Liam Magee, Smithson Valley
The Smithson Valley Ranger Relays only had six teams, but McAllen, Pieper, New Braunfels and Smithson Valley always have some of the top 5A teams in the Region. A beautiful weather day led to strong results at Ranger Stadium.
Pieper took home the boys team title thanks to victories in six events. In the morning, the Warriors won all three jumping events. Kahdyn Freeman was a double winner taking the triple jump (45-11.5) and long jump (21-9.25). His brother, Micah Freeman, was the runner-up in the triple jump with a mark of 44-0.5 while Andrew Jacobson took gold in the high jump with a clearance of 6-0. Jacobson had fewer misses than Wyatt Baca (Buda Hays) who also cleared 6-0. Two of the top sprinters in the San Antonio area, Kingston Brown (New Braunfels) and Hunter Haug (Smithson Valley), finished a close second and third in the long jump.
Pieper picked up big points in the hurdle events. Valentine Onyenagada took the 110mh in 15.59 while Barron Branch finished in third place. In the 300mh, Cash Lancaster won the gold in 39.78 and Bryce Harrison was the runner-up in 40.70. The Warriors then closed out the meet by winning the 4x400m relay. The quartet of Harrison, Ben Aibel, Garate and Lancaster combined to run 3:19.48 finishing ahead of Smithson Valley (3:21.44) and McAllen (3:24.06).
The meet opened in the morning with McAllen's Jack Gurwitz (9:47.48) and Derrick Mendoza (9:48.25) taking the top two spots in the 3200m, just ahead of Darren Gomez of Rowe (9:49.13). McAllen added another win in the 4x800m relay with Sergio Echevarria, Aidan De Leon, Tamunoiworisoa Asekomeh and Samuel Olivarez clocking an 8:01.43.
Smithson Valley's Han Scheff was a double-winner in the shot put and discus. He threw 51-4 in the shot put to hold off Pieper's Connor Hinojosa (48-3). In the discus, he easily won with a toss of 157-4. Kingston Hartman (Pieper) was the runner-up with a throw of 136-9. Rowe's Eric Contreras finished third in both throwing events.
The pole vault was highly contested with Gavin Starnes (New Braunfels) taking the title with a clearance of 15-3. Logan Tennell (Pieper) and Wade Hill (New Braunfels) each cleared over 14-feet to earn medals.
The 4x100m relay was one of the best races of the day. Smithson Valley's squad of Schaeden Davis, Haug, Noah Johnson and Liam Magee crossed the finish line in 41.69 and held off a strong New Braunfels team that finished in 41.80. The Rangers also took the gold medal in the 4x200m relay as Davis, Haug, Johnson and Magee once again held off New Braunfels in a close race, 1:27.50 to 1:27.94. Magee also won the 200m for the Rangers in 22.53. He was followed by McAllen's Aidas Sakalys (22.63) and Haug (22.96).
McAllen excelled in the races that were 400m and over. After Gurwitz and Mendoza took the top two spots in the 3200m, Samuel Olivares (2:01.00) held off teammate Sergio Echevarria (2:01.03) to win the 800m. In the 400m, freshman Timothy Akindayomi won the race from the slow heat crossing the line in 51.53. Finally, Mondoza outkicked Nathan Ortega (New Braunfels) in the 1600m with a time of 4:35.58 while Ortega crossed in 4:35.69. Gurwitz finished a close third place in 4:37.91.
McAllen won the girls meet by 10.5 points over Smithson Valley. McHi picked up nearly have of their points in the relays. They picked up their first win of the meet in the 4x800m relay where Yaneli Rocha, Sophia Simpson, Samara Gully and Jaslene Reyna held off Smithson Valley to finish in 9:41.01 while the Rangers closed in 9:43.75 as Lilly Koenig ran a 2:13 anchor leg.
After finishing a close second place to Pieper in the 4x100m relay, McAllen took both the 4x200m and 4x400m relays. Pieper relay team of Hailey Tomlinson, Skylar Carter, Isabella De Anda and Shyla Boydstun took the 400-meter relay in 48.08 with McAllen crossing the line in 48.70. McAllen's quartet of Vanessa Rocha, Ava Barreda, Ecklyn Vaden and Jacqueline Renfrow ran well to win the 4x200m in 1:43.08 over both Smithson Valley and New Braunfels who each broke 1:46. In the final event of the meet, Rocha, Barreda, Vaden and Rocha nearly broke four minutes en route to winning the 4x400m in 4:01.01.
Smithson Valley had a strong start to the meet getting victories in the pole vault, high jump and discus. Sofia Mitschke cleared 13-0 in the pole vault for the first time in her career to win while Paige Beeghley (11-9) and Deann Wenzel (10-9) took the next two spots for New Braunfels. The Rangers went 1-2 in the high jump when Aliya Murphy and Bryn Biesenbach each cleared 5-2. SV closed out the field events by taking the top three spots in the discus. Piper Moeller (106-11), Kadence Terrell (105-7) and Carolyn Falk (104-2) gave the Rangers 24 points. Falk nearly won the shot put with her throw of 33-10 but was clipped by Nyessa Dumas (Pieper) who threw 34-3.
Smithson Valley gathered two more victories in the 3200m and 1600m. Aubrey Pozzi ran her first 3200m race of the season and won in 12:02.07 with a pair of New Braunfels runners in the next two spots, Ava Briley and Xiomara Fulmer. Lilly Koenig took gold in the 1600m for the Rangers with a time of 5:09.31. Simpson grabbed the silver medal with a time of 5:16.06 and Addison Knibbe (Smithson Valley) was third.
Pieper finished in third place as a team and were led by a pair of individual double-winners, Shyla Boydstun and Skylar Carter, who also won the 4x100m relay. Boydstun blew away the competition in both hurdle events winning the 100mh in 14.77 and the 300mh in 46.15. Carter outdueled Hays' Endia Stigall in the triple jump. Carter set a school record for the third straight week with a mark of 38-9.75 while Stigall jumped 38-4.5. Carter also won the 200m in 26.08 while Flores (26.56) and Renfrow (26.89) took second and third, respectively.
The remaining two events of the meets were won by Stigall. She took the long jump with a leap of 18-3 to win by nearly a foot over Tomlinson who jumped 17-3.5. In the 100m, Stigall (12.61) held off Flores (12.63) for the victory. Smithson Valley's Karis Leyendecker took third place in both events.
Despite the 1-2-3 finish of Pieper, Smithson Valley and McAllen in the boys' meet and McAllen, Smithson Valley and Pieper in the girls' meet it is quite possible that the results will be all jumbled up when the Region meet comes around in April.