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| Boys Track | Girls Track | West Texas Relays @ Odessa |
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Back To Athletics |
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| Boys Track | Girls Track | West Texas Relays @ Odessa |
If Saturday was
any indication, the Region I-3A boys track and field meet should be a doozy.
Abilene Wylie edged Monahans by nine points for the Division II boys team title
at the West Texas Relays at Ratliff Stadium, ending the Loboes’ three-year
reign as meet champions.
Wylie and Monahans entered the 1600-meter relay — the final event of the meet
— just one point apart in the team standings. Wylie finished second in the
race with the Loboes fourth, giving the Bulldogs a 132-123 edge.
“Depth was a big factor for both teams in us finishing 1-2,” Monahans coach
Rusty Roark said. “Wylie’s got tremendous depth in all events, as we do.
That’s the way a meet’s supposed to end — come down to the mile relay —
and we just came up a little bit short.”
With district meets still a month away and regional two weeks after that (April
28-29 at Ratliff), this weekend gave both teams a good gauge of where they stand
at this point in the season.
“Monahans is always a good competitor at regional,” Wylie coach Eddie Lang
said. “We kind of drill ourselves on how well we do against them, and I think
they do the same thing with us. It’s fun competition, the kids respect each
other and they enjoy running against each other.
“We’ll run against them again in a few weeks down at San Angelo. I’m sure
they’ll be ready for us. We knocked them out of this one and they’ll be
ready to knock us out of the next one.”
In the girls competition, Monahans ran away with the team title, scoring 162
points. The Odessa High junior varsity finished second at 108, two points ahead
of Crane.
In the boys competition, Wylie steadily overcame the lead Monahans built on
Friday. Wins in the 400-meter relay, 100-meter dash, discus and long jump helped
the Bulldogs make up more than 30 points on the Loboes.
“We had our 800-meter relay disqualified and we had to do some things to make
up that we usually would have to do,” Lang said. “But that’s good;
adversity is good for us at this time.”
Monahans had plenty of highlights as well, sweeping the top three spots in the
shot put and going 1-2 in the pole vault on Friday. Chris Collins added a win in
the 800-meter run for the Loboes.
“We had some kids who improved quite a bit over the weekend,” Roark said.
“We’ve got to get them a little help on a couple of relays and we’ll be
all right.
“We got spring break over with, and that’s big for any track team because
you don’t work out as much. Now we can kind of get a little more serious and
make a run toward district.”
In the girls competition, Chelsea Cartwright of Monahans won the 100-meter
hurdles and 100-meter dash — back-to-back events — as well as anchoring the
winning 400-meter relay. Jordan Latham won the high jump and the Lady Loboes
also took the 800 relay.
“We made everything needed to,” Lady Loboes coach Chris Simpson said. “We
placed where we were expecting to place. They came over here and took care of
business, and that’s what we needed to do.”
Like the Monahans boys, Simpson is looking for good things in the postseason.
“We’re obviously looking at regionals,” he said. “We want to make sure
we take care of business at district. That’s always the focus, to get to
regionals so you can make it to the state meet.
“We’re on pace in most events where we have a genuine shot to make it to
state. It’s going to come down to getting it done at district and getting it
done at regionals. You have to get your best performances at those two meets,
and that’s what we’re striving for.”
Crane almost overcame a 10-point deficit to catch the OHS JV for second in the
team race. The LadyBirds won the 1600 relay, but the Lady Bronchos finished
third for the two-point margin.
“Our girls expect to win the mile relay,” LadyBirds coach Jack Rodman said.
“If we get beat, it’s like shock to them. However fast somebody runs,
they’re going to run fast enough to beat them.”
The LadyBirds added wins in the 400-meter dash (Claudia Reynoso) and 300-meter
hurdles (Chelsea Eaton) to Friday wins in the discus (Amanda Baker) and pole
vault (Jordan Daniell).
Just two years removed from winning the Class 2A team championship at the state
meet, Rodman said expectations are still high for the LadyBirds.
“Our girls work their tails off,” he said. “They have a dream of going to
state.
“A lot of these girls are new; they weren’t around in 2004 when we went down
there and won it, but they see the rings on those older girls and they want one.
They’re doing everything they can to do it, and they’ve got as good a chance
as anybody else has.”