished in a near dead heat, but after the smoke cleared it was the Alamo Heights quartet of Blake Bader, Max Bacon, Lord Atticus Wootton and Patrick Arriaga winning in 42.31. Wagner took second in 42.33 and Pieper was third in 42.36.
The Chargers continued their dominance in the distance events with Caleb Dehart winning the 800m in 1:57.96 and Tovar was second in 1:58.21. Boerne's Barrett Crofut (1:58.24) and Wagner's Channon Davis (1:58.58) both advanced to the Area meet after running well.
Alamo Heights dominated the hurdle events. Bacon won the 110mh in 14.65 and teammates Jack Hollimon (15.36) and James Lynch (15.37) both advanced to Area. Grayson Stewart (Pieper) was runner-up with a time of 15.25. Bacon also won a fast 300mh in 38.60 and Hollimon was fourth in 39.10. Cole Redding (38.76) of New Braunfels and Cash Lancaster (39.04) of Pieper took second and third, respectively.
The 100m dash had a surprise winner in Smithson Valley's Liam Magee who crossed the tape in 11.11 into a strong headwind. Pieper's Malachi Thornton took second in 11:29 as he out-leaned SV's Bradley Sowersby at the finish line.
Wagner entered the meet as the top seed in the 4x200m relay and they backed it up by winning in 1:26.86 behind the sprinting of Chance Stanley, John Taylor, Jaden Tardy and Sunny Serrano. Pieper, New Braunfels and Smithson Valley took the next three spots as they each broke 1:29.
Jamarri Bowie of Boerne Champion and Wagner's Kevon Carter engaged in a classic 400m race with Bowie running down Carter in the final 50 meters to win in 48.50 while Carter crossed the line in 48.96. Gavin Williams of Smithson Valley took third in 50.30. Bowie nearly added a second victory in the 200m, but it was Ben Toney who was able to run down Bowie in this race. Toney won in 22.37 while Bowie ran 22.50. Pieper's Carson LaCombe won the bronze medal with a time of 22.87.
The final event of the meet was won by the Wagner 4x400m relay team of Carter, Davis, Terrell Harris and Taylor. They won in 3:20.45 while Pieper was second in 3:23.99 and New Braunfels was third in 3:24.58.
All the athletes who advanced to the Area meet will be back in action on Wednesday in Comal Canyon High School for the UIL 5A - Area 25/26 meet.