Photo San Antonio Johnson's Thomas Bucks
The Region IV-5A/6A track and field championships at Heroes Stadium on Friday and Saturday had a little bit of everything; lightning delays, interference by an official in a race and lots of records.
The lightning delay happened right before the 6A boys were going to run the 1600m. The interference happened on the second lap of the 6A boys 800m final. The records fell all weekend long with a total of 11 new Region meet records set.
5A Girls Team Title
The 5A girls promised to be a matchup between two of the top teams in the State, McAllen and Smithson Valley, and it lived up to the billing with each team scoring more points than any other teams at the 5A or 6A level in the Region. In the end, McAllen had a near perfect meet performance scoring 118 points and Smithson Valley had to settle for second place with 89 points.
McAllen scored nearly half of their points from their relays where they switched a few athletes from individual events and it paid off in a big way. They won the 4x100m in 47.69 to start Saturday, then won the 4x200m in 1:39.03 before taking second in the 4x400m with a time of 3:50.46 that would have broken the old meet record. Katelyn Vaden, Ava Barreda, Ecklyn Vaden and Sophia Flores was the winning quartet in both cases. Flores added a runner-up finish in the 200m to qualify for the State meet in 24.67. Katelyn Vaden and Barreda were joined by Vanessa Rocha and Yaneli Rocha on the 4x400m relay.
Individually, Dariana Luna and Dana Rojas Vazquez were the leading scorers for McAllen. Luna broke the meet record in the 100mh in both the prelims (13.84) and finals (13.90). In the 300mh, she passed Addison Simon of Cedar Park over the final hurdle to win in 43.35 while Simon crossed in 43.43. Luna also finished second in the long jump to Endia Stigall of Buda Hays. Luna was leading with a mark of 18-8.25 before Stigall won on her last jump of 19-1. Vazquez ran two great distance races and qualified for the State meet in the 3200m (10:51.25) and 1600m (4:55.82).
Smithson Valley got their meet started in a big way when Lilly Koenig won the 3200m in 10:43.03 and Aubrey Pozzi nabbed third place in 11:01.32. It was just the start for Koenig who qualified for the State meet in the 800m as well with her second-place performance of 2:11.66. Pozzi's post-season run was incredible. She took fifth in the District and advanced when Savanah Moya of New Braunfels decided to drop the event for the Area meet. Pozzi dropped over 30 seconds on her personal best and missed the State meet by less than a second. Sofia Mitschke added a runner-up performance for the team by clearing 12-0 in the pole vault.
Mia Perez led the Rangers with an amazing Saturday. First, she won the 800m in 2:09.24 to give the team a 1-2 performance in the race. Then, she pulled away in the final lap to win the 1600m in 4:53.21. Finally, she ran a 55.72 anchor leg to team with Izabella Sutherland, Addison Briscoe and Avianna Miller to win the 4x400m relay in a meet record time of 3:48.47.
Pieper finished as the third-place team with 66 points. Senior high jumper Caroline Peterson cleared 5-6 to win the event and advance to her fourth straight State championship. In addition, she ran the lead leg on their 4x200m relay team that finished in second place in a time of 1:41.07. She was joined by Hailey Tomlinson, Taniyah Adams and Mishaila Briggs on the relay. All three were also on the second place 4x100m relay team. Shyla Boydstun ran the anchor on the 4x100m relay and a few minutes later she took the silver medal in the 100mh (14.30).
5A Girls Top Individuals
- Stigall scored 24 points for Buda Hays. In addition to winning the long jump, she won the triple jump with a huge leap of 40-6.25 and grabbed fifth place in both the 100m and 200m.
- Sophia Gonzalez (Harlingen South) qualified for the State meet in both the discus (131-7) and shot put (41-0.5) after finishing second in both events.
- Daisha Shular (Seguin) broke her own meet record in the prelims of the 100m (11.39) and then won in 11.51. She pulled off another victory in the 200m (24.24).
- Gregory-Portland had two individual champions in Kaitlyn Kilgore (shot put) and Tristen Grimes (pole vault).
5A Boys Team Title
Liberty Hill entered the meet as the favorite and they took care of business to win with 76 points. They clinched the meet title after Spencer Harvey took gold in the 200m in a time of 21.75. It was one of three events won by the team. Their first two came during the field events on Friday with Dj Seaborn taking the triple jump title with a mark of 48-2.25 and Justin Bordelon won the discus with his first throw heave of 185-1. Bordelon was also fifth in the shot put (53-5.75) while his teammate, Jett Harrison, was fourth in the discus (165-10) and shot put (57-11).
Liberty Hill got off to a good start on Saturday with a runner-up finish in the 4x100m (42.15) as they lost to Alamo Heights by 0.07s. Jack Pitchford ran the lead-off leg of the relay and added a bronze medal in the 100m (10.90). Their 4x200m relay team of Kendrick Hicks, Tye Robinson, Preston Benefield and Harvey took third in 1:27.33.
Alamo Heights and McAllen each tied for second place with 58 points. Heights got 20 points from their 4x100m relay team of Blake Bader, Max Bacon, Lord Atticus Wootton and Patrick Arriaga who ran down Liberty Hill in the final 100m to win in 42.08. Bader is also headed to the State meet in the 100m after finishing second to Smithson Valley's Liam Magee. Bacon and Jack Hollimon both advanced in the hurdle events. Bacon was second in the 110mh (14.34) and third in the 300mh (38.49) while Hollimon took second in the 300mh (38.20). Overall, they scored 28 points in the hurdles.
McAllen greatly exceeded expectations thanks to a huge performance by their two relay teams. Before their relay teams raced, Jacksen Ahlman got the team started by winning a great 800m race in 1:55.28 as he held off Boerne Champion's Caleb Dehart by 0.06s. The 4x200m relay team of Tristan Keith, Joseph Rivas, Aidas Sakalys and Samuel Enriquez raced to victory in 1:26.72 as they held off Wagner (1:27.24) and Liberty Hill. They closed out the meet by winning the 4x400m in 3:15.57 behind the team of Rivas, Sakalys, Ahlman and Enriquez. They were one of three teams to break the meet record as Wagner (3:17.40) and Seguin (3:17.53) also performed the feat.
5A Boys Top Individuals
- Charlie Houck (Boerne Champion) won the 3200m in 9:25.32 and backed it up by finishing as runner-up in the 1600m (4:19.17).
- Parker Brown and Caden O'Hara of Leander Rouse swept the top two spots in the pole vault after clearing 16-0 and 15-6, respectively.
- Derek Thompson (Sharyland Pioneer) unleashed a huge 64-4 shot put on his first throw to win and was runner-up in the discus (179-0).
- Temoc Zamora (Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial) set a meet record en route to winning the 110mh in 14.13 and just missed the same thing in the 300mh after winning in 37.94.
- Brody Garcia cleared 6-8 and Andrew Brown went over 6-7 to take the top spots in the high jump for CC Veterans Memorial.
6A Girls Team Title
The Reagan girls have held the 6A Region title since before Covid-19, but a new team broke through this year with Judson taking the team title with 78 points. They clinched the title in the same way that the Liberty Hills boys did, via a win in the 200m dash. Darinasia Taylor edged out Westwood's Violet Hewett by 0.002s. Taylor crossed the line in 24.628 while Hewett finished in 24.630. Taylor and Hewett went head-to-head earlier in the day in the 100m where Hewett won in 11.58 and Taylor was second in 11.62.
The Rockets earned the majority of their points in the relays. Taylor anchored the winning 4x100m team that included Ziya Jernelius, Avery Dalmyda and Brianna Guidry. They won in 46.90 to hold off District rival Steele (47.06). Steele got a measure of revenge in the 4x200m when Anaiya Wood, Lauren Dobbins, Caydence Jackson and Sienna Baker won in 1:39.12. Lake Travis finished second in 1:40.37 and Judson was third in 1:41.16. Austin Westlake won the 4x400m title in 3:50.31 behind Presley Grewal, Sloane Wheeler, Elsa Harvey and Blakely Goen. Judson's quartet of Kinsey Jackson, Jenesis Cordero, Jernelius and Julianna Dodson nabbed second in 3:51.22.
Cordero is also headed to Austin in the 400m. She finished second in a photo finish of 55.36 with Clark's Jayla Flemons. The two were separated by only 0.003s. Brennan's Caila Lyons won the event in 54.70 which came after she won the 800m in 2:12.53.
Westlake finished in second place as a team and scored 24 points in the relays with most coming from their victory in the 4x400m relay. They received a huge performance from Malaysia Brady in the throwing events. She won the discus title with a toss of 150-6 to win by over 10-feet. She backed it up with a runner-up finish in the shot put with a heave of 39-2.5.
Steele finished in third place with 36 points. Similar to Westlake, most of their points came in the relays where they will send their 4x100m and 4x200m teams to the State meet. Dobbins added a fourth-place finish in the 100m (11.88) and Baker took third in the 200m (24.85).
6A Girls Top Individuals
- Meredith Wolfe (Round Rock) was battling illness but still took gold in the 3200m (10:59.71) and 1600m (4:52.24).
- Rachel Nwankwo (Clark) was outstanding in the horizontal jumps winning the triple jump with a leap of 39-1.25 and a runner-up finish in the long jump (18-4.75).
- Cristina Garcia (Laredo Alexander) took runner-up honors in the triple jump (38-6.25) on Friday and then won the 100mh in 14.11 on Saturday. She added a fifth place finish in the 300mh.
- Syenna Lara (Warren) was a double-qualifier for the State meet in the 100mh (14.30) and 300mh (43.04).
6A Boys Team Title
The lowest scoring title race came with the 6A boys where the points were spread out with 11 teams scoring at least 20 points. In the end, Steele emerged as the champion with 60 points due to their sprinting and jumping prowess. The headliner for the Knights was triple jumper John Williams III who set a Region meet and San Antonio City record with a winning leap of 50-9.25. He had the event won with his first jump of 48-3.5 and finished it off with two equal marks of 50-9.25. Donnell Williams tacked on a third place finish in the long jump with a mark of 23-2.5 as he finished behind Round Rock's Aiden Walker (23-4) and Jyazian Moore (23-3.25) of Harlingen.
Steele has been led by 400m runners Israel Wray and Maverick James all year long and the two came through on Saturday. Wray finished second in 47.69 and James was third in 48.03 while Lake Travis' Abram Reagan caught both down the home stretch to win in 47.33. Deven Langston took third in the 100m in 10.47 after running 10.13 with a strong wind in the prelims. Their 4x100m relay team of Lee Smith, Wray, Samuel Harris and Langston ran 40.96 in the prelims, but had to settle for a second place in 41.50 as Harlan's superstar Tate Taylor ran them down to win in 41.07.
Harlan finished in second overall with 48 points. Taylor teamed with G'Ivori Graham, Anthony Durojaiye and Aiden Aleman in the 4x100m. Taylor posted a phenomenal time of 10.08 in the 100m prelims on Friday and then he took home the gold medal on Saturday in 10.14. Westlake's Elijah Clark was a close second to Taylor with a time of 10.30 after running the prelims in 10.14. Taylor finished out his day with a dominating performance in the 200m. He won in 21.13 after posting a time of 20.88 in the preliminaries. Noah Folks picked up the first eight points of the meet for Harlan with a runner-up finish in the triple jump (45-11).
Judson finished as the third-place team with 42 points. They were led by discus thrower Josiah Green who finished in second place with a big personal best throw of 179-11 and advanced to the State meet by one-inch over Medina Valley's Gibson Conard. Jeremiah Robinson of Del Valle won the event with a throw of 183-9. The Rockets finished the meet with a big performance in the 4x400m relay. Quincy Baker, Isaiah Waller, Carlwynn Young and Emaurie Jones finished second in 3:15.88 and were a stride or two away from the winning Stony Point squad of Zamir Chebou-Webb, Carson Weise, Dahvon Banks and Javon Waddle who crossed the line in 3:15.62.
6A Boys Top Individuals
- The hurdle duo of Bowie's Owen Langdon and Taft's Ja'Dan Keiler posted two photo finishes. In the 110mh, Langdon edged by Keiler, 13.75 to 13.77 and then Langdon passed Keiler on the final hurdle in the 300mh to win 37.33 to 37.36.
- Zachary Miller (Brennan) won his first career Regional title taking the 3200m title in 9:03.79 and then was runner-up in the 1600m (4:09.48).
- Gavin Chapa (Reagan) went head-to-head with Miller losing the 3200m with a time of 9:04.29 before winning the 1600m in a meet record 4:08.37.
- Thomas Bucks (Johnson) qualified for his third straight State meet by winning the pole vault with a clearance of 16-0.
- A few sentences need to be written about the 800m that was going smoothly until 300m remained. Medina Valley's Payton DeFelippis took the lead with one lap remaining and held the lead coming off the turn when a meet official stepped onto the track in front of him causing him to stutter step, turn back and lose momentum. The first seven runners were all affected at least little bit, but event winner Luke Bone (Austin) and Brandeis' Ben Tealer were able to power through and still take the first two spots. Bone won in 1:52.64 and Tealer was second in 1:54.22. Later in the meet, it was determined that every runner had the option to re-run the race 30 minutes after the 4x400m relay. In all, eight athletes ran the race again, but none of them improved their position.
Photo San Antonio Johnson's Thomas Bucks